Dacia Sandero will most likely be the best-selling car in Europe in 2024, according to preliminary data covering 97% of sales in the EU, European Free Trade Association countries, and United Kingdom. Looking at the provisional rankings, the Sandero leads the Top 10 with 247,210 units sold in the...
The Dacia Sandero is affordable and practical. EVs are only now starting to get to the point where they can be both. That small BYD thing is pretty cheap apparently. I’ve also seen some GWM Ora’s around. The EV revolution in Europe is going to be Chinese.
If EU car makers doesn’t get good at making affordable EVs, they will get wiped out. You’d be mad to buy an ICE car over EV at the same price. Dino juice costs so much more (x5-x10) to run (if you can charge at home).
A lot of people with PHEVs don’t use the hybrid part much because of how expensive electricity has gotten nowadays.
A lot of people also live in apartments and have no idea ability to install a charger.
EU car makers aren’t a monolithic entity that offer a total of 4 models and a trashcan either. Mercedes alone has at least 6 EV models I can think of. Volkswagen has over 10 under all their brands I think. Volvo made a really basic car with really quick acceleration a la Tesla and now has the EX90.
Tesla had the popularity advantage from being the first to create an EV with a real battery and motor, it was the only reason they could beat an affordable car like the Sandero with their expensive smart refrigerators on wheels. Now there’s competition.
If you can’t charge at home with the cheap EV electricity tariff, not sure I’d suggest an EV yet. I get 7p per kWh and 3 miles per kWh. So that’s 2.33p per mile. For petrol to match that, at say, £1.50 a litre, you need a MGP of about 300. If you kWh is 70p though, you might as well use ICE for now. Unless you want an EV for planet or local polution reasons.
My kWh is about 15 cent (euro cents), but public chargers are a lot more than that. I can get petrol or diesel at around 1.10 through clever scheming (hey I’m not the one doing the tax evasion, I just benefit from it). I could install a charger at the family home, but that’s 100 km from the city I live in. In the city it’s 32 or 45 cent per kWh depending on which public charger you use.
If public chargers were 20 cents per kWh for fast charging, it would be an entirely different value proposition. Right now it’s just a bit more expensive than diesel.
No point installing a charger unless it’s were you live. If you have to use public chargers only, an EV probably doesn’t work out cheaper. At least here in the UK. The public chargers seamed to have the cost set to match fossil fuel. About 70-80p per kWh. Telsa chargers are less, but who wants to give that man any money are all?