Electric v Petrol real total cost

JamoLew

Ok - I know this has been done to death with opinion and anecdotal comments.

I found this article (slightly outdated from 2017) ---- https://fuelincluded.com/2017/05/total-cost-ownership-comparison-zoe-vs-clio/

So if you remove the parking costs per month row - Petrol is overall CHEAPER than electric at ~ <14k miles a year (based on a 3 year lease). As the mileage drops so do the savings. So for a 3 year lease at 10k miles pa - petrol is actually £26/month cheaper
Obviously on the flip side >15k miles pa the balance shifts in favour of electric

I was wondering how these figures are likely to stack up in 2021

Yes, I know the savings are better for electric long term if you buy/own outright, but lets be honest, who has £30k available to spend outright on any type of vehicle

[Deleted User]

I'd be wary of any site that claims you pay "road tax" when that hasn't existed since the 1930s.

If you delete a row that benefits one car, of course you will adjust the figures, just as if you add a row e.g. if you live/work in London then the CC/ULEZ charges may be relevant and swing it towards electric. The fuel costs may well need adjusting, what about maintenance etc

ErinGoBrath

Not convinced about the fuel savings here as electricity costs wont be 1/6th of petrol.

PETROL: 45 mpg = 10 mpl at 120p a litre is 12p a mile.

LECCY: 4 miles per KwH at 16p per KwH is 4p a mild.

This is 1/3rd the petrol cost, not 1/6th.

The car would need to do only 22mpg for the figures to match - hardly likely unless driven in first gear everywhere! 

JamoLew

Agree with both of you and your comments.
I am genuinely interested in learning whether the real and quantifiable monetary savings for EV are as good as people claim

jimjames

The list doesn't include any servicing? It also makes for interesting comparison if you add an older diesel onto that list.

Zero monthly cost (or at least £300 for 4 months only)
50mpg so £188 pm fuel cost
£13 VED pm
Total £201 pm. Wipes the floor with both options if they're trying to claim a cost benefit of electric.

DrEskimo

ErinGoBrath said:

Not convinced about the fuel savings here as electricity costs wont be 1/6th of petrol.

PETROL: 45 mpg = 10 mpl at 120p a litre is 12p a mile.

LECCY: 4 miles per KwH at 16p per KwH is 4p a mild.

This is 1/3rd the petrol cost, not 1/6th.

The car would need to do only 22mpg for the figures to match - hardly likely unless driven in first gear everywhere! 

They assumed you were charging at night on economy 7, so 7.5p per kWh.

I personally charge using Octopus GO which is 5p/kWh between 00:30-4:30. 

So actually my EV is 1/12 the cost of petrol.

JamoLew said:

Ok - I know this has been done to death with opinion and anecdotal comments.

I found this article (slightly outdated from 2017) ---- https://fuelincluded.com/2017/05/total-cost-ownership-comparison-zoe-vs-clio/

So if you remove the parking costs per month row - Petrol is overall CHEAPER than electric at ~ <14k miles a year (based on a 3 year lease). As the mileage drops so do the savings. So for a 3 year lease at 10k miles pa - petrol is actually £26/month cheaper
Obviously on the flip side >15k miles pa the balance shifts in favour of electric

I was wondering how these figures are likely to stack up in 2021

Yes, I know the savings are better for electric long term if you buy/own outright, but lets be honest, who has £30k available to spend outright on any type of vehicle

A Zoe 41kWh has never been £30k to buy. Just before it was replaced with the new 52kWh version it could be bought brand new for £18k.

These are also not leases. They are finance. The biggest difference being that the monthly costs are only reflective of depreciation if the predicted final value is correct. On the Clio it probably will be pretty close. However the Zoe has held its value ridiculously well. The GFV was estimated at around £8k after 3yrs, when I was getting trade in offers of £14k when mine was that age. So when you add the £4-5k equity back on the Zoe at the end, the comparison isn't even close.

The real savings are had with used EVs. Depreciation is so low that total costs are cheaper than you would spend on fuel.
Of course what will happen to the value over the next couple of years is anyone's guess, but the last 2 yrs have been the cheapest motoring for me relative to any ICE....

Petriix

Those prices look ludicrously high. There have been some lease deals for the Corsa-E and Ioniq 38 at around £200 per month amortised in the past couple of months.

My MG5 added £75 per month to my mortgage (at 1.84%) and is averaging around 2.5p per mile.

silverwhistle

ErinGoBrath said:

Not convinced about the fuel savings here as electricity costs wont be 1/6th of petrol.

PETROL: 45 mpg = 10 mpl at 120p a litre is 12p a mile.

LECCY: 4 miles per KwH at 16p per KwH is 4p a mild.

You'd be hard pushed to find any EV owner who regularly pays as much as 16p per kWh. My own home average is 6.5p (and trending downwards)  including the testing of my charger at high rates. I've also had around 75kWh free at a local supermarket which might have been even more if I'd been going anywhere!

gzoom

Our EV is 4 years old now, having covered 50k.

Purchased in 2017 for £75k cash.

If I was sell today I estimate I would get £50k back based on current Autotrader figures, that works out as £520/month deprecation.

Service costs over 4 years = £0, I've never had it serviced! MOT = £40 last year.

Tyres ×1 set at £480 for x4 mid range 20inch tyres.

Fuel costs = 3.2p per mile, based on 8p per kWh and 2.5 miles per kWh, so £1600 in fuel costs over 50k/years.

So total cost per month to cover 12k per year is, £44/month for just running costs or £560/month including purchase/depreciation costs.

Whilst £560/month is still alot to spend on any car but when its a 6 seater SUV that does 0-60 in under 5 seconds and got more gadets than your local Currys its pretty 'Cheap'.

As others have mention if you bought something more sensible like a Leaf or Kona your overall running costs including depreciation is probably sub £100/month over the last few years.

dipsomaniac

Thanks for sharing, interesting figures. I wonder if the value falls off a cliff once batteries are out of warranty? 

Don't think you will find many people on mse agreeing with £560 per month being 'pretty cheap' for a car.

ElefantEd

Just had a quick look at Autotrader. Even the oldest (9 years old) Nissan Leafs are going for £4000+ so depreciation doesn't look too horrendous. We're on our second Leaf; our first we bought for £14k (from memory), did 120,000+ miles in it, traded it in for a newer one with a bigger battery. Insurance and maintenance were both very low; and plenty of the electricity was free! Running costs were about 2-3p per mile. A petrol car would have cost far more in total - we calculated we broke even buying a £14k electric car instead of a £4k petrol car after 3-4 years.