Your questions answered: Should I buy an EV or get one more petrol car?

Electric vehicles remain top of mind for carsales readers this week, particularly as affordable new models such as the new 2023 BYD Dolphin and MG4 EV hatchbacks reach the market at less than $39,000 (before on-road costs).

Is now the time to buy, or should you wait a little longer in such a fast-changing marketplace, sticking with a conventional petrol car for the time being?

Delivery delays also continue to plague Toyota, prompting one reader to question how the company distributes vehicles when they eventually land on Australian shores.

We’ve also got someone searching for a higher-riding replacement for their city hatchback, and other reader looking to tow a caravan with anything but a large 4WD or ute.

Question: I’m an active healthy 74-year-old woman who lives on the Lower Central Coast. I regularly drive to Sydney and I have children who live away; one near Maitland and the other in the northern rivers, so in all, I do quite a lot of long-distance driving of 1.5 hours or more. I currently drive a Mazda CX-3, which I like very much but in the next year or so I will need to look at buying something to replace it. Obviously the quandary is: do I go EV or do I give a petrol car one more go and wait till that one needs replacing to go EV? By that time, age will ensure that I will only be driving much shorter distances. – Bronwyn D

Answer: The one advantage you have is some time to see what the market does. The federal government has promised it will announce its CO2 emissions standards late in 2023 and they could have a dramatic effect on the types of new vehicles sold here.

At the very least, they’ll almost certainly encourage (or effectively force) manufacturers to bring more EVs into the country. So as a first step, don’t go evaluating today’s car market on what you’ll be able to purchase 12 months from now, because the landscape could change dramatically. We’ll know more later this year.

As for whether it’s time to make the jump to an EV, it sounds like you’ll be able to do it by next year, provided you can charge the car easily at home. Visiting your children in Sydney and Maitland wouldn’t be an issue with most EVs given they’re within a single charge of your house. Just remember to knock about 20 per cent off the claimed range figures when determining how far the car is likely to get on a full charge in the real world.

The child in the northern rivers will create a few more challenges. You can easily get an EV there today, although it’s a challenge in peak holiday periods due to queues at charging stations. If you can plan your travel outside those times or at least factor in some wait time for charging, then you’ll be fine.

Question:

Answer: Toyota has encouraged its dealers to deliver cars according to when the order was placed. That doesn’t mean a dealer necessarily sticks to that and we’ve certainly heard of times where the squeaky wheel seems to get a tad more oil.

But there’s another factor at play here: the supply allocated to various dealers.

Dealers are given an allocation of cars that depends on various factors, including overall sales and sales of other models within the range. That’s why one dealer may quote a six-month wait and another dealer a three- or nine-month wait. That’s one reason it can pay to shop around between dealers from the same brand.

Of course, the next piece of the puzzle is whether the dealer is being honest with the estimated delivery time when the order was placed. It seems to have been fairly common practice for many dealers (not just Toyota) to get the signature on the contract by promising a delivery date that was never going to be achievable.

In the short term you could ask the dealer to clarify where you are in the queue and push them for an estimated delivery date. In future, we’d suggest asking for a clause in the contract that stipulates delivery by a certain date.

A brand like Toyota has enough experience in manufacturing and logistics to be able to know exactly how many cars they will be building each day, week and month. It shouldn’t be that hard to flow that information down to the customer.

Question:

Answer: I’m not sure the Kia Picanto or MG3 will get you any further off the ground than you are now in the Mazda2. Each is a city hatchback not far off the size and stature of a Mazda2.

You’re better off looking at some of the small SUVs on the market. It sounds like you’re happy with your Mazdas, so check out the Mazda CX-3 (smaller, cheaper and getting on in age) and CX-30 (more back seat and boot space but more expensive). Neither is a standout in its class, but both present very well and are decent value.

Other alternatives include the Kia Stonic or just-arrived Hyundai Kona.

If you’re looking for something more fuel efficient then the Toyota Yaris Cross Hybrid is worth a look. It uses a three-cylinder engine mated to a hybrid system. It’s a tad buzzy but delivers on value and frugal motoring.

Question:

Answer: The Kia EV6 – carsales’ Car of the Year 2022 – is the most obvious choice. Its suspension is more resolved than the Hyundai’s but it otherwise shares its key underbody architecture and technology.

The other obvious alternative is the Tesla Model Y. Sure, it’s a tad cliched in the EV world, but it’s popular for a reason. The tech, connectivity and charging options in the Tesla outweigh both the Hyundai and Kia. If you’re an audiophile it’s got a killer sound system, and there’s plenty of headroom too.

