Your questions answered: Should we consider an EV for a new family car?

There’s some family car shopping in this week’s readers’ letters, starting with deciding whether to look at an electric car with all these new arrivals on sale.

We’re also heading off-road, with a look at the new breed of highly capable four-wheel drives that also have some cool factor.

Staying on the off-road theme is a difficult drivetrain choice looming for a new Range Rover?

Plus we touch on tyre pressure sensors.

In one final electron burst we check out cheap electric cars and the chemistry of EV batteries.

Her priorities are:

Is it worth considering an electric car?

Is it worth trying to buy a brand new car rather than second hand?

Is MG worth a special look as they are cheap?

How long would she have to wait to get a new car – a friend of hers waited ages (over a year) for their new car. She’d like to get one in the next few months. – John

Answer: The Outback is a surprisingly spacious car, especially for carrying dogs and luggage. Many mid-sized SUVs won’t match it for boot space, although some certainly come close.

As for whether she should consider an EV, definitely!

There’s loads happening on the EV front, albeit most of it north of her $50K limit.

The best bet on the electric front would currently be the Tesla Model Y, which is about $61,000 drive-away. That’s more than the budget, but… I’m not sure if she can take advantage of the fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemption on EVs. It means if she takes out a novated lease she can pay for everything – including rego and running costs – out of pre-tax income. It’s an incentive the government currently has to encourage people into EVs.

It would likely make it cheaper that buying a petrol or hybrid model using post-tax income.

If she doesn’t want to spend that much she could look at a second-hand one, of which there’s no shortage.

If she’s open to that sort of spend on an EV then the Kia EV5 is also worth a look. It’s on sale this month and should just undercut the Tesla.

There’s also a whole bunch of newcomer brands that should just undercut the Tesla Model Y. And while some of them look terrific – Zeekr, Xpeng and Smart among them – there are also a lot of unknowns in terms of after-sales support and how they’ll fare on the used car market in a few years. Some brands will no doubt be fine, others may struggle. But working out which fall into which camp is at this stage tricky to establish.

If the $50K budget is firm then check out the BYD Atto 3. It’s still a surprisingly convincing electric SUV. It’s a bit smaller than the others mentioned above, so may struggle with that golden retriever. But it’s at least worth checking out.

On the petrol/hybrid side, check out the Nissan X-Trail e-Power and Kia Sportage Hybrid, each of which is a fraction over her price limit.

The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid comes in under but has a relatively skinny list of equipment on those cheaper models. It’s solid buying, although its interior is looking dated (the current RAV4 hit the market in 2019.

As for MG, the ZS EV is feeling tired and lags the Atto 3. Plus it’ll be too small for the new arrivals.

Answer: Depends how you want to use them. The Grenadier is better off-road, in part because it has old school hardware (live axles front and rear versus independent suspension on the Land Rover).

The Defender is still very good off-road but in the really gnarly stuff the Grenadier will have an edge.

But on-road the Defender is loads better. It’s far more nimble, has sharper steering and feels more composed. In comparison the Grenadier feels ponderous. You’d only have to drive it around the block to notice how slow and vague the steering is.

Both of them have some cool factor but the Grenadier arguably edges ahead on coolness, especially with its aircraft-style overhead buttons.

Neither has a great reputation for reliability. Word on the street is that early Grenadiers had some issues, and Land Rovers have long had a poor reputation for reliability.

If that’s important then the new Toyota Prado could be worth a look. There are wait lists on it (and it’s not even in dealerships for a couple of months) but the new one actually looks pretty good. A lot less generic than previous Prados – with some Land Rover inspired squared edges to toughen it up.

And the Lexus version – called GX – is also well worth a look. Drives well with a petrol engine and the Overtrail model looks great, too, with some off-road chunkiness to it.

I have a few battery related questions based on my potential usage above:

Answer: LFP - or lithium ferrous phosphate - batteries are fast proving to be the better battery for many EVs, particularly at the affordable end of the market. Most Chinese EVs these days use them, as do Rear-Wheel Drive Teslas and various other models, including the upcoming Kia EV5.

The superior energy density of NMC - or nickel manganese cobalt - batteries means luxury brands tend to stick with what is also a more expensive battery to manufacture. However, the gap between the two battery chemistries is narrowing.

But early data is also suggesting that LFP batteries will have a longer life and/or experience less degradation.

Whereas NMC batteries are typically rated at 1000 or 2000 cycles, LFP can have 3000 or sometimes a lot more.

