That’s why I always bother my ear when I hear stats in different presentations. For example, Slovenes drive an average of only 40 kilometers per day and 85 percent of all freight takes place at home or at work. Both figures are statistically correct, but in practice they are unreliable.
Despite Slovenia’s small size, it’s hard to avoid at least a short cost on an average family trip.
One bad experience outweighs six good experiences in a week
An electric car is easily enough to drive to and from work every day, but the weekend experience is more important. We can drive it out to sea and back, and we can go on a carefree tour of the countryside and how easy it is to fill up on that road (if needed).
If we had a bad experience charging on the road once a month, successful and cheap charging for the rest of the days via a home socket wouldn’t fix the bad experience.
Automoto
Electricity is getting more expensive, prices have gone up: is this car still affordable?
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46
As the largest dealer in Slovenia, Porsche Slovenia started installing DC charging stations in rural areas as well. Practically speaking, it gets stuck when parking with dealer cars or is inaccessible outside of official business hours (this does not apply to everyone).
Some cars can handle very high charging forces, but they don’t last very long.
Relying on household sockets and underestimating public charging stations is a knee injury
Those who live in Ljubljana may be able to drive to the sea and back with local electricity, while those going to Koper from Celje will certainly need to stop at a public charging station on the way. If there are enough of these things and if they work flawlessly, the time component of charging stops shouldn’t be a problem at all. With suitable charging nodes, the battery will be charged when we sip coffee or take a walk in the sea sun.
As long as this charging infrastructure is not sufficiently branched (also with regard to the types of charging stations between AC and DC), neglecting the importance of public charging stations and, on the other hand, exaggerating local charging is actually a knee shot. If the new owner of an electric car is going to Nova Gorica for the first time or via Idrija to Bovec and finds out on the way that in the middle of a Sunday, he doesn’t actually have a single useful fast charging station. – Despite the fact that these places are home to very important suppliers Mahle, Hidria and Collector – you will definitely be disappointed.
The « Slovenian » Renault Twingo remains one of the very few cars that uses the full 22 kW power of the AC charger.
Many official statements seriously mislead the buyer
This is still the case with official presentations of vehicles in catalogs and similar articles. A potential buyer who has no experience with electric cars can get the wrong picture. On the other hand, these are the promised ranges according to WLTP, which further emphasizes the speed of charging. It is the calculation of a shipment under ideal conditions that is difficult to achieve.
Charging power decreases in line with the charging of the battery, it is also affected by outside temperatures and the like, very few cars currently have systems suitable for preheating or precooling the batteries. Even if the word « to » was added to the indicated charging powers, it would be more fair to customers.
Tesla has the most detailed charging and pricing system. These change daily depending on the time. It is much cheaper to use these charging stations at night.
My bad experiences? There haven’t been any really bad things going on so far. Occasionally the charging station doesn’t work, but there was another one nearby. I agree, unpleasant, but I consider it part of infrastructure development. There were some problems finding slow chargers working outside, and I was pretty annoyed when the car didn’t, even though charging apparently started. When I got back in the car, the battery was just as charged as it was an hour ago. If I am charging through the app, I will know and take action accordingly. That’s why I personally prefer the apps on RDIF cards or even direct payment via credit cards. It’s really simple, but it doesn’t provide charge control. The negative experience was when I tested an electric car with less than 200 km of range. Because of this car, I canceled my business trip to Posočje, which has problems with electric mobility.
The profitability of electric cars? Tesla has already earned nearly nine billion dollars with them this year.
Which electric car is the best today, so we usually evaluate from the other side compared to today. Electric propulsion experience, charging reliability, and software support are most important. In this area, Tesla remains the most reliable and comprehensive, which is why it is also the most successful in sales despite increasingly expensive cars.
This year, they sold 929,000 vehicles in nine months, generating nearly $49 billion in sales revenue and $8.7 billion in net profit. The production of electric cars is very profitable with such efficient production.
With 281 new registered models of Y and 3, Tesla dominates the electric car market in Slovenia. The Model Y is also the best-selling single model, the closest being the Enyaq.
