There is a cost to going green on the road

 

The recent entries of Tesla and BYD into the Malaysian market has sparked off a growing interest in electric vehicle (EV) ownership among the general public.

While continental car manufacturers the likes of Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), Volkswagen Group (Porsche) and BMW have been making inroads with respect to EV adoption in Malaysia, this has been generally limited to the high-income T20 group of consumers due to the high price points of these cars.

Tesla’s Model Y has a launch price of RM199,000. BYD’s Dolphin has a launch price of RM99,990.

These are by no means “cheap”, but they are within the realm of affordability for the general Malaysian public, taking into account the various financing schemes offered by retail banks for EVs.

Malaysian consumers are fully aware of the current drawbacks of owning EVs, with insufficient public charging infrastructure at the top of the list.

But they now seem to have been caught up in the hype of EVs, citing the environmental benefits and lower operating cost of driving these cars relative to traditional internal combustion engine cars.

However, have we considered if EVs are actually worth the investment?

EV marketing material tends to allude to how owning and driving an EV is “cheaper” relative to an internal combustion engine car, with the high price of petrol at the forefront of the conversation.

This is generally true for most other countries, but may not be so in Malaysia where the petrol price is subsidised by the government.

According to an article on paultan.org, charging an EV can be up to 28% cheaper than filling up with RON95 mile for mile, so the simple answer is – Yes.

EVs also don’t need frequent servicing.

But is there a downside, and if so, what?

Yes, depreciation.

Rechargeable batteries are at the core of EVs. We know that generally the capacity for these batteries to hold charge diminishes over time based on usage.

This is effectively no different from the run of the mill electronic gadget. At some stage, the battery needs to be replaced for usage of the device to remain viable.

With EVs, there are currently no cost effective methods of replacing the batteries. It’s so expensive to replace the batteries that an EV owner might as well dispose of the car and buy a new one.

This reflects the current reality that EVs have effectively no resale value after a few years of usage.

There is also an environmental angle to this, such that these cars have shorter lifespans relative to internal combustion engine cars.

The industry is of the opinion that the replacement of EV batteries will become a financially viable option in the near future, but as it stands, EV ownership doesn’t look to be a good investment relative to the traditional internal combustion engine car. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.