Buying an EV
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– Guides on buying an EV
In addition to the guide on this site, there are several other guides available.
EECA provide a general guide to buying electric vehicles, you can find it on their website:
Green electricity retailer, Ecotricity, has also published a
helpful summary of each EV on the market
If you are specifically considering buying a Nissan Leaf, there is an
extensive NZ based guide for 2011 to 2016 models
.
– Questions to ask your dealer
If you are trying to find an EV with the best driving range at the best price,
the most important information you need to share with your dealer is what
kind of driving you typically do.
An expensive 500km range EV might be cool, but you could save a lot of money
by going for a cheaper, lower range EV if you only do 40 to 100km of driving each day.
A few things you could do to help inform yourself of your options are:
Try making a list of the common trips you do and ask your dealer about EVs that would
comfortably achieve those trips with about 20% to spare.
Track or calculate your petrol expenditure per week. This will help you to estimate
your driving needs and it will help you compare your potential weekly fuel savings
to repayments on any finance that you are offered.
Try planning one of your common trips using Power Trip, then tap “More Options” and
"Recalculate“ to select a new EV and re-do the trip using the new settings.
This will let you virtually test different EVs and find public charging options nearby.
If you are concerned about battery degradation, a battery capacity estimate can be
done on some vehicles, like the Nissan Leaf, Nissan e-NV200 and Mitsubishi Outlander,
using apps like Leafspy or EVBATMON.
While this information is not perfect, you could ask your dealer if this information is available.
Talk to your dealer about your home, public and at-work charging arrangements. If you can’t
charge up at home, what other options do you have and which car would be best suited to those options?
If you want to explore more technical information, you can try using the
EECA Business cost of ownership tool
.
This tool will let you compare estimates of the total lifetime costs of owning different cars.
– Buying new EVs
There are a range of retailers in NZ selling new electric and hybrid vehicles.
These sellers include (but are not limited to!) Tesla, BMW, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia, VW, Nissan, Renault.
Buying a brand new, made for New Zealand EV usually means that you also get manufacturer support,
a warranty for the vehicle and possibly a warranty for the battery.
All charging cables or charging stations sold or provided must be “NZ Compliant”.
Compliance is declared by the supplier through the SDoC form.
EVs are new technology an emerging market and not all dealership staff may be aware
of all the essential EV information yet.
If you don’t have much experience with EVs, or are looking to buy your first EV,
try discussing your needs with several experienced EV dealers to ensure you are buying
the right car for you.
If you want to explore more technical information, you can try using the
EECA Business cost of ownership tool
.
This tool will let you compare estimates of the total lifetime costs of owning different cars.
– Imported vehicles from a registered dealership or importer
Sometimes called “grey imports”, these are often cheaper to buy than brand new EVs.
Most EVs on New Zealand’s roads are second-hand vehicles, these are mainly imported
from the UK or Japan by registered importers.
Some EVs are not yet available as new cars in New Zealand. So buying a second-hand
import will give you more EV options to choose from.
Manufacturers are not obliged to offer support or services for vehicles imported
second-hand from their overseas branches
/
franchises.
There is a rapidly growing community of EV specialists in New Zealand that can
offer support for EVs, and many dedicated EV dealers will offer after-sale support
for their customers.
If you don’t have much experience with EVs, or are looking to buy your first EV,
talking to several experienced EV dealers is a good place to start.
All imported EVs should come with a NZ-compliant charging cable, vehicle history,
battery information and after-sales support.
Imported vehicles usually have no warranty or battery warranty from the manufacturer
but sellers are still bound by the Consumer Guarantees Act and the Fair Trading Act.
Consumer Protection has some great resources on this topic:
Consumer Protection - buying a car from a dealer
.
EECA has published a
guide for helping dealers find the right car
for their customers,
if you have concerns about what you have been told, this might be a good resource to check.
– Private sellers
As with any car, you can also buy directly from a private seller. Private sales
are usually made on an “as is, where is” basis, which means the buyer takes
all responsibility for any problems after purchase.
Buying privately may result in cheaper prices, but the seller is under no obligation
to offer after-sales support and you will have little legal protection after the sale.
In some cases, after-sales support and advice for using, maintaining and operating
an EV can make a lot of difference for inexperienced EV owners.
Consumer Protection provides resources on this topic:
Consumer protection - buying a car privately
– Battery size
Battery size is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). The more kWh a battery is rated for,
the more energy it can store and the further the EV can drive on a single charge.
At the moment, the battery is the most expensive part of making an EV, which means EVs
with larger batteries tend to be more expensive.
Lower priced electric cars tend to utilise smaller batteries (around 24 to 30kWh
for example) while higher-end cars have larger batteries (64 to 100kWh for example).
When buying an electric vehicle, you could also take note of any degradation
or loss of battery capacity, as this will reduce the amount of energy the battery
can hold and the range it can drive on one charge.
In Nissan Leafs this is referred to as the State of Health (SoH), in other cars
it may be referred to as “actual capacity” or “available capacity”.
– The "right-size" battery for you
Finding the car that suits you is important. Needing to charge a low-range EV
multiple times per day may add unnecessary inconvenience, while a large-range EV
that you only use for short trips may be unnecessarily expensive.
Here are a few things you can do if you’re not sure what battery size is right for you.
You could keep a log of the kilometers you drive over a typical day or week to use
as a reference for the type of EV you need.
Considering how often you do long trips may help you decide if a smaller battery
car would suit you, or if you need a car with a larger battery.
The cost of hiring a car for occasional holiday trips could be more than covered
by the daily petrol savings that come with owning an EV.
If have to do more than one extra charge each day, then a larger battery EV
or a PHEV may better suit your needs.
– Range at 80%
It’s normal to fill a petrol car up to 100% and then only return to the petrol
station when you’re as close to 0% as your nerves will allow.
With an EV, you may wish to consider the maximum range your EV will offer when
it’s charged to 80%, because
To maintain battery health, experts currently recommend that you keep your EV
charged at no more than 80% and only charge it to 100% when necessary,
for a long tip.
To maintain battery health, experts currently recommended that you don’t leave
your EV charged at less than 20% for long periods of time.
Some DC fast chargers will limit your charging to between 80% and 95%.
– Battery health report
A data reader can be plugged in to the OBD port of some EVs to conduct a battery health check.
This check is a way of estimating the remaining accessible battery capacity
(or how much degradation has occurred).
Apps like Leafspy (for Nissan Leaf) and EVBATMON (for Mitsubishi Outlander)
can be used to conduct these checks.
OBD II devices are available online, but not all OBD II devices are compatible
with electric vehicles.
Stahlcar
is one NZ supplier of compatible OBD II devices.
So far, only the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi Outlander can have their batteries
checked with OBD devices.
– Battery warranty
Most new EVs have battery warranties that guarantee the battery for a certain
length of time (typically 5-8 years, sometimes longer) or distance (such as 100,000km).
Ask your dealer about their battery warranty policies and what they cover.
– Resale value
Like with any other car, EV resale value fluctuates depending on wear and tear.
According to EECA, resale values are only starting to become established.
It will also take time to determine how EVs, with their lower running costs
will affect the resale value of petrol and diesel vehicles in the longer term.
In addition to resale, an EV also comes with significant savings on fuel and maintenance.
The average Kiwi EV owner will save approximately $2,500 on fuel and servicing costs each year.
