A Guide to buying an EV fit for you!

Photo created by senivpetro

The main thing to look for before Buying an EV is the price. but this process can also be different from buying a petrol vehicle. as when buying petrol vehicles you also need to consider after sales maintenance and fuel costs Aswell to see if it fits your monthly budget.

With EVs you do not need to worry about maintenance because most Electric vehicles are maintenance free.

Plus with recent Tax and subsidy incentives, the government bears about 20% of the entire cost of buying an electric vehicle. thus reducing the overall price to lower than comparable petrol/diesel powered vehicles.

Make sure to ask the dealership about all the incentives the vehicle is entitled to.

Photo by Elodie LO VAN

The Most question you need to ask is if the driving range of the vehicle you are buying satisfies your needs. imagine you are going on trips on roads as shown in the image above. i.e a road with minimum or no EV charging points. you will need to consider a vehicle with really high driving range or a vehicle that can be easily charged a normal wall socket.

The best rule of thumb is to see the distance to the nearest electric vehicle charging point from your home. or the distance to your workplace from your home. this is just to see if the vehicle can at least reach the nearest charging point once you have charged it at your home all night while you sleep

look for a vehicle that fulfills your daily travel needs.

Now that you have finalized your driving range that you need. next is to check your charging options.

We can go at this in two different ways,
A. Check if your vehicle has onboard charging.
B. Check if the charging stations that you have on your daily route have the necessary charging plugs for your vehicle.

A. Check if your vehicle has onboard charging.
An onboard charger is basically like having the charging brick that your smartphone comes with is built into the phone itself. and the phone charges directly if you connect a wire to the wall socket.

An onboard charger removes all the tension and anxiety of looking for charging stations that only have charging plugs compatible to you. so this needs to be one of the important factors you need to look into

B. Check if the charging stations that you have on your daily route have the necessary charging plugs for your vehicle.

If the vehicle you are interested in does not have an onboard charger. don’t fret. all you need to do is check for charging stations that have the same plug as yours. also, there are maps available online to look for the nearest charging station with the plug that you need.

Example : https://nexonev.tatamotors.com/charging-locator/

or here is a list of all the charging stations by Kirana Charzer

Once you’ve finalized all your charging options. lets move on to After-sales Service and Support

Photo by Enis Yavuz

This is also a crucial step to buying an EV, its not much of an issue when buying a petrol or diesel vehicle. but as EVs are very new to the game. the service segment is still developing and needs time.

Most components that go into EVs currently are imported and assembled. this causes a huge problem in understanding potential problems in the vehicle and solve them.

Therefore, always look into vehicles that are completely built in india and have a good dealership/service center network.

Now that you’ve decided on your vehicle and checked that they have a good service network. its time to find ways to pay for the service. i.e Insurance.

Electric vehicles have very different parts from a petrol vehicle and will need proper management. this usually requires a lot of money. looking for proper insurance companies that cover all aspects of an EV is very necessary.

I highly suggest you to go through this Guide that will help you finalize the best insurance provider for your EV.

Link to the guide : http://www.charzer.com/blog/2021/05/17/getting-an-electric-vehicle-insurance-in-india/