Yahoo Finance Tesla driver hits back at electric car fears as family converts to EVs: ‘Even mum got a BYD’
An Aussie firefighter said electric cars can 'get a bad wrap', but he's and his family are now saving money after making the change.
An Australian family is spending less than $40 a week to charge their four electric cars since converting to Tesla and BYD. And while some Aussies are still apprehensive about making the switch, Ricky Nolan told Yahoo Finance he hasn’t looked back since trading his old Toyota Camry for a Tesla Model 3.
“You’re driving a computer not a car,” the 50-year-old said. “Teslas are full of technology and the first time I drove it I loved that side of it.
“But one of the big reasons I got rid of the Toyota was that it cost $2,000 a year to be serviced.”
The cost-of-living crisis has pushed finances into the forefront of millions of Australians' minds, but Nolan said he had a longer-term strategy.
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He admitted the $55,000 investment was “a little bit dearer” than a new Toyota, but now he is making considerable savings on fuel.
Nolan simply plugs the pearl-white sedan in at the wall socket at his home overnight and wakes in the morning to a charge capable of taking him 250 kilometres, which he said was more than enough for his runabout use.
“I look at it like charging my mobile phone. It only cost about $9 to fill it up,” he said. "What are people paying in petrol? $100 a week?”
According to the Australian Automobile Association, that’s about spot on.
In the capital cities, the average weekly petrol spend per household is $100.01, with regional areas slightly higher at $103.06.
The most expensive major cities are Brisbane ($103.60), Sydney ($103.16) and Canberra ($102.82), while the highest regional petrol spends are in Bunbury ($120.50), Geelong ($119.77) and Launceston ($115.44).
Nolan is not the only one in his family happily cutting down their petrol costs, with his two brothers and their mother also buying electric vehicles.
“My brothers both got the Model Y which is more family-friendly and my mum has a BYD, which is the Chinese car that’s taken the world by storm,” he said.
He said she also plugs it in "just like a kettle" for a cheap charge.
“I drove mum’s car and was pretty impressed with it. It’s not quite as good as a Tesla but I thought it was a good car.”
Nolan said his brothers were able to cash in on significant rebates in Queensland, where up to $6,000 was offered to individual drivers under a $45 million zero-emission scheme.
Is it cheaper to drive an electric or petrol car?
A recent analysis by Compare the Market (CTM) found motorists could save thousands of dollars by going electric.
They crunched the numbers on the same car Nolan’s mother bought, the popular BYD Atto 3, and similar-sized petrol SUV, the Toyota Corolla Cross.
Across fuel and charging costs, registration, servicing, insurance and loan repayments for a motorist in either Brisbane or Sydney, the electric offering came up between $897 and $1,536 cheaper.
A direct comparison of petrol ($1,944.69) and charging costs ($585.01), found an annual difference of $1,359.68 in favour of electric.
Nolan pointed out there were ways to charge up for free.
Across Australia, there are roughly 2,500 charging stations. For comparison, there are approximately 6,500 petrol stations, which have several bays to let motorists fill up.
Free stations are cropping up in shopping centres and public car parks, both private and council-funded, around Australia. But there are calls for more to be installed to help support the growing number of motorists switching to EVs.
There’s one near the foreshore in Darwin that Nolan occasionally uses while he takes a walk and gets a coffee.
A recent CTM survey found overall cost was the biggest barrier for Aussies considering making an EV purchase.
But Nolan said there were ways to cut down costs, plus the method he used helped others to see if they wanted to take the plunge. Nolan has been renting his Tesla out on Turo, which he described as Airbnb for your car.
“I was a bit worried about how much it would cost at the start so I started renting the car to help out,” he said.
He knows he’s got the only Tesla in the area, which gives him an edge and allows him to charge $250-a-day. Rentals can be hot and cold but Nolan estimated making between $3,000 and $4,000 a year, covering half of his repayments.
“I’ve had so many petrolhead people who are blown away by it within 10 minutes of driving it, “ he said.
“Electric cars can get a bit a bad of a bad wrap so a lot of people want to try one before they buy it … but when someone drives it they fall in love with it.”
Tim Rossanis, Turo Australia Managing Director said electric vehicles made up 10 per cent of those on the car hire platform.
He told drivers had been able to "mitigate range anxiety" and connect with others who had made the transition, helping them better understand if the move was right for them.
"It’s understandable that people who have never driven EVs might have fears or misconceptions about what it’s like," Rossanis said.
"One of the great things about car sharing is that it enables people to try before they buy, and we see a lot of people coming to the platform to get behind the wheel of an EV for a longer duration than the 30-minute test drive offered by dealerships."
Why is insurance more expensive for an electric car?
Yahoo Finance contributor David Koch said electric cars were the more economical option, despite being up to $590 a year more expensive to comprehensively insure.
“There’s a misconception that EVs are more expensive to run,” the CTM economic director said. “While this may be true in some aspects, such as comprehensive car insurance costs, significant savings in fuel and loan repayments do more than offset these expenses.”
Nolan admitted the higher insurance cost was “a negative”.
The Insurance Council of Australia told Yahoo Finance insurance was more costly for the following reasons:
More expensive to purchase than cars with internal combustion engines (ICE)
Complex systems and components that were more costly to import and replace
Limited number of qualified service centres and technicians
Expensive battery replacement costing between $7,500 and $30,000
Tesla driver hits back at Aussies’ EV fears
A Yahoo Finance poll of more than 10,000 people found 73 per cent would not buy an electric vehicle in Australia right now.
But, the stats show more Australians are making the transition as an influx of Teslas landed after a pandemic-fuelled gridlock and competition from Chinese-giant BYD helped bring prices down.
Australia is on track to hit an annual milestone of 100,000 EV sales this year, with 30,000 battery electric (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) sales recorded in the second quarter of 2024 alone — the first time Australia has cracked that figure in a single quarter, according to the nation's Electric Vehicle Council.
Along with insurance costs and the initial financing, a recent poll of Yahoo Finance readers found resale value and a battery range anxiety some of the biggest barriers to buying an electric car.
An Aussie family on a 15,000-kilometre all-electric camping trip told Yahoo News that it just took careful planning to overcome. Ensuring you have a power point close to where you park your car helps, Nolan said. It can be an issue for those living in apartments.
But, there are other charging options. Rapid charge stations are available, which shorten your wait time but can cost about $40.
Or you can install a wall charger like Nathan Merritt.
The Tesla driver told Yahoo Finance he cut 94 per cent of his electricity bill by installing a Powerwalls charger, which stores energy from renewable sources, such as solar power.
As for resale value, Nolan said he doesn't think it will be a problem for him.
“Tesla has been keeping their promises and I can’t see myself ever needing another car in my lifetime," he said.
“There’s no moving parts in a Tesla and with the regenerative braking, you’re not using those brake pads as much so they last forever. It’s hard because they haven’t been around that long, but Teslas are getting to one million kilometres.”
German driver Hansjörg von Gemmingen-Hornberg broke his own record in a Tesla Model S he bought in 2014. He’s travelled over two million kilometres but has had several battery and motor replacements.
Top 10 best-selling electric vehicles from January to June 2024
Tesla Model Y - 12516
Telsa Model 3 - 10600
BYD Seal - 4092
BYD Atto 3 - 3726
MG 4 - 2771
BYD Dolphin - 1248
BMW iX1 - 1237
BMW i4 - 1177
Kia EV6 - 1060
Volvo EX30 - 1001
