By Kurt Conway, as told to David Waterworth (with any further notes from me in italics). Continuing our series of owner reviews . You can read about my own impressions of the BYD Dolphin here .
Kurt tells me: I have always been intrigued by electric vehicles ever since Nissan released the LEAF in 2011 and have always wanted one for myself since I drove a Tesla Model S P90D back in 2015 (that car was scary quick). I also love small hatchbacks for their practicality and their ability to fit in the smallest of parking spaces, but there was no EV on the market that suited my needs. Come mid-November 2023, my last car, a petrol 2016 Kia Rio was nearly 8 years old, well north of 100,000 km, and was starting to fail terribly — a dodgy fuel pump left me stranded in Broken Hill, a blown radiator the week before, and suspension that was starting to squeak.
I asked Kurt what the costs were and he told me that the fuel pump cost AU$900 including the towing, and the radiator was over AU$700. The suspension? Who knows? He expected that it would be around AU$1000 based on his past experience with other cars. He got rid of it before the suspension failed though.
As I said, I’ve always had a keen interest in EVs and decided that I did not want another petrol car, as I was getting sick of paying upwards of AU$2.30 a litre and well over AU$100 per week for fuel. My requirements for a new car were that it be a full BEV, have a minimum range of 400 km per charge (as I do a lot of kilometers),.
