First of all, I hope you have spent a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and wish you a successful 2022!
Now, my husband and I have been flirting with the idea of purchasing a Tesla. We live in an apartment in Glattpark (ZH) and already own a hybrid Toyota C-HR which we would sell or give as a gift to my parents.
Does anybody here own an electric car and live in an apartment?
Is it possible to install one of those charging boxes?
What are the average costs of charging your car at public charging stations and how long does it take for your car to charge?
How do long trips work? We often travel to Croatia (750km), and the idea of running out of power in the middle of Northern Italy makes me anxious
Appreciate any input! Feel free to drop more info beside answering my questions if you deem it important
I’ve had a couple of model S Teslas here for about 6 or 7 years now.
I’ve always had Supercharging included in the price, so not sure how much a charge would normally cost, but from what i hear, a full charge is likely to cost around 30.- at Superchargers.
If travelling to Croatia, do 10 mins of due diligence before hand and decide which chargers you’ll want to stop off at - some have great facilities, some very few.
It will cost you about 1000-2000 to install a 16A home charging facility, if your landlord will allow it, bear check that in advance. I suppose I installed one of the first home chargers in a communal area in Switzerland, so if you’re allowed, happy to pass on the details.
I currently do not have a charger in my apartment and drive to the closest Supercharger to charge as and when i need it...it’s free apart from the compulsory McDonald’si buy for my Netflix viewing!
We have covered much of this before on EF. A search will answer most of your questions.
You will need to ask your apartment owners about charging. A domestic socket will add 11kms an hour, but if this is a communal circuit where the bill is divided equally - and you won’t be so popular. A Tesla Wall Connector (as mentioned by BritS) will add 66kms/hour. This is with 3 phase, which is available in most Swiss buildings.
Before buying a Tesla check out abetterrouteplanner.com and enter your proposed car details. You can then see how trips to Croatia or anywhere else can be planned with charging stops. The Tesla will plan routes even better, but this will give you an idea.
I have driven my Model 3 to the UK and back without any problems whatsoever....
I recharge our Skoda's battery on the 'domestic' socket during cheap power hours (11PM to 0559 AM). It's never failed to give me a full* charge overnight.
*I only charge it to 80% to prolong battery life, even to 100% is doable overnight.
I think, you live in a golden age now. Soon enough, Uncle Ueli will want their gasonline taxes converted into leccy taxes for electric cars. Use this great opportunity while you can.
I agree. More than half of the price of gas consists of taxes. I can imagine there will be an annual tax on electric cars issued that will make up for lost revenue.
Electric vehicles will also become less expensive, so an increase in tax will not translate in electric vehicles being overall more expensive than today, except maybe for countries with huge incentives (not switzerland).
NO! For a number of years Tesla allowed free Supercharging as an incentive to buy. This has now ended, as has the offer of free 1500kms worth of charging for referals...
Implementation of Alternative energy is to be applauded and encouraged. However, about 90 Rappen of a liter of gas goes towards taxes. As the revenue of those taxes dwindle, the government will be looking for other sources of income.
I’ve always assumed a chunk of those taxes go towards road maintenance but I haven’t been able to find a breakdown of tax distribution.
All of the f40 autoroute fees go to the maintenance and expansion of the autoroutes. When the government wanted to up the fees to f100 they wanted this to go to general revenues with the autoroutes been funded from there.
That was the main reason why the referendum overturning the law passed so easily. People don’t object when they know where the money is going. They do object when it’s going to parliaments pet projects, like useless fighter jets.
The cantons and communes will finance the cantonal and communal roads separately, in part with the cantonal road tax though that's generally far from enough; the federation will co-finance larger projects. As for the cantonal road tax (StrassenVerkehrsSteuer), canton Zürich for example (possibly an extreme case) hasn't been allowed to raise the road tax for 30-40-50 years as they didn't get the required Yes from the voters.
See here for a recent overview on the federal level, though without the heavy vehicle tax (most is used to make rail transports more attractive, a smaller part is transfered to the cantons). The VAT on the fuel hasn't been accounted for either.
The mountains in Switzerland/Austria depending on which route you take and in Slovenia will kill your range. I also always considered an electric car as I am in a similar situation. However it might just be worth it to rent a car or fly and rent to avoid the headache and worrying about stations.
I've been test driving a number of electric vehicles over the past year or so. Still on the fence, take away I have is that in summer they're great, in winter though you'll struggle to get the mountains for a days skiing and back on a single charge.
If you were going from Aargau (Aarau) to Zermatt, you shouldn't need to charge on the way, but you'd need to drop into Martigny on the way back. The advantage of regenerative braking is that the trip back down the mountain would almost certainly leave you with more range than when you were at the top.
EDIT: This is assuming a Model S. YMMV somewhat with other models.
Some garages will take your car, store it, and ensure that it’s charged for your return. They can also take you to the edge of Zermatt from their garage meaning less baggage schlepping.