THERE are a number of questions generally on the mind of anyone considering the change to an electric car.

How many kilometres will the battery allow me to travel?

Where is the next charging station?

How long will I have to sit there waiting for my battery to be recharged?

Is hybrid the way to go if I am living in the regions?

Unfortunately, there are a lot more unknowns to be solved before we do the decent thing for the environment and plunge into electric vehicle ownership.

Some reports claim the cost of buying an EV is up to 50 percent more costly than purchasing the same or similar car with a petrol engine.

We also know that the “fuel cost” for your electric recharge is much less if done at home which has rooftop solar and a battery.

However, it can become extremely expensive to fit out your garage with the correct electrical equipment in order for you to recharge at home, usually overnight.

One figure I was given was that the garage electrical charging point could cost over $1500.

Early in the game not every brand of EV had the same plug arrangement and this could cost more for home fitment.

When travelling you had to hope the recharge point had the correct fitting or at least an adapter to suit.

However, in order to facilitate charging, the NRMA offered free charging at their outlets as a positive incentive to EV ownership.

I have noticed online advice that from November the NRMA outlets will introduce charging costs for this once free service.

Users will be required to pay a fee of $0.54 per kWh at 150kW DC fast chargers, and slightly dearer $0.59 per kWh at 175kW sites.

To put this into perspective, to recharge a mid-size EV the cost works out at $14 to $18 per 100km travelled, which is said to be more costly than a Toyota RAV4 at $8 or Hilux at $13 which run on petrol for the same distance.

Without being specific, public fast chargers are becoming even more expensive to use.

That cost is stated as 80 percent higher than it was five years ago.

The days of free fuel for your EV have now ended and the costs of recharging are rocketing upwards.

The industry is now saying it’s a great time to buy an EV, but perhaps not the best time to own one.

By John BLACKBOURN