Renew PCR or go electric?

Newlyboughthouse

My employer has just announced a salary sacrifice scheme for an electric car. I’m tempted.

I currently have a car on PCP and have ordered a new car on a new cheaper agreement (I can back out of this agreement).

I know PCP is not savvy but I like that I don’t need to worry about services, MOT, and the fact I can just swap for a brand new car when I fancy it.

I don’t have a driveway to install an electric car charging point.

What should I do? Go through with new agreement or go for an electric car? Are there ways around not having off street parking for a charging point? Wait until there is more established infrastructure for electric cars/wait for the cost of them to come down?

Herzlos

If you can figure out the charging part then you'll save a fortune.

How far away is work? Can you charge there?
Where are your nearest charging places? Supermarkets or shopping centres you use anyway? Somewhere you can walk to?

Most people only need to charge once or twice a week so you might find you can charge whilst doing something else anyway.

DrEskimo

Newlyboughthouse said:

My employer has just announced a salary sacrifice scheme for an electric car. I’m tempted.

I currently have a car on PCP and have ordered a new car on a new cheaper agreement (I can back out of this agreement).

I know PCP is not savvy but I like that I don’t need to worry about services, MOT, and the fact I can just swap for a brand new car when I fancy it.

I don’t have a driveway to install an electric car charging point.

What should I do? Go through with new agreement or go for an electric car? Are there ways around not having off street parking for a charging point? Wait until there is more established infrastructure for electric cars/wait for the cost of them to come down?

Without reliable home charging it will be challenging relying on public chargers. It will depend very much on your usage pattern and availability. For example if there are lots of chargers at work, then that could work.

But, my workplace offers EVs through salary sacrifice and even with the large tax savings as a higher rate tax payer I still didn't find them that competitive or cheap. I've seen many other personal lease deals for much cheaper (that I still wouldn't go for). In the end I bought a used EV and the savings have been huge relative to buying new on either finance or through leasing.

I would also suggest you re-evaluate your arguments for choosing PCP. You still have to service the car on, regardless of whether it's on finance, and you are free to change the car anytime you like, again regardless of whether you have finance on it. Not having to MOT is a feature of a car less than 3 years old, so again not specific to having finance. Not that I consider saving £50 a year much of an advantage.