Question:

Answer: The Skodas are quite different vehicles to the Lexus, mainly in brand positioning. The Lexus is heavily focused on luxury whereas the Skodas are more mainstream with some clever design touches and a focus on value (although that value has been diluted by various price rises).

Short story is the Skodas will give you more driving enjoyment (the Superb obviously bigger, so with more interior space) and the Lexus will give you more refinement and a more frugal hybrid drivetrain.

Other alternatives could include a Genesis G70 (or even the Genesis G80). Not as frugal as the hybrid Lexus, but better in other areas. Or you could check out a Volvo S60. If you’d consider a wagon then the Volkswagen Passat is a decent option.

If you’re open to an EV you could check out a Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2 or even the new Hyundai IONIQ 6.

Question:

We have looked into other vehicles, eg Nissan X-TRAIL, but they only have a 160kg tow ball weight. There are not too many mid-size SUVs that are good for towing. Do you have any suggestions please? – Robert and Judy

Answer: Often when you’re towing close to the towing weight limit you can significantly reduce the payload of the vehicle. That payload determines how much you can carry, including people and luggage.

Interestingly, the new Mitsubishi Outlander (without a diesel engine option) only has a 1600kg payload.

So it’s the previous-gen car you’d have to look at, as you’ve established. It’s a shame, because that Outlander may be good at towing but it was underdone elsewhere, making it less engaging to drive that most rivals.

You’ll also have to be mindful of how much weight you put in the car. The previous Outlander had a gross vehicle mass of 2290kg; once you factor in the 1715kg kerb weight and 160kg of tow ball download it leaves you with 415kg of payload – which includes you.

So, yes, it’d get the job done, but stepping up to a Hyundai Santa Fe or Kia Sorento diesel will deliver a much nicer drive and more leeway to pack some campfire beers and all the paraphernalia required for a decent trip. Check out who won our comparison.

Another option is the latest Nissan X-TRAIL, which is a much better car than the older Outlander. It also has a 2000kg tow capacity, although the 2.5-litre engine is no fireball at the best of times and will be working hard with another couple of tonne on board.

Question: I thought you might like to know our experience with EV chargers. We have the hotel at Tathra, NSW, and recently got 50 per cent government money to help install a 22kW charger with two plugs at the hotel. We have discovered that there is not enough capacity in the transformer on the street for us to install the charger – and [an Accredited Service Provider on the NSW electricity distribution network] has suggested that it will be our responsibility to upgrade the transformer at a cost of over $200,000 if we wish to go ahead.

A renewable energy group who have been helping us are running into similar issues at other sites. – Cliff W

Answer: This is where it’s up to governments to step in and ensure basic infrastructure is ready for the EV onslaught. Clearly no small businesses are going to shell out a couple of hundred grand to put in a charger. And it appears that transformer will need updating at some point in the future.

Another option would be a sizeable solar array and associated battery pack, but that would also run into the tens of thousands of dollars.

The alternative is to install a lower power charger. A 7.4kW single-phase charger would still top-up any EV plugged in overnight. And most EVs cap their AC charge rate at 11kW anyway, so the 22kW is to some extent over-engineering.

Question:

As way of background, I’ve completed two defensive driving courses (at Mt Cotton near Brisbane) where the instructors have advised about mirror adjustment: 1995, where they advised me to adjust my wing mirror (only one mirror on the 1983 VH Commodore) to show a minimal sliver of the side of the car; and 2017, where they advised me to adjust my mirror so that the side of the car is ‘just’ not visible (ie, because you know the car is there).

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the BYD. Delivery lacked organisation on behalf of the distributor. And when delivered the underside of the BYD has been sloppily covered with thick black paint. I will be following up with BYD to find out the purpose of this paint and why and where it was applied. – Charlie B

Answer: I’m 188cm tall and can adjust the mirrors of those cars so that I have that optimum set-up of only being able to shift my head slightly to see the side of the car.

I’ve had other cars that are worse for the side mirror adjustment, to the point where I’m seeing too much of my car.

I’m wondering if you have the angle of your seatback reclined a fair bit? Combined with having the seat slid back as far as possible it would obviously mean your head is further from the mirror, in turn narrowing the operational angle.

As for why car-makers have designed it like that, they typically design cars for the majority of drivers (some mention the 95th percentile). Sometimes those on the extremities – very tall or short, for example – may find things aren’t quite set up right for them.

Correction: An earlier version of this article referred to a response allegedly given by Essential Energy to an enquiry about installing an EV charger and upgrading a transformer. It should have said that response was given by an Accredited Service Provider on the NSW electricity distribution network.

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