Impact of Covid-19 on EV sales

[Jag_NE]

I saw in the news that EV sales continue to rise year on year and it made me think about the potential impact (if any) of COVID-19 on people switching from ICE. My immediate thoughts were that the fuel savings associated with an EV may become far less attractive for very many people if WFH becomes a long term situation and business travel is curbed. At the same time, some buyers may be incentivised to switch if WFH means a cheap/low range EV now suits there needs better.

What do others think?

[SWoll]

Business travel will steadily start to creep up again and the 0% BIK on EV's makes them a no brainer for anyone with a company car etc.

Added to your comment about many private owners travelling fewer miles so range being less of a factor and more choice in the lower price bracket than ever before and I don't see the trend stopping personally.

[jjwilde]

Jag_NE said:

I saw in the news that EV sales continue to rise year on year and it made me think about the potential impact (if any) of COVID-19 on people switching from ICE. My immediate thoughts were that the fuel savings associated with an EV may become far less attractive for very many people if WFH becomes a long term situation and business travel is curbed. At the same time, some buyers may be incentivised to switch if WFH means a cheap/low range EV now suits there needs better.

What do others think?

EV sales dominated the lockdown period.

Tesla was the best selling car in the whole of the UK one month.

[steveharvey2001]

Anyone with rooftop Solar who will be at home for two or three days each week with the EV plugged in will be able to charged for free.

[superpp]

jjwilde said:

Tesla was the best selling car in the whole of the UK one month.

This was mostly down to the initial delays in getting Model 3's delivered, they were suddenly available for collection.
I do agree the tide is now turning and if more people actually considered them it would really take off.
Can't see why anyone is buying a BMW 3 series currently against a Model 3.

[SWoll]

superpp said:

This was mostly down to the initial delays in getting Model 3's delivered, they were suddenly available for collection.
I do agree the tide is now turning and if more people actually considered them it would really take off.
Can't see why anyone is buying a BMW 3 series currently against a Model 3.

Regular big daily mileages, no access to home charging, big discounts, need an estate? I can see a few reason why people still would.

[jjwilde]

superpp said:

This was mostly down to the initial delays in getting Model 3's delivered, they were suddenly available for collection.
I do agree the tide is now turning and if more people actually considered them it would really take off.
Can't see why anyone is buying a BMW 3 series currently against a Model 3.

I think a lot of people just don't know about Tesla. I'm sure one day Tesla will start to advertise and when they do the sales will go up, but there is no point when they currently sell every single car they make.

It's amazing how many 'petrol heads' have no idea about Tesla, they think electric cars are slow invalid carriage style cars that take days to charge. Only recently I had to carefully explain modern EVs to a friend and he still looked like he didn't quite believe me at the end.

[off_again]

steveharvey2001 said:

Anyone with rooftop Solar who will be at home for two or three days each week with the EV plugged in will be able to charged for free.

Not likely. Solar panels on the roof only does very limited charging and Hyundai recently added this to their Hybrid Sonata model here in the US. Its the most advanced set of panels that you can get, but even they talk about approx 800 miles PER YEAR additional charging. And thats based on 6 hours of full sun per day, and fitting panels to a car is far from the most efficient way of doing this.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/2020-hyundai-sonat...

Solar panels are good and improving all of the time, but we arent going to get self-charging cars any time soon.

Edited to say - ah, you are taking HOUSE solar..... if thats the case, yeah, free energy... sorry.

[MrGTI6]

superpp said:

Can't see why anyone is buying a BMW 3 series currently against a Model 3.

Really? If I was in the market for a new compact exec, I wouldn't be looking at anything other than a 3-Series or C-Class.

[ZesPak]

jjwilde said:

I think a lot of people just don't know about Tesla. I'm sure one day Tesla will start to advertise and when they do the sales will go up, but there is no point when they currently sell every single car they make.

I had to double check to see what year this was posted... are you for real?
People that don't know about Tesla have been living under a rock.
Unless you mean they have been misinformed by a lot the media (drive 200 miles, charge for a full day, catch fire, ...).

As for the steadily rising sales of EV's in general... I'm saying it'll keep up. I and most owners I know will never be going back to diesels or even petrol ICE's for their daily drivers. The advent of more cars like the P2 and maybe someday the ID.3 will speed things up considerably.