Crunch the numbers and you’ll notice that even a battery with a relatively low predicted number of cycles should cope for almost half a million kilometres, whereas the ones predicted to cope with more cycles could go one million kays or more.

Either way, the battery is likely to be less of an issue than other parts of the car.

As for DC fast charging, it can hurt all batteries, but it depends how fast you’re planning to charge.

The engineers we’ve spoken to don’t really consider 50kW or 75kW DC charging as particularly fast, so they don’t anticipate big degradation from regularly using those chargers.

We suspect your employer would have a DC charger well under 100kW.

The 350kW chargers are likely to be worse, although again the ‘toughness’ of LFP batteries suggest it shouldn’t be a major issue for longevity if used occasionally.

As for home wallbox charging, even a 22kW wallbox isn’t considered a particularly fast charge, and most wallboxes chargers top out at 7.4kW (about 3.5 times more than a home powerpoint). So using a wallbox should be just as gentle as a home powerpoint.

And, yes, the Atto 3 has LPF batteries. All BYDs use LFP batteries because that’s all the company makes these days.

Some reviews are scathing. What is your opinion please? Thanks - Kathy.

Answer: The ZS EV is very basic motoring.

Because it utilises the architecture of a petrol car there are compromises in the placement of the electrical components. MG isn’t alone there, it’s the same with any EV that utilises the architecture of an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle.

Often the biggest giveaway is cabin space. EVs that were engineered from the outset as an EV tend to have more storage and occupant space because they don’t have to cater for a bulky engine, gearbox and drive shafts.

The ZS EV also has fairly ordinary dynamics, so it feels sloppy on the road.

It’s not as much of an issue for trundling around the suburbs, although even then it doesn’t have the reassuring stability of better SUVs.

We’ve also got some issues with the main infotainment screen, which can take a few presses to achieve basic tasks, some of which would be better served with a button.

The good bit is the price and the warranty, something that makes it a tempting proposition.

If you can stretch the budget to the BYD Atto 3 you’ll end up with a better car, albeit one with less in the way of warranty coverage.

Or while you’re in the MG dealership check out the MG4. It’s a far better car and is a great fun hatch to drive.

There are more pint-sized EVs coming, too. The Kia EV3 that’s due around April 2025 is one of the more interesting.

I’d like internal sensors, maybe SensaTyre or Oricom, or maybe there’s something better. I’ve put 17-inch rims with BFG all-terrains on the car.

I chose a Kakadu over an Everest as I’m a wildlife photographer and need a large sunroof to use quickly with a long lens. Trying it out got some funny looks in the showroom. – Kim

Answer: I can’t even remember the brand I use, but they’re a generic set that seem to be rebranded for various outlets.

There are some pictures of them in this article.

I haven’t used those brands you mention, only because given I’m not driving the cars for long I need something that’s easy to put on and take off.

One thing to remember with those internal sensors is to tell anyone working on the tyres that they’re fitted. We’ve heard stories of the tyre fitter removing the old tyre and damaging the sensors in the process.

I’m looking at either the P400, plug-in hybrid or the D350 diesel.

Most of our driving is to on from school drop off around 20km per day, but most of our kilometres come from driving to Mt Hotham around 15 times per year a 900km round trip.

I currently have 2015 Sport diesel HSE from new, no trouble although I had to do a few ghost runs to clear out the particulate filter on many occasions when the car has done to many short trips.

I’ve also the model might have a refresh in 2025, any intel on this?

Would you know when the full electric version is being released? - Simon

Answer: Hmm, there’s no perfect car for you at the moment.

The P400 PHEV looks great on paper and it’d be good to be able to run it on electricity. But performance in electric mode is leisurely and not particularly efficient. So you’d likely end up running it as a hybrid, which also isn’t especially efficient.

That would be a challenge for your Mt Hotham trips, too, because it’s likely to use more fuel than the diesel.

All of which is pointing you towards the diesel, which is a nicer engine and better suited to the Rangie.

But then there’s the potential issue with the diesel particulate filter clogging. As it sounds like you know, the easiest fix is to take it for a 30/40/50km higher speed drive to get the exhaust system hot and clear out the filter.

Even with that potential issue we’d be heading for the diesel.

As for when an EV is coming, expect to see it first on the big Range Rover (minus the Sport moniker). It’s been delayed but is now due in 2025, probably late in the year for Australia.

Our best guesses are that a Sport EV is more like 2026 or 2027.

Got a question but don’t know where to find the information you need? Email us at editor@carsales.com.au

Join the conversation at our Facebook page
Or email us at editor@carsales.com.au