Living in Spain With An EV (or two)
Time for something completely different. A little (long) post about living with an Electric Car in Spain
Spain is one of the countries that is moving more slowly towards an EV transition, in fact the percentage of sales of EVs has just reduced for the first time in the latest figures for the previous week making up just 8.4% of the market, down from 8.7% the previous week (Compared with 95% + in Norway). There is a reason for this of course, subventions or grants. They are not currently available until the new ones are passed in parliament so people are waiting.
But enough of politics, today we are going to talk about what it’s like living with an EV with no home charging in Spain, because this is what people in Spain give as one of their main reasons for hesitating on buying an EV when changing their car. The other reasons are perceived lack of chargers, what if I run out of battery, the cars are more expensive, and the biggest misconception of all “I’ll have to change the battery in a few years and that effectively bricks the car”.
First though let’s look at what my experience is with electric cars, because yes, it’s plural.
Back in the day I wanted an electric car but because of my work I was worried by the range thing. I always said that when the range gets over 200km I’ll bite because I could easily do 200km in a day. I then changed that to 300km just in case. We first bought an electric car with the potential to do 500km, the superb Kia E-Niro, for my wife. The sound of the mic drop on using for the first time an electric car and an automatic was deafening. It’s just so much better!
The truth is that I had never had top end cars but I had driven caprichos like my beloved PT Cruiser and others (Even the short lived Multipla). But there came a time when the PT Cruiser seemed married to another person as it spent more time in the garage for repairs than it did with me. At one stage I even bought a second PT Cruiser from the UK off eBay for 495 pounds and drove it here to use for parts. That’s how often I needed bits and how much I liked it.
From the first moment driving an electric I wanted one but because of my penchant for different cars I didn’t want a Tesla (These were the days before Musk became a MAGA Twat and I might have even considered one at that point. Would never touch one now) Researching on Yotube with the reviews of new cars that were coming to market got me from an Ora Cat (never really brought to market and range too low) to a Mini (Again range too low) and then something I really wanted, something a bit bigger, the Hyundai Ioniq 5. It looked different, it had amazing range and all the reviewers were amazed at just about everything about it. When the only hole that reviewers could pick was the fact it didn’t have a rear wiper you know something is good. So I bit the bullet and got one.
Not a single regret.
This thing is amazing. Despite the rear wiper thing. However, I said various cars...
My wife loved her E-Niro but envied the Ioniq 5. And then one day I saw a second hand, top of the range, all bells and whistles, three year-old Ioniq 5 with just 8000km on the clock for a huge discount on the normal price. The E-Niro was sold to my colleague Paul who described it to me as “the best thing he has ever bought” and suddenly we were a two electric car family with the same car, Ioniq 5 Glitter Gold (AKA Silver)
So the promise of the title is what it’s like to live with an EV or two in Spain.
It’s great, end of story…
But no, let’s cut to the chase and answer the questions about anxieties. What if I run out of battery? There aren’t enough chargers! I’ll have to change the tyres every 10k! They have no second hand value. The battery will brick the car. They are too expensive! It takes ages to charge. Long road trips are impossible, they catch fire.... and other misconceptions.
The Costs and the Savings
I do a lot of kilometres each year in my work. Even not taking into account repair costs because I assume a new or newish normal car would not spend as much time sleeping with my mechanic as the PT Cruiser did, I worked out in the first year we saved 3,000 euros in costs of petrol, servicing and other sundry costs (That was the year petrol costs spiked). In four years of owning electric cars we have not had one repair to do apart from a changed front wiper blade and a 12V battery for 100 euros (The one that starts the car not the one that runs the car). This was mostly because we had free charging in our town and I would just go down to the charger, leave the car for a couple of hours do some work at home and then swap over to the other car (usually on a Sunday or in the evening) We had a charger installed in our house but we have used it about three times in total because just like most people, our garage very quickly became something else, just not a garage.