[SWoll]

MrGTI6 said:

superpp said:

Can't see why anyone is buying a BMW 3 series currently against a Model 3.

Really? If I was in the market for a new compact exec, I wouldn't be looking at anything other than a 3-Series or C-Class.

Clearly not a company car driver then, or indeed in the market for one of those cars?

[ZesPak]

MrGTI6 said:

Really? If I was in the market for a new compact exec, I wouldn't be looking at anything other than a 3-Series or C-Class.

A shame, should at least look at some other options?

In a company car that usually means (at best) a 2L diesel.
Over here, if you get the choice between a 320d or a TM3, you'd have to be either mental to get the oil burner or need an estate.

[MrGTI6]

ZesPak said:

Over here, if you get the choice between a 320d or a TM3, you'd have to be either mental to get the oil burner or need an estate.

Or perhaps you might prefer the BMW's styling, the way it drives, the interior... Or maybe you would benefit from the fact that it has nearly double the towing capacity.

To be honest, I don't like the new 3-Series as much as the last one and would probably go for a C-Class instead.

[SWoll]

MrGTI6 said:

ZesPak said:

Over here, if you get the choice between a 320d or a TM3, you'd have to be either mental to get the oil burner or need an estate.

Or perhaps you might prefer the BMW's styling, the way it drives, the interior... Or maybe you would benefit from the fact that it has nearly double the towing capacity.

To be honest, I don't like the new 3-Series as much as the last one and would probably go for a C-Class instead.

I wouldn't bother. We had one for 2 years on lease up until 2019, it was underwhelming in every way, crap on fuel and expensive to service.

[MrGTI6]

SWoll said:

MrGTI6 said:

ZesPak said:

Over here, if you get the choice between a 320d or a TM3, you'd have to be either mental to get the oil burner or need an estate.

Or perhaps you might prefer the BMW's styling, the way it drives, the interior... Or maybe you would benefit from the fact that it has nearly double the towing capacity.

To be honest, I don't like the new 3-Series as much as the last one and would probably go for a C-Class instead.

I wouldn't bother. We had one for 2 years on lease up until 2019, it was underwhelming in every way, crap on fuel and expensive to service.

I've had a couple of C-Class' in the past and found them to be the complete opposite. Very economical and surprisingly cheap to run despite doing a lot of miles at the time.

[ZesPak]

MrGTI6 said:

Or perhaps you might prefer the BMW's styling,

You'd be the first (sorry, I had to)

MrGTI6 said:

the way it drives,

That's what I said, you'd have to be crazy to take a 320d over a TM3. Or just have 2 cars on the list and not be interested in anything else.

MrGTI6 said:

interior,

Yes, PH: Interior plastics matter. There's also a Polestar 2 if that's important to you.

MrGTI6 said:

To be honest, I don't like the new 3-Series as much as the last one and would probably go for a C-Class instead.

There's always going to be people who stick with what they know, but the numbers don't lie.

[MrGTI6]

ZesPak said:

MrGTI6 said:

Or perhaps you might prefer the BMW's styling,

You'd be the first (sorry, I had to)

The new 3-Series is an unattractive car to my eyes, but I still prefer its styling to that of the Model 3.

ZesPak said:

MrGTI6 said:

the way it drives,

That's what I said, you'd have to be crazy to take a TM3 over a 320d.

FTFY.

ZesPak said:

MrGTI6 said:

interior,

Yes, PH: Interior plastics matter. There's also a Polestar 2 if that's important to you.

My current car is a 22-year-old Peugeot, so the quality of interior plastics doesn't appear that high on the list of my priorities. What I do like is controls that fall to hand and are easy to operate while driving. A lot of modern cars are poor in that respect, but Tesla's user interface is the worst I have experienced in terms of using it while driving.

ZesPak said:

MrGTI6 said:

To be honest, I don't like the new 3-Series as much as the last one and would probably go for a C-Class instead.

There's always going to be people who stick with what they know, but the numbers don't lie.

There's always going to be people who just buy the car that they want, regardless of whether it's made by a brand they've bought from before or not.