[TheManualGear]

Actually, the EV boom is very new. We are still developing battery tech for fast charing and reliability issues. The only gap between ICE industry and EV industry is refuelling network, refuelling time and cost of purchase. Either this EV boom will wholly die to make way for hydrogen or will completely flourish.

[Encyclopedic]

I just want 40-60 kms of Ev running but a petrol backup engine as well.Plug in hybrid is the way to go.

[John Jacob13128]

The initial adopters had driven the demand till now. But there are lot of dis-advantages for an EV today.

In a scenario for a daily use case of just city it will fit the bill - But given the Indian hot & humid weather and use case, I don't think the batteries will last more than 6-7 years or just cross the warranty bar. Post which the car is just a shell. There is Zero re-sale value.

Also Charging stations are negligable in most small gated communities or apartments or offices for that matter as of today. Its still a novelty

On the environmental benefit perspective - where it all started - Battery manufacturing is more polluting (rare earth metals mining) and the additional electricity demands on the grid is just going to increase the production from Thermal power plants - which are Coal based.

So net to net, there seems to be Zero - Advantage on EV. Hybrid seems to be the best of both worlds - IMHO.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by Omkar

Would you buy an EV today? If not, why would you not buy an EV?

I think it might be worth adding the option "I'm ready for an EV".

If I were in the market now, I think I'd definitely consider an EV. Yes, there are negatives but EVs and the infrastructure are both good enough to compete against ICE cars.

[mugen_pinaki27]

For me, EVs look like the best proposition at the moment. Living in Delhi-NCR, you are potentially saved from the haphazard pollution norms imposed at a moment's notice. Still, if I were to adopt a critical approach, the following cons look concerning:

1. EV range: It would be a strictly city commute. Outside of Delhi, it would be difficult to have access to reliable chargers.

2. Technology: I feel that we are still in the "learning phase" when it comes to servicing and handling EVs. Perhaps, a year or two later, when mass-market car manufacturers like Maruti bring their products to the table, the EV space will become even more democratized.

3. Temperature extremes: I know EVs are optimized per Indian conditions but how would they fare when parked outside in the hot sun during hot summers occasionally? Would they be susceptible to fire bursts? The Volve C40 recharge tragedy, being a case in point.

[car-dent]

Voted for High Initial purchase cost, uncertain battery cost and unreliable public charging Infrastructure.

Another reason not listed here is that there is no real money savings when you compare, high initial costs, and uncertain long term maintenance and battery costs, and uncertain resale value.
As of today, we need to spend atleast 4-5 lakhs extra to get any decent EV as against its ICE version. So the cost will be recovered at atleast 100,000 kms of driving. not many people drive their cars till 100000kms.
The resale value will definitely not be 4-5 lakhs higher than its ICE counterpart so all savings will have to be passed on to the next buyer.

Also, i am highly skeptical that the electricity for Ev charging may eventually be billed differently than domestic electricity. So the price advantage may be skewed further.

I also believe that with each passing year the range of cars will start to degrade just like our mobile batteries and may become more unreliable. so after few years, you may not be able to relaibly take it on a trip with confidence.
And as number of Evs increase public charging will become more difficult as its not easy to cluster too many fast chargers together without upgrading backend electricity Distribution infra to handle electicity demand. and that will again make electricity costlier for charging.

In the end, whatever said and done, its still more difficult to live with an EV than an ICE car in terms of reliability, safety and trip planning,etc. if we are not even saving money, than whats the point of all this pain.

[jjp@chn]

While I was unable to vote (yet ), thought of penning down some of my views related to this.

In my opinion, few of the reasons listed are tightly interlinked and unsurprisingly, these options get the top votes as the reason for not considering EV today.

For example, the insufficient battery range for highway running and the inadequate and unreliable public charging facilities - adequacy in either one will mitigate the risk of the other. Also, longer battery range that can cover at least a day's worth of driving, say min 1000 kms, will also eliminate the concern of long charging times and inadequate/unreliable public charging facilities as you might be okay with charging it overnight, similar to your mobile phones or smart watches.

Also, with the EV and battery technology fast evolving, there is still apprehension regarding battery life, reliability and repair costs in the long term and many would prefer to wait until the technology settles to become more mainstream before taking a plunge, especially if they are considering it as their first or primary vehicle.

Another important aspect that is not listed here, but I feel is very pertinent to the decision is also the demand for the car in the used car market and its resale value, which as of now is a major unknown. Unless, there are more EVs in the market as people start seeing the trend on the resale of EVs, it might be a restricting factor in the decision to buy a new EV.

