Volvo electric car savings calculator - anyone make sense of this??

ComicGeek

https://www.volvocars.com/uk/v/cars/electric-car/cost-benefits/

Doesn't help that some of this isn't in English, but this calculator just doesn't make sense to me. 

Annual mileage at 12,000 km, petrol cost at £1.25 and elec cost at £0.14. 7.5 l/100 km seems reasonable for a petrol XC40 to compare against.

Ignoring the pound/euro conversion, and just taking the euro figure as pounds, this gives a quoted 3 year saving of £25,338! The petrol cost is only £1,125 per year, without even taking into account the electricity used.

An increased annual mileage of 18,000 km would suggest that the car is fully paid off within 3 years from the savings alone.

Obviously the figures are completely wrong, and although Volvo have stated that it can't be relied upon what's the point in having such a poor calculator? It doesn't help with the push to electric cars to over promise, and then disappoint people when they realise.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong, or is the calculator completely wrong?

Steve182

I've not checked the calculation, but it should also be noted that they assume 23.9 kwh per 100km. In my experience ranges or distance per kWh  quoted for EV's by manufacturers are unachievable in real life conditions.

AdrianC

Steve182 said:

I've not checked the calculation, but it should also be noted that they assume 23.9 kwh per 100km. In my experience ranges or distance per kWh  quoted for EV's by manufacturers are unachievable in real life conditions.

The range is calculated using the exact same WLTP cycle as for fuel economy in ICE vehicles.

facade

Maybe they are including some tax incentives, if you reduce the mileage to 1000km it still saves £3940, which is £1313 a year, but the cost of the fuel can only be 76 litres x 1.45 = 110 euros per year, maybe there is a very poor exchange rate since Brexit?

Perhaps you get free servicing with electric?

billy2shots

ComicGeek said:

https://www.volvocars.com/uk/v/cars/electric-car/cost-benefits/

Doesn't help that some of this isn't in English, but this calculator just doesn't make sense to me. 

Annual mileage at 12,000 km, petrol cost at £1.25 and elec cost at £0.14. 7.5 l/100 km seems reasonable for a petrol XC40 to compare against.

Ignoring the pound/euro conversion, and just taking the euro figure as pounds, this gives a quoted 3 year saving of £25,338! The petrol cost is only £1,125 per year, without even taking into account the electricity used.

An increased annual mileage of 18,000 km would suggest that the car is fully paid off within 3 years from the savings alone.

Obviously the figures are completely wrong, and although Volvo have stated that it can't be relied upon what's the point in having such a poor calculator? It doesn't help with the push to electric cars to over promise, and then disappoint people when they realise.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong, or is the calculator completely wrong?

Very misleading. Are they comparing the cost to run a EV to that of fuel costs for a jet plane?

Let's assume you save £490 a year in VED compared to a thirsty petrol car. 

That's £1470 over 3 years. 

Save a little on servicing but remember a lot of brands are intermittent these days so wouldn't need 3 services but let's pretend a total saving of £500 over that time. 

Running 3/year total rounded up £2000


Now a petrol car averaging 25mpg (going low for argument sake) would do roughly 5.5 miles per litre @ £1.30p.

12,000miles / 5.5 miles per litre = 2181 litres of petrol needed X £1.30 = £2835 for the year. 

£2835 X 3 years = £8505


Even if Electricity was free that makes a total saving over 3 years doing 12k miles each year 


£10,500 rounded up.


Take your electricity off, cut that estimated servicing cost, add in better petrol mpg and I wouldn't be surprised if the saving are closer to £6000-£7000. 

Add in the initial extra that an EV will cost Vs petrol then the numbers start slanting away from EV. 

Keep_pedalling

Not sure how you found that calculator, as you can’t access it from the Volvo home page. The only calculator I can find there is for their PHEVs. With its mix of languages and dodgy calculations I don’t think this was ever meant to be put up on the UK site.

DrEskimo

billy2shots said:

Add in the initial extra that an EV will cost Vs petrol then the numbers start slanting away from EV. 

This direct comparison in purchase price is only relevant if both cars are worth the same after purchase. Of course this isn't true of many higher value cars. The higher cost EV maintains a higher value over its life relative to the lower cost ICE.

It's the depreciation costs that you need to compare. If they are the same then the purchase price is irrelevant when it comes to comparing running costs.

As it happens, EVs are currently maintaining their value better than equivalent ICE. As such you get lower depreciation costs on top of lower running costs.

ComicGeek

Keep_pedalling said:

Not sure how you found that calculator, as you can’t access it from the Volvo home page. The only calculator I can find there is for their PHEVs. With its mix of languages and dodgy calculations I don’t think this was ever meant to be put up on the UK site.

I clicked through from the UK XC40 web page  https://www.volvocars.com/uk/v/cars/xc40-electric

Halfway down it says 'How much could you save? estimate savings' which is the link to the calculator. Very prominent position.  

Grumpy_chap

ComicGeek said:

https://www.volvocars.com/uk/v/cars/electric-car/cost-benefits/

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong, or is the calculator completely wrong?

Well, it seems as though the entry-level all electric XC-40 costs £49,950.
The headline figure on the calculator says £50,310 in savings over three years.

If those figures are both correct, I can scrap my 2007 Focus and 1997 Fiesta, buy a new car and make a profit over three years.  Plus the Volvo will have some residual value at the end of three years.

It is not logical that those figures stack up.  I can't understand it.

Steve182

AdrianC said:

Steve182 said:

I've not checked the calculation, but it should also be noted that they assume 23.9 kwh per 100km. In my experience ranges or distance per kWh  quoted for EV's by manufacturers are unachievable in real life conditions.

The range is calculated using the exact same WLTP cycle as for fuel economy in ICE vehicles.

I've never achieved the mpg levels quoted for any ICE car I've owned or the electric range quoted for my hybrid.  The disparity between theoretical figures and real life is not equal between ICE and EV. For example, winter driving in an EV involves high energy use for electric heating of the car's cabin. In ICE vehicles only waste energy is used for heating. This is not included in the figures.

Typically my hybrid's real life electric range is 1/2 of that quoted, but last couple of ICE cars I've owned I typically achieve around 2/3 of the quoted mpg figure.

Steve182

Ball park numbers for my BMW330E hybrid.

My home charger is rated at 3kw and takes just over 3 hours to charge. Let's call that 10 kwh

At 14p/Kwh the cost is £1.40

That achieves 10 miles on electric in real life so 14p/mile

Once battery is discharged I'm on petrol @ around £1.30/litre so let's call that £6/gallon

I've never measured it but I must get at least 35mpg from my car on petrol.

So that's 17p/mile

So where is the saving?

It's not fuel but company car tax!

My BIK for the hybrid is around £5K so paying  around £2K in tax annually
Were it a 3L diesel, BIK would be closer to £14K and I would be paying £5.6K in tax annually

Additionally, I charge it at work so my 10 mile journey home is almost free.

Savings in BIK are even greater for full EV's @ 2%