Electric vehicle justification

gerryf

Any help with my attempts to justify buying an electric car, as opposed to a petrol car, would be much appreciated. My trusty 15 year old Honda Jazz is on its last legs and needs to be replaced soon. I would love to replace it with an electric car to do my bit for the planet. I am comparing a new basic hybrid Jazz with the VW ID.4 as I need space and a decent range. I do 6000 miles a year. The Jazz does 60ish miles per gallon, which means that at today's prices I would spend £1000 per annum on fuel and £155 pa on road tax. Five years servicing, warranty and breakdown cover is about £30 a year from Honda. Insurance is less that the VW and depreciation should also be less. The difference in purchase price is around £14000, which means that even if I got all my electric charging for free I would not break even for 12 years. I'm finding this difficult to justify, especially as the Jazz is pretty clean for a petrol vehicle.  Can anybody see a flaw in my reasoning?

SiliconChip

gerryf said:

Five years servicing, warranty and breakdown cover is about £30 a year from Honda.

Can you cofirm that figure is correct? It seems astonishingly inexpensive, £150 in total for 5 years, my Fiesta service plan alone was more than that each year.

gerryf

Yes, if you take out credit for £5000 and pay it off after six months the interest is about £150. Then you get the five year package.

DrEskimo

gerryf said:

Any help with my attempts to justify buying an electric car, as opposed to a petrol car, would be much appreciated. My trusty 15 year old Honda Jazz is on its last legs and needs to be replaced soon. I would love to replace it with an electric car to do my bit for the planet. I am comparing a new basic hybrid Jazz with the VW ID.4 as I need space and a decent range. I do 6000 miles a year. The Jazz does 60ish miles per gallon, which means that at today's prices I would spend £1000 per annum on fuel and £155 pa on road tax. Five years servicing, warranty and breakdown cover is about £30 a year from Honda. Insurance is less that the VW and depreciation should also be less. The difference in purchase price is around £14000, which means that even if I got all my electric charging for free I would not break even for 12 years. I'm finding this difficult to justify, especially as the Jazz is pretty clean for a petrol vehicle.  Can anybody see a flaw in my reasoning?

The difference in purchase price is not important, since a higher price EV is undoubtedly going to have a higher value over it's life relative to the lower cost ICE.
 
it's difference in expected depreciation that is key, and you may find the difference to be negligible given EVs are maintaining their values very well.

Herzlos

6000 miles a year isn't a lot, so it's not going to make sense on fuel saving alone. 

I'd assume the ID4 will depreciate a lot less than the Jazz, will have lower tax and servicing costs.

The other big selling point is convenience; if you can charge at home you never need to visit a petrol station again. Some car parks have EV charging points in prime spots too.

The last thing would be the driving experience. The EV will be virtually silent and give you full torque from stationary, so around town it'll be surprisingly nippy.

powerspowers

Have you looked at lease EVs? We did buy it was ridiculous prices as husband does a high mileage. Might be worth it for low mileage where the fuel savings won’t lead to breaking even

Grumpy_chap

With a low mileage, this will be a hard justification to make work as you are relying on the future residual value.
It will probably work cost-neutral or beneficial to go for the EV but there are so many variables and unknowns about the future no-one can say that for certain.

I am not sure it is a fair comparison as the ICE Jazz is being compared with the VW ID.4, which is at least one vehicle class, possibly two higher than the Jazz.  How do the equipment levels, comfort, etc. all compare?

I can confirm that the Honda service plans are very competitive - my Mum had that one her 2016 Jazz and I assume they still offer something broadly similar.  EV's should also prove very economical for servicing.

There was a recent thread that asked a similar question about petrol or EV for low miles:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79135327#Comment_79135327

Hopefully, this thread will stay on topic and not be derailed by claims that buying an MG5 using a defunct purchase-scheme and a discontinued EV electricity supply tariff is so cost effective that the rules of mathematics no longer apply and you will simply be printing money as you drive along

daveyjp

Main flaw is I can't see how a Jazz and an ID4 are comparable.

Keep_pedalling

daveyjp said:

Main flaw is I can't see how a Jazz and an ID4 are comparable.

Have to agree the ID3 is a better match to a Jazz as far as size goes. 

Petriix

The ID4 is a poor fit for just 6k miles. You average about 25 miles per working day so a 250 mile EV is probably excessive. Your comparison would look better if you base it on a Zoe at about £10k less than the ID4, but there are many second hand EVs for much less money that would be a better choice.

Contrary to certain irrational advice, Octopus Go is available to anyone with an EV and a smart meter which reliably sends data to the DCC. At 7.5p per kWh you'll be paying about 2p per mile vs 15p in the Jazz so saving ~ £780 per year in fuel alone. Factoring in VED and maintenance that's more like £1k.

The savings definitely don't buy you an upgrade to an ID4, but check out some other EV options or accept that you pay a premium for a premium car. If you share some details about your mileage (maximum journey length and frequency, typical daily usage and variation etc) then we can give some informed advice. 

ComicGeek

I definitely wouldn't restrict it to the ID4, there are other better and/or cheaper EVs out there. The Skoda Enyaq shares a lot of the same kit with the ID4 but is cheaper.