Maybe, as a second car, primarily to be used as a beater within the city - EVs make more sense today.

[DocMaHi]

I'll post my personal opinion, given that I would like to vote for "need more options". Even though there are EVs at a price point ranging from under 10L to over 1Cr, hardly any of them appeal to my heart, biggest eyesores being Mercedes EVs, and the fact that most of the present day EVs are some form of crossover or a contraption stemmed from SUV obsession in sub 20L bracket, at least in India, hence I've put a halt to my decision to buy a new car anytime soon till there's a good looking and brisk performing hatchback or a sedan EV.

[three10]

Voted - I can’t install a charger at my residence.

Rented accommodation and the car is in use 7 days a week. Can’t rely on public charging networks to maintain adequate charging for every day.

The way it goes - I’m thinking mild hybrid seems to be the way forward, at least for me.

[vimalvittaladas]

I am afraid that my way of driving are not suitable for owning an EV. I will have 2500 kms of trips thrice a year with an average trip days of 5 per trip. It may warrant continuous drive of 12 hours a day(of course with needed small breaks). May be my inability to adjust too that I think petrol/diesel vehicles will be more suitable for these kind of trips rather than EVs.

I have also witnessed car ques of desparate EV owners enough times to make me raise eyebrows over the basic infra facilities required for their smooth run.

Have concern about the reliability of EVs. Are all the dealerships, irrespective of manufacturers, have the sufficient know-how to run a reliable service centre?

Last but not the least, My three year transferable job nature, may not guarantee a charger every where I go due to official obligations.

[shankar.balan]

I thought this was the best place to share a couple of interesting and informative videos related to EV’s. PetrolPed is a chap who does his research well and in this video he helps to debunk some myths.

https://youtu.be/r1BBNJDnkTQ?si=riBe7GQXZNNaXmZ-

I also watch a lot of the videos of Jason in Engineering Explained, and here is a good one about EV Tyres.

https://youtu.be/8pM9o2Ifcro?si=0ZLUsKCMHlMGqMy9

[ghtg1]

I bought an EV 2 wheeler and it was a no brainer decision for me. The slight premium of at all I paid compensated for so many things compared to any ICE 2 wheeler be it say visits to fuel station, much more boot space, slightly better sitting space, better driving dynamics and experience, music system (a wow factor in 2 wheelers), auto turn off side lights, zero visits for servicing in 10k+ kms etc etc.

Compared to that for EV four wheelers, The premium is on much higher side and you get a segment lesser car for more money, space is on lower side (for lesser price I bought spacious Scorpio N Z6 compared to Nexon EV), driving experience is better for EV but not as much as evident in 2 wheelers, lot more niggles compared to ev 2 wheelers, range anxiety etc etc. Risk - Reward is not favorable in my opinion for EV 4 wheeler for now, hybrid would make lot more sense though before we transition fully to EV.

[TheBigV]

My reasons for not considering EV's :
1) I've covered 1200 kms in a day. Very difficult with a 300 KM range EV to do such long distance peacefully.
2) Indian electricity is still not green enough. We are actually contributing more towards global warming by using thermal generated electricity.

[RakishRam]

Originally Posted by Omkar

Note: Multiple choices allowed in the poll

Thanks for the multiple choice option. While ICE and their soundtrack being so enjoyable being a major reason for me not buy an EV, I selected others also. I was looking for the major reason : EVs pollute more than ICE even before they hit the roads. Then, on hitting roads, they pollute as much as ICE since around 70% EV Batteries are still charged from fossil fuels.

There were lots of articles published including one by Volvo giving details of it like one here. I remember Volvo stating EVs pollute equivalent of 165,000 KMs equivalent of an ICE. some details here.

Recent announcement of BMW to focus on hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota's 1:6:90 principle etc are pointing towards this.

Of course, we can all tell ourselves that EVs aren't polluting the roads, but somewhere else.

Maybe solid state batteries improve the other concerns faced by current EVs. But I am not in for EVs and will stick to ICE as much as I can.

Mods : Maybe we should add a poll option. EVs pollute more

[shankar.balan]

I would like to suggest here that rather than get into the Pollution piece, and the Greenie stuff, it would be more sensible to simply focus on Electricity as one more amongst many Alternative Fuels available to us.
Today we do actually have lots of choices;
Petrol
Diesel
Kerosene ( used by those fish carts in Chennai!)
Hybrids
Hydrogen Fuel Cells
And Electricity with many different Sources and different Battery types to choose from.