In Slovenia, there is a shortage of DC fast charging stations, which average 50 kW, outside the motorway junction.
Among new cars in Slovenia, electricity has five percent
But what about Slovenia, where, despite the small size of the country, the share of new electric cars is still only five percent? It is currently difficult to objectively assess the extent of interest and whether cars are expensive. There are not enough cars on the market and almost all of them are sold out.
The top ten best selling electric cars in 2022 in Slovenia:
| Sale January – September 2022 | |
|
Tesla Model Y |
196 |
|
Very bad read |
135 |
|
Renault Twingo |
133 |
|
Volkswagen ID.4 |
91 |
|
Dacia spring |
85 |
|
Tesla Model 3 |
85 |
|
Hyundai Kona |
78 |
|
Audi Q4 |
70 |
|
Renault Zoe |
56 |
|
Citroen C4 E |
52 |
|
Volkswagen ID.3 |
46 |
|
Opel Mokka E |
45 |
|
BMW i4 |
39 |
|
Volkswagen ID.5 |
35 |
|
Hyundai Ioniq 5 |
34 |
|
Peugeot e-208 |
34 |
|
Burning Cobra |
33 |
|
Hyundai Ioniq |
32 |
|
BMW i3 |
30 |
|
Peugeot e-2008 |
28 |
Source: Vehicles Division, Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia
Also, the first importers already have comprehensive solutions
Among the dealers, the largest car dealer, Porsche Slovenia, was the most serious about electric mobility. Their vehicles may not be the most technologically advanced, but they have taken a holistic approach to providing all of their customer support services. These are solar cells and battery storage units, as well as digital controllers to create smart grids.
Today, this technology is premature, as solar plants will appear more after changes in legislation, and storage tanks in two or three years after the fall of the so-called net metering. Creating such networks at home will be able to ensure cost-effective charging. Currently, merchants are getting stricter with information about prices and the type of investment required to find a comprehensive solution, but prices are expected to drop to a relatively acceptable level within a few years.
The new Toyota bZ4X will also be on the market soon.
These battery storage units for Moon and Porsche Slovenia are manufactured by Mežić TAB.
The unified system simplifies many things, as Tesla has already demonstrated
The Moon system also unites the Slovenian general filling stations into one group. Not everything is working flawlessly so far, but on paper, this comprehensive care is very important for owners of electric cars. Tesla has already proven this.
With the Moon brand, Porsche Slovenia installed 208 different charging stations this year, 148 in the same period last year, and 63 the year before, and has generated €338,000 in sales this year. By the end of September this year, 502 solar power plants had been installed (241 in this period last year, 48 in the previous year), 75 tanks this year, 15 last year and 12 the year before. It brought 53 thousand euros in sales – so the average packing cost is about ten euros. It should be noted here that they use the Slovenian Etrela filling stations, while the storage tanks use products from the company Mežić TAB.
Digitization of power grids can lower prices
In fact, smart grids are also what, with a greater number of electric cars, can take care of the proper condition of the real old electric grid. It is possible, for example, at 10 pm, when the night tariff period begins, that all the desired domestic charging stations will gradually turn on and the charging capacity will gradually increase.
Such solutions will be especially important for using electricity when it is still the cheapest on the market. The example of Tesla, the smart grid and price adjustments in their fast chargers: in the middle of the day, when the demand for it is at its highest, today one kilowatt-hour can already cost more than 60 cents, in the middle of the night the price is three times lower.
Will politics be the main factor?
Everyone will have to do their homework. Almost all car manufacturers have produced electric cars. Some have already developed custom rigs, and many have simply reworked existing gasoline-powered models. Both solutions work in principle, but the user experience is completely different. Traders are waiting for supplier problems to end and also waiting for countries or the European Union to adopt an appropriate strategy for accelerated infrastructure development. For both electric vehicles and the remaining alternative engines, among which hydrogen in particular has high potential.
Finally, the biggest dealers (importers) are making higher and higher profits despite the crises, and if they allocate a small part of it from their own wallets to incentives and make electric cars cheaper locally, buyers will line up for them again. It has already been proven in the past that the Slovenes have nothing against electric mobility as long as it is « cheap ».
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