Our average costs of charging, taking into consideration public fast charging, slow charging and free chargers was around 7c per kw/h in the first year. If we ever charged from zero to 100% which we never do, that would mean 73kw at 7 cents which is 5 Euros for a “full tank” of 450-500km. I used to get around 6-7 litres per 100km in my old cars meaning at current prices that distance would cost me around 50 Euros. So essentially a tenth (10%) of the cost.
We now do more longer trips because you can now there are chargers everywhere, meaning our average price of charging has increased a bit to around 12-13 cents, but you get the idea, and there are still plenty of “free” chargers around. Even if you use public chargers you can find plenty at 25c such as the ones at Mercadona. If I ever decide to clear out the garage our charging rate is 8c/kw.
But back to other costs you are warned about... the tyres... Another lie. one of the cars has 93,000 km on it and the other 40,000. They are still on their first tyres and both have had recent services (just this week) and have passed with flying colours.
Oh yeah, electric cars still have to undergo services to retain the warranty but there aren’t so many liquids to change, things that can go wrong, loud exhausts, emissions problems etc... Each service costs a lot less and is basically checking the electric system and ticking a load of boxes.
What If I Run Out of Battery?
I’ve never run out of battery. My wife has... once. My PT Cruiser left me stranded many times, as have many other cars in my past. Insurance covers the possibility of being left with no battery of course with (I think) two free tows to a charger each year. However, you never need to be left without a battery charge. A quick charge, free or otherwise at supermarkets (Lidls are free), shopping centres or car parks and you’re golden. Charging slowly at a street charger is “free parking” and cheaper per hour than many car parks. The proliferation of apps to find a charger and even the navigation system in the car to take you to the nearest available chargers are excellent. If you have home charging you can wake up to 100% battery and potential 500km every day if you want, no need to visit a petrol station and inhale fumes while overpaying for a coffee and chocolate bar.
Electric Car Batteries Degrade
This is true. My car, now into it’s fifth year, two with me, has a battery state of health of 99.8% meaning it now travels 0.2% fewer kilometres on a full charge than it did when new. The battery is almost 100% more likely to last longer than the rest of the car. If it ever needs changing then it’s a huge cost but the guarantees on the batteries are getting longer and longer as manufacturers realise their risk is minimal. Your risk is minimal too.
Electric Cars Catch Fire.
Every single time there is a fire in a garage the claims are that the fire started in an electric car. 99% of the time the real truth is that it’s an old land rover, or some other ICE car that has overheated or just decided to spontaneously combust. Who would have thought that a car full of flammable liquids might catch fire more often! The only truth is that when electric cars do catch fire (Rarely) they burn hotter and are more difficult to put out, but here are the true figures for electric car fires vs internal combustion engines.
Global and US/European estimates cluster around:
- EVs: ~25 fires per 100,000 vehicles (≈0.025% per year).
- ICE: ~1,500 fires per 100,000 vehicles (≈1.5% per year).
- EV FireSafe’s longer‑term global study suggests an EV battery fire probability of ~0.0012% vs ~0.1% for combustion vehicles, implying EVs are over 80× less likely to catch fire over that period.
- A Swedish dataset cited in several summaries found EVs about 20× less likely than ICE vehicles to catch fire, consistent with the broader pattern.
Long Road Trips are Impossible in an Electric Car
I do 800km regularly to Asturias from Valencia. When we first started doing it I was worried because there was an area between Teruel and Zaragoza with just a couple of fast chargers. You had to plan well where you wanted to stop. In fact I did a Google Map with the fast chargers on it just in case. Crossing your fingers that a Tesla hadn’t just arrived when you got there was not going to be a long-term plan
However, the apps, the navigation in the car itself and previous experience now mean there is no worry. By the time you’ve had a coffee or lunch you’re good to go with another 300km plus in the battery (Range reduces at a constant 110-120 km/h). There are fast and superfast chargers all over if you know where to look. The worries have dissipated as the charger network has grown.
There is only one issue I know of. When it’s really cold the chargers are often slower or the battery needs time warming up to get up to a fast speed. This means your 20 minute coffee may become half an hour. Luckily we live in Spain and the term really cold is at worst used sparingly.
