Risk of replacing both cars with EVs?

silvercar

We owned both our cars outright.

We’ve recently replaced OH’s car with a Tesla 3. It’s on a company lease, as the BIK made it a no brainer. We have the option to get a second car on the same scheme, but that means we are totally electric.

Is this too risky? 

Downsides are that both cars will be leased, both linked to the price of electricity. At the moment electricity is cheaper, but that could change. 

macman

What makes you think that electricity prices are going to rise faster than oil prices? Decarbonisation of the energy business, whether via nuclear or renewables, makes that unlikely long term.As you say yourself, the huge BIK advantage makes it pretty much a no-brainer at present..
The potential spanner in the works is of course the inevitable introduction of road pricing leading up to 2030.

Grumpy_chap

I would say to definitely do it - especially as at least one of the cars has the benefit of a long range plus comprehensive charging network.

MX5huggy

Electricity for charging your  EV has gone up 50% in the last year 5p to 7.5p per kWh so it’s now 2.2p per mile. Still miles away from being equal to petrol or diesel. 

silvercar

The downsides are that both cars will be leased rather than owned outright, which ties us into doing this long term. Previously we’ve owned our cars. Certainly I can see the advantage of leasing with insurance and maintenance all included.

Petriix

There are some complex considerations. At best it means juggling when each car is charging and it makes it more difficult to only charge in the cheap off-peak window. If you want to be able to charge both at the same time, you may need to go to three phase - although many DNOs are upgrading people for free if they have a genuine need when switching to green technologies.

Alternatively you might be fine just alternating which car charges each night. As long as your total mileage is under 100 miles per day combined then that will work.

As alluded to above new customers can fix for 12 months at 7.5p per kWh off-peak and 40p peak on Octopus Go. That's around 2p per mile and may well save you money on your home electricity usage too - as long as you can shift 33% of your usage into the cheaper 4 hours.

The other consideration is whether the second vehicle covers enough miles to make a sufficient fuel saving to justify the increased monthly costs. Do those sums for your own usage. 

macman

What is the minimum lease term you can get? I can't see 3 years being unduly risky.The savings may certainly reduce, but they will still be substantial.

silvercar

Petriix said:

There are some complex considerations. At best it means juggling when each car is charging and it makes it more difficult to only charge in the cheap off-peak window. If you want to be able to charge both at the same time, you may need to go to three phase - although many DNOs are upgrading people for free if they have a genuine need when switching to green technologies.

Alternatively you might be fine just alternating which car charges each night. As long as your total mileage is under 100 miles per day combined then that will work.

As alluded to above new customers can fix for 12 months at 7.5p per kWh off-peak and 40p peak on Octopus Go. That's around 2p per mile and may well save you money on your home electricity usage too - as long as you can shift 33% of your usage into the cheaper 4 hours.

The other consideration is whether the second vehicle covers enough miles to make a sufficient fuel saving to justify the increased monthly costs. Do those sums for your own usage. 

Thanks for this. At the moment we don’t have an EV or similar tariff as we have found a couple of car parks with free charging for the £4 parking fee, one near home and one near OH work-  long may it continue.

Although the second car would have much lower mileage, it would have to be a pure EV to benefit from the low tax BIK. 

macman

I wouldn't rely on those car parks continuing to provide 'free' charging. 

Flight3287462

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. 

Hinkley Point B shutting down tomorrow, Hunterston B closed earlier this year, there goes about 2.1GW of generation capacity.

The UK paid around £9,500/MW one day in the last week or so through the Nemo interconnector from Belgium. 

Will there be load shedding this winter?  Probably not but you just never know.

Grumpy_chap

silvercar said:

The downsides are that both cars will be leased rather than owned outright, which ties us into doing this long term. Previously we’ve owned our cars. Certainly I can see the advantage of leasing with insurance and maintenance all included.

You are not really committing to do this long term, only for the period of the current lease agreement.  Once that expires, if the maths don't work, you can then go back to buying a car and keeping it as long as you choose.  Given that will be three years away, I doubt by then you'd even consider the idea to return to ICE.