New car: stop gap or long term?

NorwegianWood

Morning, just looking for a bit of advice regarding the buying of a new car. My girlfriend and I are expecting our first child on March 1st and we're looking at buying a second car at the start of the new year. I currently commute about an hour each way and use our '13 plate Astra and we're thinking my other half will take that car while I buy a newer one for the commute. My dilemma is do I buy a cheaper car as a stop gap for 18 months or so in the hope that electric car tech improves and prices come down? Or do I invest in a more expensive diesel that will last for years and forget the electric option? Thanks in advance!

DrEskimo

What's your budget?

What's your current commuting distance and general journeys like? Are you able to charge at home?

What improvements do you want in EVs before you would decide to own one?

NorwegianWood

Budget is £15k max if it's a long term car. Commuting distance is around 50 miles each way, motorway 90% of the time. And yes I can charge at home if I had the facilities installed on the driveway.

The improvements I would like to see are an increase in the distance they can cover and a general reduction in initial cost. I've heard horror stories about used EV's not being able to cover anywhere near the distance claimed when new after a few years so I would feel more comfortable buying new, but they're too expensive.

Herzlos

I'd go for it now, £15k will buy you a pretty decent Leaf or Zoe which will do your commute comfortably and save you a fortune in fuel.


You never know what the future will hold - EV's will get cheaper but I've no idea if 18 months will make that much difference.

DrEskimo

MJCrundwell wrote: »

Budget is £15k max if it's a long term car. Commuting distance is around 50 miles each way, motorway 90% of the time. And yes I can charge at home if I had the facilities installed on the driveway.

The improvements I would like to see are an increase in the distance they can cover and a general reduction in initial cost. I've heard horror stories about used EV's not being able to cover anywhere near the distance claimed when new after a few years so I would feel more comfortable buying new, but they're too expensive.

So my personal experience is that I bought a used Renault Zoe. It's battery owned (many are battery leased, really it's only the Zoe you have to beware of for leased batteries) and has a 41kWh battery. It covers around 180miles in the summer, and currently about 130miles in the winter (cold temperatures affect the battery chemistry and lower the range of all EV's).

It was 2yrs old with just 5,500miles and looked brand new. I bought it from a main Renault dealer for £14,500. I have only covered 3,000miles since I bought it in Feb, but the battery health remains at 98%.

As you can see, this would be perfect for your application. You have more than enough range to complete your commute with charging regularly at home. Relative to a 50MPG diesel @ average diesel prices of £1.30, your 26,000 miles per annum for commuting will set you back over £3,000. In contrast, if you signed up to something like Octopus GO, where you get £0.05/kWh between 00:30-04:30 (very easy to set scheduled charging on nearly all EV's), you are looking at using around 27kWh each night to replenish your energy used for the 100mile commute, so just £1.35 per day. That over 5 working days and 52 weeks would be a mere £351 in 'fuel' costs. ~10% of your diesel costs.

Add to that reduced depreciation (used EV's are holding value extremely well!) no VED, service costs of ~£80 a year and reduced maintenance costs with tyres (last longer on EV's) and brakes (barely use 10% over 25,000 miles due to regen braking), not to mention really nice creature comforts like pre-heating from the app and I would certainly consider switching to EV now...