Buying a 2nd car for city driving: Does getting an EV make sense?

My existing car is a 5 year old Honda City VMT (covered 63000km), which I will continue to use for social gatherings and long distance travel.

BHPian GoBabyGo recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello everyone,

I am looking for a second car for my office daily commute (65km per day). The car will always be driven solo (99.9% times) and once in 6 months or a year I may have to drop back one of my colleague, but that is rare. This is my experience over the last 5 years in my current job. My legal retirement is 10 years later and hence I am taking 10 years life of my second car which I am planning to buy. My current monthly expense on fuel is Rs.11000/- and If I buy EV, it will be reduced to around Rs.2500/-.

My existing car is a 5 year old Honda City VMT (covered 63000km), which I will continue to use for social gatherings and long distance travel and will keep it for next 10 years too. My budget for new car is 9-12 lacs onroad Delhi / Noida. My requirement is automatic and I am okay with sedan or compact SUV. I am mentally prepared to sell / scrap both my cars after 10 years from now (at the time of my retirement) and will buy whatever suit me at that time.

Over the last 2 months, I have done some reading on EV in India and on the basis my reading in this forum, I found that most of the members are not very comfortable buying EV right now due to lot of uncertainties about longevity of EVs currently on sale and also about charging infrastructure. Beside, currently it is not very clear if current gen of EVs are niggle free in long run e.g. after 2 years from now (after covering 50k km or more).

However, I have done some excel working comparing EVs with almost similar sized & priced Petrol AT cars which confused me more.

If I go basis excel sheet, for strictly city drive buying an EV make sense due to cost I save, if I keep the EV car for longer duration eg. 10 years. The current gen EVs may look outdated after 2 years or so, but that is the case with ICE cars too.

Frankly I am confident about the longevity of the EVs on sale in India right now. I feel that Tiago EV, Nexon EV, MG ZS EV etc. will last 2 lacs km easily without any trouble. Charging at home is available and there is no issue in getting public charging within NCR so charging my EV will never be an issue.

I am currently waiting for Punch EV launch and after discussing my close friend who run a Tata showroom (in some other city), he is not sure if Punch EV will launch so soon (I am expecting July 2023 launch).

Since Team BHP is read by millions of people, I would like to have BHPians opinion whether people like me who want to buy a second car for home for strictly city run (& within budget of under 12 lacs), should go for Tata EV (Tiago / Punch) or wait for another year or so for more EVs from other manufacturers. Frankly I am not expecting major EVs from other manufacturers before middle of 2025.

Here’s what BHPian Shreyans_Jain had to say on the matter:

I think Punch EV will be all the car one can possibly need for daily local city use. Even the Tiago EV is very very good, just that the Tiago itself is a 7-8 year old product and the same shows in its design. Punch is newer and more modern with better ergonomics. And, it is safer.

Tata’s EVs are well received and are pretty sorted now. Companies like Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki are very much behind the curve, and don’t have access to real world performance and data of tens of thousands of cars running across the country for years.

Here’s what BHPian coldice4u had to say on the matter:

Tiago EV owner here. As Shreyas advised, for someone who has access to own charging, there can be nothing better than an EV for a purely city drive. The ease of drive, the low running costs, the ability to close gaps, the ability to run AC in the car without thinking of emissions or fuel, the ease of parking makes this Tiago EV an almost default choice till the EV Punch arrives.

I expect the Punch EV to be priced at a premium going by the spyshots and top versions will surely exceed 15 lakhs.

Some of the cons I have observed so far:

• Rides like a hatchback, after all you can’t defy physics!
• AC performance degrades at high ambient temperatures (46-47). I believe some of the cooling is diverted towards battery cooling
• Weak FM
• Slight plastic noises
• Service experience cannot be called satisfying.

Here’s what BHPian roy_libran had to say on the matter:

Look up my posts on the Tiago EV thread. The other 2 cars in my household are Nexon and Hector.I would highly recommend the Tiago EV specifically for City usage, as this also offers the quickest break-even of all other options, and is still immensely practical and usable with no significant compromises.

Here’s what BHPian wocanak had to say on the matter:

Mainly city use and have access to charging point at parking, it is easy to decide EV is the best.

But whether to go for one of the current EVs or wait, is very difficult to answer. My thoughts:

• It is unlikely there will be any EV below 20 Lakhs from a large player like Suzuki, Hyundai/Kia, Toyota or Honda in the next two years.
• Only other non-mainstream EVs like Comet or eC3 are likely to be launched in near future. At this price point, you want cars that sell at least few thousands a month to be mainstream.
• So we are left with only Tata EVs and Punch EV will come with all the the Tata problems.
• There is a good chance the current EV benefits may be reduced in future, check news about your state’s policy.

So nothing major is going to change in the next two years, this means if you need one now, buy one of the Tata EVs. If can wait a bit, then wait for Punch EV. If you can wait for more than 2 years, then other options may come.

Here’s what BHPian sharathkamath04 had to say on the matter:

As the car is mainly for city use, I think even waiting will not give you many options.

Consider below points:

• Tata has already introduced all Gen 1 EVs (Nexon, Tigor, Max, and Tiago). So no more gen1 cars. Gen2 will be heavily adapted AlphaArc cars like Altroz & Punch and Omega Arc cars like Harrier & Safari & Curvv. Gen3 will come only after 2025 and may be launched with premium cars first.
• Other OEMs seem to be nowhere nearby in getting a city car. Most launches will be after 2025 and premium vehicles from MS, Hyundai, and MnM.
• For city usage, you need a max of 200km range which can comfortably cover a work week.
• Gen2 cars are mostly premium vehicles (barring Punch, which falls in below Nexon) so mostly will come with battery packs the same as Nexon (30KW &40KW) costing more than ICE by 3-5lk.
• For EV costs to drastically reduce, we have to get better battery tech, which is still in a nascent stage. So EV prices will remain in the current range for the next 5-10 years.

So even if Punch is launched, Tiago.ev will remain the obvious option for City-only usage (maybe even Comet if you like the design).

Keyword: Buying a 2nd car for city driving: Does getting an EV make sense?