Considering an electric car?

Herzlos

So it'd at least be an alternative to going to a fast charger whilst one got installed.


I'd always assumed they were a standard part, since you'd need it to charge from anywhere.

almillar

The Zoe uses fast AC charging. To do this, it uses the motor as the AC-DC converter to charge the battery. Very clever. It means that the chargers can be much cheaper. It's very efficient at charging at 43kW or 22kW, less so at 7kW, and quite inefficient at 3 ish kW (3 pin). The 22kW charging motor is a bit more efficient than the 43kW charging motor, but still not as good as smaller, more conventional AC-DC converters in other cars, which are getting up to 11kW. This is another reason you don't get a 3-pin cable with Zoe, they really don't want you to, and will charge you over £400 for a cable. I went 2 years of ownership of Zoe without using a granny cable. There are of course cheaper cables available as DrEskimo says.

wymondham

looked around but £30k+ for an electric car against £20k for petrol it'll take a while to break even....

DrEskimo

wymondham wrote: »

looked around but £30k+ for an electric car against £20k for petrol it'll take a while to break even....

You're comparing a 100% sunk cost (petrol, VED, etc) with a cost associated with owning an asset. Unless the £30k EV suddenly became worth the same as a £20k ICE, then that additional purchase cost is not lost. It's maintained in the car as a more valuable asset.

You need to compare depreciation costs, not purchase costs.

As it happens, depreciation on EV's have been incredibly low, with the used market particularly strong due to rising demand and limited supply. EV's are generally proving to be more cost effective based on depreciation costs alone, despite the higher purchase price. Then you can add savings on running costs on top.

Herzlos

wymondham wrote: »

looked around but £30k+ for an electric car against £20k for petrol it'll take a while to break even....

Assuming both cars are worth £0 at the end, and just counting the fuel costs (petrol @ 30mpg is about 20p/mile, electricity at about 5p/mile [which is potentially high]), the EV will take 66k miles to break even.


However, that's assuming you're charging at home and not factoring in things like cheaper servicing, less to maintain, less brake wear due to regenerative breaking, no belts to change, free EV parking, congestion charging and so on.

k6chris

Herzlos wrote: »

Assuming both cars are worth £0 at the end, and just counting the fuel costs (petrol @ 30mpg is about 20p/mile, electricity at about 5p/mile [which is potentially high]), the EV will take 66k miles to break even.


However, that's assuming you're charging at home and not factoring in things like cheaper servicing, less to maintain, less brake wear due to regenerative breaking, no belts to change, free EV parking, congestion charging and so on.

As a "not-yet EV fanboy", I have really tried hard to come up with accurate EV fuel costs, allowing for realworld range, the ineffciencies of charging, sensible electricity costs etc. The same with ICE cars. In round numbers, I am working on 5.5p per mile for EV and 15p for ICE. So a saving of 9.5p a mile or £950 per 10k miles. You can make the numbers vary of course, but as a planning figure for fuel saving, "10p a mile" seems reasonable for me. Your numbers may vary.

alanrowell

Two problems for me


1) lack of range
2) living on the 2nd floor

ElefantEd

10-12p a mile saving is about right. An EV using home charging costs about 2p/mile, a petrol car about 12-15p/mile (for something doing about 50mpg)



Cheaper maintenance and road tax also helps the EV side of the equation.


We definitely saved money in the long run when buying an EV - it took about 3 years to break even, based on buying a significantly more expensive (and newer) EV compared with an ICE. This was £15k for a 6 month old Leaf compared with buying a 3-4 year old small ICE for about £5k. But we do a lot of miles (24k per year) which obviously makes the per mile cost relatively more important.

Ergates

Markee wrote: »

To use every public charger in the UK you will need accounts setup with 40+ companies.

Now *that* sounds like a business opportunity and a half. Get in now before someone else fills the gap in the market.

DrEskimo

Ergates wrote: »

Now *that* sounds like a business opportunity and a half. Get in now before someone else fills the gap in the market.

One company has already had the idea...!

https://www.bonnetelectric.com/

Been watching them with great anticipation. If I move to my new position full-time, it will involve charging on average around 440kWh a month (80mile round trip, assuming an average of 4mi/kWh and 10% charging loses).

The pod-point charger at the office charges £0.25/kWh, so the unlimited plan would slash my monthly 'fuel' bill from £110 to £50, or just over £0.11/kWh.

Granted, even at £110 to travel 1,600 miles, it represents a good ~£100 saving over ICE, but £50 is even better! Can't wait to buy a house with a drive, then I could get it as low as £25/month!