Average cost of fast charging on a long trip is similar to buying petrol at 40-50c per kw. With competition and excess electricity being produced for the grid and needing to be used that is coming down, petrol will go up.
Electric Cars Are Too Expensive
Sometimes they are and in some brands that it is very true but many brands now have price parity with petrol or diesel models and Chinese EVs (which are brilliant) are often cheaper. The ticket price doesn’t matter as much for most people though as they buy through loans or they lease and those monthly costs might be slightly more for higher price cars (Looking at you VW and Ford) but that is totally offset by the lower running costs, especially if you have space for a charger at home.
However, over 80% of Spanish people in and around cities live in flats and don’t have this option and there is a reticence in community garages to allow installation of chargers because communities believe the hype on fires and don’t want to pay for others’ electricity, so yes, it’s an issue.
The costs of electric cars are coming down each year and when tariffs are lifted or reduced, which they will be as countries move away from the USA and towards China because of the toddler in the White House, then this issue goes away (See moves by Mark Carney and Canada this week for example).
Electric Cars Have No Second Hand Value
I bought a second hand car and saved myself 15k. Also I sold a car, the E-Niro and my colleague got a bargain, at least 5k under market value. So there might be something in the fact they don’t hold value but... The one I bought I haven’t seen anything similar even close to it in price and I keep an eye out. I got lucky. My colleague, Paul, got lucky because I wanted the Ioniq I had seen and was able give him a great deal on the Niro.
Also, the Spanish market for second hand cars is different. Cars just don’t go down much in value. People pay 10k for 15 years old cars even with high mileage. You don’t have the same concept of the “good runner” and “perfect first car” for new drivers. Want a car that works for 500 Euros? Ain’t gonna happen. Minimums are driven by trade-in values supported by the government in order to renew the car fleet on the roads and make them safer and younger. Trading in a ten year old car for an electric car gives you 2500 Euros on top of the 4500 grant available so cars hold greater value. My PT cruiser? I got 800 Euros for it after it had been off the road for a year with no MOT and not working.
Now the Fun Bit.
Some people say they like the sound of the roaring engine, they like the feel of acceleration, they like the feeling of control that changing gears gives them... For me that’s just more things that can and do go wrong.
If you like speed and acceleration then you want an electric car, you won’t ever be in the wrong gear and you will leave the boy racers at the lights in the dust.
But it gets better.
Want a warm car in the morning. Turn the heater on in the car by an app before going to the garage.
Car left out in the sun in Spain? Turn on the a/c ten minutes before you go back to the car and you can have the arctic in your car when it’s 40 degrees in the sun. (This brings a huge smile to your face every time you remember)
In the odd case here where there is freezing weather, maybe you go to the mountains for a day, turn on the defrost setting before going back to the car and all of your windows and mirrors will be as clear as day, no ice scraping, no antifreeze, nothing.
Parking in the city is free in blue, green and orange zones which require payment for other cars (At least in Valencia and most major cities). You can stay in those zones parked for as long as you want for nothing.
Want to camp out in your car? Keep the temperature nice and cosy all night by putting the a/c on overnight at around 20 degrees and use just 7-8% of the battery.
And as mentioned above, the government refunds you 4500 or 7000 Euros when you buy. It takes time but you eventually get it if you buy new.
And one last thing. When we had the big Apagón in Spain last year I was half way through cooking. I finished it off in the car because everything could be plugged in to my car’s battery.
I’m sure there are downsides but after three electric cars and about 150,000 kms between them I don’t know of any that worry me. There are reasons that over 90% of people who have lived with an electric car will never go back to internal combustion engines. Why burn dinosaur juice when you can use electrons produced by an ever less fossil fuel intensive grid? Spain’s grid mix is about 75% renewables (at least on my chosen bill provider) and getting cleaner every year.
Not Convinced? Maybe consider whether it’s just stubbornness. If you ever want a chat about it just let me know. I can talk you through possibilities and what might suit your lifestyle here in Spain. I’ll also be happy to take you for a drive! You might not even need one though, the 15 minute city is a reality in Spain for many people and next week we will be talking about that.