Advisability of buying electric car at this point in time

RainbowsInTheSpray

Hi guys.

We have two old bangers and are now considering going down to one car. The question is: should we make the change to electric now... or wait? I want to do my bit for clean air etc. but have heard that the jury is still out on many fronts regarding electric vehicles. At my local garage the general advice seems to be 'not now but in a few years time'.

Can anyone give me an overview, specifically with regard to second hand, as I am by no means sure we could afford a brand new vehicle.

Thanks for any thoughts.

EssexExile

8pm tonight, BBC1 Electric Cars: What they really mean for you.

WellKnownSid

How many miles do you drive a year?  Do you have a driveway?  Do you regularly travel long distances e.g. > 150 miles in a day or only a couple of time a year for holidays?

There are a lot of second hand EVs out there right now, and cars that are 3-4 years old seem to be particularly cheap.  Many will have 7-10 year warranties on major electrical components including the battery.

If you're on a lousy electricity tariff at home you could still halve your fuel costs.  If you have solar you might not have fuel costs.  If you have to charge away from home it could be a cost similar to petrol.

Most EV batteries will still be working when the car has shrivelled into a pile of rust.  Some EVs that use LFP batteries e.g. standard range Teslas / standard range MG4s / etc - these don't have cobalt / etc and last 2-5 times the number of cycles, can be consistently charged to 100% without harm and don't suffer from thermal runaway so could be a good long-term investment.

Nissan Leafs seem to be cheap - but they lack active cooling so are the outlier when it comes to battery life.  Still, there are plenty of Leafs out there giving good service at 10 years old.

I have noticed a huge uptick in 'EVs steal your girlfriend and kill kittens' style news articles and social media recently without any evidence.  Rowan Atkinson made the headlines recently complaining that they were not 'green', but the Guardian then fact-checked what he was saying and debunked it.

MX5huggy

Do it now. You won’t regret it. 

There’s some cracking deals on 2nd hand EV’s after a real slump in values, but things might be firming up a bit this car has had £1000 price increase on it since being listed. Original price probably £35k plus. https://usedcars.bmw.co.uk/vehicle/202303044889221?quoteref=fb313a4c-feeb-4912-9e07-8a077236c5f6

There’s a lot of people spouting rubbish about EV’s, if you can charge at home then you can enjoy some very cheap motoring. 

henry24

That BMW is £22000 for an equivalent range of a diesel with a 3 gallon fuel tank that alone would stop me ever buying one 

uknick

henry24 said:

That BMW is £22000 for an equivalent range of a diesel with a 3 gallon fuel tank that alone would stop me ever buying one 

And if you're like me doing about 150 miles a week in journeys of about 10 to 15 miles I would never buy a diesel.  Completely pointless maximum range and expensive to maintain when the filters clog up.

Like all things, one man's meat etc..

daveyjp

All down to budget.  There still aren't many used and £18-20k looks to be the market value for something about 3 years old (Hyundai Kona, Kia Soul EV).

If you pay £12k for a used petrol the ££8k saved buys a lot of tankfuls and depreciation on a £12k car will be lower.

Bigwheels1111

My friend has a Prius and an MG ZS EV.
Both are brilliant in his opinion.
He has a driveway, charger and EV tariff.
Plus he gets a free full charge once a week at Sainsburys via two four hour visits.
A ten minute walk home.
For any long distance runs he reverts to the Prius.
Both are great for local trips.
Im holding out until 2029 ish, to see how range and charging infrastructure improve.
If not it’s a Toyota Corolla estate for me.

ComicGeek

As a company car EVs are brilliant. We've got 2 company car EVs and have made a small profit from running them using cheap off peak home charging even with the Benefit in Kind included. Free motoring for 2 years so far, all costs paid by the company.

As a privately owned car I wouldn't buy an EV now. Far too expensive to buy, more than I would spend on a car. Personally I would wait a few years to see what happens - if battery technology changes quickly then the current batch of EVs are going to be less desirable and drop in price, while still being perfectly adequate in range for most people.

My previous privately owned car was a hybrid - if I had to give up my company car tomorrow I would probably buy another self charging hybrid.

born_again

daveyjp said:

All down to budget.  There still aren't many used and £18-20k looks to be the market value for something about 3 years old (Hyundai Kona, Kia Soul EV).

If you pay £12k for a used petrol the ££8k saved buys a lot of tankfuls and depreciation on a £12k car will be lower.

Perhaps have a look.
That is the price range I'm looking at 
There are Electric (3,610) on autotrader. Many of these 2 years old.

£24K is looking at getting me a 72 plate  ex demo with just over 1K miles.

Car I'm looking at will cost £8.82 to charge from 0 to 100% @.07p kWh which will cover at least 150 miles.

Best I have had out of current ICE was 433 miles @ £47.94.

So 3 x £8.82 gives me a saving of £20.77

MX5huggy

born_again said:

daveyjp said:

All down to budget.  There still aren't many used and £18-20k looks to be the market value for something about 3 years old (Hyundai Kona, Kia Soul EV).

If you pay £12k for a used petrol the ££8k saved buys a lot of tankfuls and depreciation on a £12k car will be lower.

Perhaps have a look.
That is the price range I'm looking at 
There are Electric (3,610) on autotrader. Many of these 2 years old.

£24K is looking at getting me a 72 plate  ex demo with just over 1K miles.

Car I'm looking at will cost £8.82 to charge from 0 to 100% @.07p kWh which will cover at least 150 miles.

Best I have had out of current ICE was 433 miles @ £47.94.

So 3 x £8.82 gives me a saving of £20.77

Your EV maths is a bit out, it’s better than that. Not sure where you’re get 7p a kWh so I’ll change to 7.5p (Octopus Intelligent). Depending on and how you drive the car but you can expect 3.5 miles per kWh so fuel cost is 2.14p per mile so 433miles costs £9,28.

You won’t be buying an EV with a battery big enough to put £8.82 of 7.5p per kWh electricity in in one go. That would be a 120kWh battery. Most EV’s are in the 40 to 80 sort of range for battery size.