Too pricey, too risky - Are Australians over EVs?
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Look, a lot more people, whether you're a fan of them or not, are thinking about buying an electric vehicle. There are more EVs on the market and the prices have been coming down. There's a lot of choice. But there's been some information released today which shows that there are still serious concerns about battery longevity and the overall cost of ownership of an electric vehicle, particularly around issues of service, warranty repairs and if you have an accident.

My Car Mobility Index has been released and I'm joined on the program by Adele Coswello, who's the Chief Customer Officer with My Car. Hello, Adele. Good afternoon, Clinton. It's great to be here. Really good topic that you've raised today and you have released this information through My Car. It has found that a lot of Australians are still worried about batteries.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's not only battery life, it's ownership costs and resale value. I mean, some of the comments you mentioned as I was just tuning in. Now tell me, you, and this is what my car's all about, they do run service centres across the country. I've heard there's a significant issue with having people trained to actually repair EVs at your chain. Are you repairing EVs now and servicing them?

Yeah, we absolutely are. We actually have an existing relationship with BYD, which began in 2021. And so we ensure that, you know, our technicians receive specialised training to service those BYD vehicles. And we actually have 43 EV stores already. So those EV vehicles, of course, are more than welcome to come and visit us at a MyCar store. And we are in a position to service them. So it is possible to service them. Is it right that EVs generally...

need less servicing than a standard ICE engine? Yeah, that is certainly correct. But there are similarities between servicing of, you know, a current ICE vehicle and, of course, an EV. And never forget tyres, no matter what, we'll always need to change tyres on whether it's an ICE vehicle or an EV. How long can you expect an electric vehicle battery to last? Because that is what people are worried about.

Yeah, and look, I think that's really up to the different manufacturers. And so I think as time goes on, we'll learn more and more about that. But the mobility index, really, that was just kind of showing up just the sentiment towards electric vehicles. And as you would have noticed, you know, in the research, it showed that

The same question that we've asked year on year around how Australians feeling around transitioning to EVs. We did see that come down 12 points from last year. So there's still certainly interest is growing, but there are certainly more questions now. And I think it's not that people are against the idea. It's just more about uncertainty. So what are the concerns that people have other than batteries?

Well, as we mentioned, it's really just still around the ownership costs and resale value. I think that for us, you know, we really need to be clear. We need to provide probably jargon-free information to those EV owners around how to care for their battery solutions. But I think it's not just that. There's obviously charging networks.

and how we can prioritise innovation to build on those tech advancements. It's just more around the education and how we can bring that to life and have people feel more confident about driving EVs and understanding their vehicle. And I think some of that's going to take time once there are now more electric vehicles on the resale market as well. Thank you for your time, Adele. No, thank you. Adele Coswello, who's the Chief Customer Officer of MyCar. Now, MyCar, they are servicing EVs now, but they service mostly internal combustion engine cars.

I think the biggest issue with giving people confidence in buying an electric car is going to be what happens on the second-hand market. Yes, of course, you can now buy electric vehicles on the second-hand market, but you don't see a lot of, say, eight-year-old, nine-year-old Teslas. Is that going to give you confidence buying a Tesla that has a battery that's eight or nine years old? The servicing costs, because there are effectively fewer moving parts in an EV, over those initial years that you have an electric vehicle, they should be lower.

than a petrol driven car or a diesel driven car. The problem is going to be what happens when they say reach nine, 10 years of age. I drive a 13 year old car and quite, you know, I had a big service last week, cost a lot to keep your 13 year old car on the road, but it's going to cost a lot more when you need to get a new battery after eight years,