This article was first published in the third-quarter 2015 edition of Personal Finance magazine.
Talk to anyone about electric cars and you’re almost certain to get one of two responses: “Yeah, but I once saw this movie called Who Killed the Electric Car…” (a 2006 documentary that investigated the birth and “death” of electric vehicles and related issues) or “Electric cars are no better than gas-guzzlers because their energy actually comes from coal-burning power stations” (partly true, but not quite the full picture).
Sinister conspiracies and environmental depredations aside, electric cars have always been cool – and their qualities are demonstrated to good effect in Nissan’s LEAF, punted as South Africa’s first mass-produced all-electric car, and BMW’s no less beguiling i3. The LEAF made its local debut at the 2013 Johannesburg International Motor Show, by which time it had captured the European Car of the Year, Japan Car of the Year and World Car of the Year titles.
Among the first South African buyers was businessman Greg Ball, managing director of Johannesburg-based Airco, a firm that specialises in green energy air-conditioning solutions for buildings.
Interestingly, Ball is by no means an environmental zealot. Although he was immediately attracted by the LEAF’s green credentials, and is passionate about renewable energy, this self-confessed petrolhead has always loved motorsport and certainly isn’t prejudiced against vehicles powered by gas-guzzling internal combustion engines. As he explained in a recent interview: “I love motor cars and the smell of petrol. I grew up helping my dad fix old cars.”
That said, what he really wanted was to own an electric car that he could charge off solar panels. Enter the Nissan LEAF (two of them, in fact: his wife acquired her own LEAF soon afterwards).
What prompted him to go this route? “We produce surplus electricity from solar power plants in both my business and home environments, and I wanted to harness that. I also wanted to move away from oil-dependent motoring in our business environment, where we spend a lot of money each month on fuel.”
Comparing an electric vehicle with a conventional car of similar size and performance, Ball calculates that the petrol-fuelled car incurs about R20 000 in maintenance expenses (including tyres, oil, brake pads and other consumables) over a four-year period. “Running an electric vehicle over the same period, you’ll need just a change of tyres and one set of brake pads, resulting in a 75-percent reduction in maintenance costs.”
Running costs can be reduced by 90 percent, Ball says. He reckons a 100km journey in a car with an internal combustion engine would cost well over R100, whereas the LEAF – consuming only 13kW at a cost of R1.30 per kW – comes in at less than R20.
Can he estimate his savings in motoring costs since making the switch to electric cars? How long would it take to recoup the higher cost of the car?
“After switching from a Toyota Prado SUV and a Volvo S40 to a pair of LEAFs (the Prado was replaced in December 2013 and the Volvo at the beginning of this year), we are saving about R9 000 a month on fuel – a total of R144 000 to date. Because these vehicles are not considered a theft risk, we also save 20 percent on insurance premiums.
“Having travelled a total of 39 000km in both cars, and taking into account tax deductions for business mileage travel on one vehicle, we have achieved a total saving of R191 000 over this period. Payback will be five years on fuel alone for the first vehicle and seven years for the second,” Ball says.
It’s been a thoroughly rewarding experience, he says. He believes electric cars such as the LEAF, with its base price of R485 900, are still too expensive for the mass market, but says it’s by no means an entry-level vehicle.
“In essence, the LEAF is a fantastic and extremely reliable urban commuting vehicle. It performs well in traffic, and its performance and acceleration are as good as that of any conventional car.”
He isn’t fazed by critics who cite the LEAF’s relatively modest range of about 175km. In fact, he’s actually taken his car to 300km on a single charge.
“For longer trips, we use a third vehicle (a 4x4) … because I love the bushveld and boating. We’re thinking of selling that vehicle and hiring a car when we go away. In fact, Nissan are formulating a programme for electric car owners with this in mind. The savings are large enough to justify it. My cost calculations have allowed R10 000 in additional savings to hire cars over holiday periods,” he says.
Being a realist, Ball is aware that it requires a big change of mindset – on the part of individuals, companies and entire nations – to make the switch to electric cars. Although he doesn’t have the time to fill the role of electric car “ambassador”, he’s happy that driving around in a LEAF attracts people’s attention and gets them talking, and if that makes him seem like a “green nutter”, so be it.
As Ball said in an interview: “Today’s nutcases are tomorrow’s heroes. Look at Steve Jobs and his friends … a bunch of hippies working out of a garage and thinking they could change the way people work and think. Well, who had the last laugh?
“For me, it’s not a question of if you change to alternative motoring, but rather when. Over the long term, none of us has a choice in the matter. Once you have made the jump, I don’t think you will ever go back.”
Meanwhile, over at BMW …
When it comes to green credentials, BMW’s newly introduced i3 electric car is right up there with the best. For starters, it’s built in a factory powered by wind. Some 25 percent of the car’s interior is fashioned from renewable raw materials and recycled plastics. In fact, the i3 has earned the accolade of 2015 World Green Car.
The BMW i3 consumes electricity at the rate of 12.9kWh/100km and BMW’s i Wallbox unit can charge a depleted battery to 80 percent of its capacity in under three hours, which is pretty good. BMW points out that maintaining an electric car is easier because it requires less tweaking and parts replacement than a high-end internal combustion engine.
How about performance? Actually, it’s not bad at all. Although the i3 is more about gentle whine than adrenaline-pumping roar, it’s capable of sprinting from standstill to 100km/h in a very respectable 7.2 seconds (electric motors reach their peak torque immediately, so you can expect to be first away at the traffic lights). Top speed is about 150km/h.
In essence, though, it remains a city commuter. The i3 has a range of up to 160km, rising to 300km with the optional REx package. REx employs a small two-cylinder petrol engine that starts up when the battery level drops to a pre-specified point, acting as a generator to extend the car’s range.
The i3 has a base price of R525 000, rising to R595 000 with the REx package.
BMW’s so-called green energy contract allows you to buy electricity for charging your i3 from regenerative sources, giving you the satisfaction of completely emission-free motoring.
Want to go a step further? Your BMW dealer can arrange for the installation of a solar carport for generating your own electricity.
BMW South Africa is reportedly in discussion with local partners to establish a network of public charging stations, including semi-public parking options, for example, in parking garages.
HOW GREEN IS IT?
Let’s start with a couple of assumptions. Since an electric car uses battery power to drive the motor that propels it, burning no fossil fuel in the process, it may be classified as a zero carbon emissions vehicle – that is, any emissions resulting from its use are indirect, coming from the original source of the electricity stored in its batteries.
If those batteries are charged from the power grid (that is, Eskom), the car concerned is only as clean as that grid. If the electricity is sourced from a mixture of wind, solar, hydro-electric and nuclear power, the car becomes a source of zero emissions. Note that we are referring only to emissions, not current and potential environmental impact. (The disposal of nuclear waste is a whole new story.)
A few years ago, Renault published a remarkably detailed study that compared its Fluence ZE electric vehicle with petrol- and diesel-powered versions of the same car. Its assessment – taking into account everything from ozone pollution to water consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions – suggests that electric cars are indeed better for the environment than the fossil-fuelled variety when charged in places where electricity is sourced mainly from coal-fired power stations.
Okay, how about the batteries, and their potential to pollute the environment once they’ve been tossed? The pundits have an answer for this one, too: it seems disposing of the lead-acid batteries used in conventional cars is more hazardous to the environment than the lithium-ion or nickel-based batteries that store the energy in electric cars. Neither do electric cars need motor oil, another potential pollutant.
In other words, go electric with a clear conscience …
* Alan Duggan is a motoring journalist and former editor of Popular Mechanics.