Are EV cars worth it?

Flight3287462

You guys need to go and calculate the cost of charging an EV at the SVT rates in October, December and April (granted Dec and Apr will be a bit of a thumb suck but there is enough info out there to give you a rough idea).

The sums will not make happy reading.

Petriix

Flight3287462 said:

You guys need to go and calculate the cost of charging an EV at the SVT rates in October, December and April (granted Dec and Apr will be a bit of a thumb suck but there is enough info out there to give you a rough idea).

The sums will not make happy reading.

Why? 

You can fix on Octopus Go today for 7.5p off peak/40p peak. Having an EV (currently) makes your home electricity vastly cheaper vs the October price cap, let alone January and April. 

Perksy5

Martyn1981 said:

Hiya Perksy5, I can strongly recommend the 28kWh Hyundai IONIQ second hand, though they aren't exactly cheap. You'll probably have to spend nearly £20k for a 2018/19 model, but that might suit you.

But range is only about 130 miles, 150 if you drive carefully.

There's also the Renault Zoe, a nice car and good range, or the Nissan Leaf, but best to go for 40kWh model, as the others don't have great range.

But, yes, they aren't cheap at the moment, and demand for new (and s/h) may grow faster than supply.

PS, we've found insurance on BEV's to be cheaper than older and lower value ICEV's. For instance our 2018 IONIQ is ~£280pa, and Tesla Model Y is ~£350.

Thank you for this, most useful reply yet! Do you happen to know about any grants available? I've been reading about them and that there used to be one for plug ins but they got axed a few years ago and now its just full electric cars that are eligible. But can't find anywhere on how much, how to claim etc. Mind boggling!

Perksy5

Flight3287462 said:

You guys need to go and calculate the cost of charging an EV at the SVT rates in October, December and April (granted Dec and Apr will be a bit of a thumb suck but there is enough info out there to give you a rough idea).

The sums will not make happy reading.

I shouldve added I'm not bothered in the slightest about this. I'm more concerned about how to best approach purchasing/financing an electric car and obtaining a charging point and trying to wean off petrol.
The energy crisis should *hopefully* be a short to medium term issue and I can't control this regardless.

Herzlos

If you're only doing 4-6k a year,

Flight3287462 said:

You guys need to go and calculate the cost of charging an EV at the SVT rates in October, December and April (granted Dec and Apr will be a bit of a thumb suck but there is enough info out there to give you a rough idea).

The sums will not make happy reading.

I wonder how expensive electricity will need to get before diesel becomes cheaper again. Since I realistically only get about 40mpg, I'm looking at about 24p/mile. An EV that gets 4m/kwh will still only be about 12.5p/mile @ 50p/kwh.

You'd need to be paying about £1/kwh for electric cars to become more expensive per mile than diesel, assuming diesel doesn't get any more expensive. £1/kwh will be crippling.

Jenni_D

I get on average 49 mpg - at my last fill I calculate 17p per mile (diesel). Since diesel hit £1.75+ my last few fills have been:

47mpg 17p (22-Apr)
49mpg 18p (10-Jun)
52mpg 17p (20-Jun)
54mpg 17p (15-Jul)
53mpg 16p (01-Aug)
50mpg 17p (02-Sep)

My absolute best over the past (almost) 5 years has been 10p per mile.

Martyn1981

Perksy5 said:

Martyn1981 said:

Hiya Perksy5, I can strongly recommend the 28kWh Hyundai IONIQ second hand, though they aren't exactly cheap. You'll probably have to spend nearly £20k for a 2018/19 model, but that might suit you.

But range is only about 130 miles, 150 if you drive carefully.

There's also the Renault Zoe, a nice car and good range, or the Nissan Leaf, but best to go for 40kWh model, as the others don't have great range.

But, yes, they aren't cheap at the moment, and demand for new (and s/h) may grow faster than supply.

PS, we've found insurance on BEV's to be cheaper than older and lower value ICEV's. For instance our 2018 IONIQ is ~£280pa, and Tesla Model Y is ~£350.

Thank you for this, most useful reply yet! Do you happen to know about any grants available? I've been reading about them and that there used to be one for plug ins but they got axed a few years ago and now its just full electric cars that are eligible. But can't find anywhere on how much, how to claim etc. Mind boggling!

Hi. I suspect you've missed out on the subsidies/grants, as the UK Gov has axed them all. It annoys me a bit, as most countries are still supporting them, and having a max vehicle value for qualification is a good measure. However, the other side of the argument is that BEV sales are supply limited, not demand limited, so the PiG (plug in grant) wouldn't accelerate the transition anymore. Plus if the Gov is telling the truth (insert joke here), then focusing finances on public charger rollouts would be great.

I don't know if you can do this, but we got a free charger installed as part of our energy switch package. This was back when the grant was about £350, and typically you had to pay about £500 top up. So you could keep an eye out for something like that, but there's no free lunch, and the nightrate E7 deal we had wasn't as cheap as other deals, so swings and roundabouts.

Regarding leccy prices, I think you are right, it should be a short/medium term problem. I'd hoped that things would settle down with Russia, and gas supplies would normalize quickly, but following the Ukraine invasion, I suspect we are now looking at 5yrs. It'll hopefully 'only' take that long for Europe to reduce gas demand by ~30%, to remove the supply shortage price peaking. RE leccy contracts are trending towards £50-£60/MWh, up from the old £40(ish) average* but far below the current gas generation prices of £200(ish), so medium/long term things will be fine .............. but no short term pain relief I suspect, sorry.

*This was always going to rise with carbon pricing since the FF costs didn't reflect their externality costs such as pollution and AGW.

Martyn1981

Sorry to double post, but I had another idea. Some companies selling BEV's have in the past, included a 'free' home charger. Obviously it's not really free, but may be worth keeping an eye on the deals.

And your original post mentioning a starting price of ~£28k, made me think about the MG range of BEV's. They are a little cheapy in terms of interior and specs, but that's not meant as a negative, they simply are cheaper cars, and so offer better value for money (assuming they work and last well).

The latest UK release (due soon) is the MG4 from £26k, which from the front looks like a Lamborghini Aventador, but that's probably where the supercar comparisons end. Realistic range is probably about 180 miles. I'm not in any way recommending the car, just pointing out that some 'cheaper' BEV's do exist, even if they are not cheap, so to speak.

Jenni_D

The MG4 is what I'm considering getting.  

Martyn1981

Jenni_D said:

The MG4 is what I'm considering getting.  

Hiya. Probably going off on a bit of a tangent, but an article just came out looking at BEV's from an African point of view, hoping for the arrival of the cheaper Chinese models.

It mentions the MG4 launching in the UK, and points out that the price is the same as the base price for a new VW Golf, which I thought was a good comparison, not necessarily equal, but at least a reasonable point to consider:

Already, the MG4 is launching in the UK market at price parity with an entry level version of one of the most popular cars in this category, the VW Golf.

• VW Golf 8 Life (ICE), 1.0 TSI, 6-speed Manual, 108 hp, price £25,340

• MG4, 50.8 kWh (Net), 168 hp, price £25,995

It’s really good to see an all-electric hatchback at price parity with an iconic car such as the VW Golf. This should help get more people driving electric.

The Age Of More Affordable Electric Vehicles Is Finally Here, Part: The Hozon Neta V