Tax on Diesel and Petrol - What about Electric?

[Leo]

i think there's a scheme in place right now whereby the ESB will install a home charging station for free for the first X thousand EV owners?

I hadn't heard that and the ESB Electric Cars site has no details of this either, only of their committment to install so many public and sites, with the private ones being dependant on car sales.

Also, isn't there a grant or rebate or similar on offer?

Te rebate is only on the purchase price of the car, and this is already included in the prices you see advertised.

 

[Leo]

Am I right in thinking there's no VRT as zero emmissions?, would mean it would be a simpler/cheaper UK import (pay the Irish VAT you would otherwise have paid the garage).

There is a VRT relief of up to €5000 available on qualifying electric vehicles. See the VRT guide here for details. I'm not sure if that relief is available on imported cars.

I gather the battery rental is a type of insurance policy against a dodgy battery - you should get the battery replaced without further charge (no pun intended) if its on the blink.

It also saves you the very considerable cost of buying it up front, but the main reason is battery performance will diminish over time depending on useage patterns, and replacement would obviously be very costly.

Must track my annual mileage, and monthly diesel spend and see, in theory at least, if that montly rental/cost of charging is easier on the pocket. Wont change car until next year at v. earliest so will be some guinea pigs on the road by then (though as tend to buy 2 year old car maybe I'll pick up a 2nd hand 2y.o. elec in 2014!).

Good idea. You should also track usage patterns, like, do you park somewhere you can safely hook up to charge the car? Do you go on any long journeys that might exceed the range of an electric car? Where would you recharge the battery if this was the case? There aren't that many accessible charging points across the [broken link removed] yet. Even the ones that are in place aren't always available. For example, the point on Adelaide Road in Dublin is a by a parking space that is not restricted to electric vehicles, most times I pass it, the point is blocked.
Leo

 

[Betsy Og]

The torque range of electric motors means you don't need variable gearing.

But say you're climbing a mountain, wont the engine have to work harder (lower gear) to sustain the same speed as compared to driving on the flat.

Therefore is the gear that definitely fixed?, or would it not take in the sophistication of automatic gears (which I gather will change down gear on inclines to avoid the engine labouring - ok I know an electric motor probably wont labour as such but wont the gearing need to drop down to accomodate the extra force required to climb the hill).

 

[Leo]

But say you're climbing a mountain, wont the engine have to work harder (lower gear) to sustain the same speed as compared to driving on the flat.

The superior torque of an electric motor means a fixed gearing will handle this no problem. Combustion engines have much lower torque levels and this torque can only be delivered effectively across a relatively narrow range of rpm, so a gearbox is neccessary to ensure this narrow band is efficiently used across the entire speed range of the car.

So no, lower gearing will not be required to take on steep hills. The motor will draw a higer current, and run the battery down more quickly, but on the downhill, regenerative charging will allow the battery recover some of that energy.
Leo