Am I missing something about this finance plan?
Comments
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neobrainless wrote: »I've actually thought about this a lot, and know a lot about electric vehicles. The only thing I'm not sure about is financing...
In your position - a start-up business - you need to learn quickly about finance. Your knowledge of electric vehicles is irrelevant.
Your income will vary, especially in the early months and years. Some of your costs will vary with the work (e.g. fuel) but some are fixed (e.g. insurance, loan repayments) and have to be paid whether or not there's money coming in. You should be looking to keep your fixed costs as low as possible, so the guys suggesting a cheap van are right.0 -
I think you'd do much better by taking advantage of Bristol's 'cheapskate' side which is much bigger than the hippy side and full of people who would be wondering how much the green credentials would be adding on to their bills!neobrainless wrote: »part of the plan is to take advantage of Bristol's hippy side by getting an electric van
I'd also be careful about advertising yourself as a "carpenter/odd-jobs type person". If I want a carpenter then I want a specialist - not somebody who just does a bit of carpentry now & then.0 -
I do hit the cheapskate side pretty well for some stuff, and having an electric van would make it CHEAPER to do a lot of services due to next to none existant fuel bills. As stated, the extending mortgage option makes my monthly outgoings lower.
I don't advertise as carpenter/odd jobs, I was just summarising my business as succinctly as possible for advice purposes.0 -
neobrainless wrote: »I do hit the cheapskate side pretty well for some stuff, and having an electric van would make it CHEAPER to do a lot of services due to next to none existant fuel bills.
But you are conveniently ignoring the huge finance costs of a brand new electric van compared to the minimal cost of a cheap banger. You might be a top notch carpenter for all I know, but your financial knowledge is decidedly lacking.0 -
Actually, once you include the large fuel bill and maintenance costs, a cheap van doesn't work out cheaper necessarily, just in up front cost. Once you get past year 4/5 (probably less if I could be bothered to do a more robust calculation) the electric van is MASSIVELY cheaper.0
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neobrainless wrote: »Actually, once you include the large fuel bill and maintenance costs, a cheap van doesn't work out cheaper necessarily, just in up front cost. Once you get past year 4/5 (probably less if I could be bothered to do a more robust calculation) the electric van is MASSIVELY cheaper.
But the odds are against your business lasting five years! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businessclub/11174584/Half-of-UK-start-ups-fail-within-five-years.html
And by taking on unnecessary fixed costs you are stacking the odds against you further. (see my post #12)0 -
Maybe so, but 1) if you plan as though your business venture won't last 5 years then you're doomed to fail from the start.
2) Worst case it fails and then, horror of horrors, I'm left with a vehicle that's extremely cheap to run - doesn't seem like much of a downside to me?0 -
Op, your missing the point you lose a lot money in depreciation let me give you an example of a work mate who was boasting about his nissan leaf
He bought a nissan leaf for £25,000, two and a half years later he had to sell due to personal circumstances sold it for £9,000 so he lost £16,000 which is around £500+ a month Plus the cost of the electirc he used over them years which was around £1,500 but he just saw the fuel saving and jumped on the bandwagon
so thats what you are doing you are looking at the saving you can see ie fuel but you are not looking at the overall cost
I have an astra which costs me around 15p a mile, the nissan leaf example above cost the lad 50p a mile (£16,000+£1,500/30,000 miles driven)
car dealers are many things but they are not a charity, they are the masters of doing all the calculations long before the sell any car/van
hope this helps“People are caught up in an egotistic artificial rat race to display a false image to society. We want the biggest house, fanciest car, and we don't mind paying the sky high mortgage to put up that show. We sacrifice our biggest assets our health and time, We feel happy when we see people look up to us and see how successful we are”
Rat Race0 -
I have to say I am with the others, certainly to begin with a used older van would be a safer option. You could still hit up the hippies even with a diesel van - go carbon neutral and keep banging on about that or something.
When working for oneself its important to always have a get out plan. Whenever I take a risk in the business world I always make sure that if it all goes wrong I can dispose of the risk with minimal cost - an amount I am prepared to lose.0 -
Op, your missing the point you lose a lot money in depreciation let me give you an example of a work mate who was boasting about his nissan leaf
He bought a nissan leaf for £25,000, two and a half years later he had to sell due to personal circumstances sold it for £9,000 so he lost £16,000 which is around £500+ a month Plus the cost of the electirc he used over them years which was around £1,500 but he just saw the fuel saving and jumped on the bandwagon
so thats what you are doing you are looking at the saving you can see ie fuel but you are not looking at the overall cost
I have an astra which costs me around 15p a mile, the nissan leaf example above cost the lad 50p a mile (£16,000+£1,500/30,000 miles driven)
car dealers are many things but they are not a charity, they are the masters of doing all the calculations long before the sell any car/van
hope this helps
When trying to correct someone's financial planning it helps to get the maths right - Either your friend was doing FAR more than 30,000 miles, or was on an awful electricity tariff. Cost to do that should be under £1000 at worst.
Depreciation is a concern, as with any new vehicle. But the cross-over point is far better for electric vehicles due to the huge savings on maintenance and fuel costs. But my plan would be to keep the van regardless of business success as a van is useful, especially one that is super cheap to run.
Hitting up the hippies is harder to do with a diesel as after diesel-gate people are onto the fact that they ain't all that eco-wise. It's still an option, but it's not a great one from where I'm sitting.0
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