Buying electric outright

aled123

Hello,

I own my current BMW 430i outright but it's sadly getting far too cramped in the back now for our 1-year-old.

It's got relatively low mileage and in good condition and looks to be worth around £18k. I bought it for just over £20k a couple of years ago so it's done pretty well on depreciation. 

We're looking to buy our first house soon too, and once complete I'll have around £55k left. So I've been looking at getting something a bit bigger that I'd also want to drive. 

We've compared 16 cars from the Ateca and Golf to an X60 and Tiguan. When comparing purchase cost, expected residual value, fuelling costs, insurance etc. The Polestar 2 comes out on top (using at-home charging with the British Gas reduced tariff).

My question is, is it sensible? The Polestar 2 would be a 2021 model so would have the battery warranty until 2029 too. 

And here's the table for completeness! 



Thanks for taking the time to a read, and please don't hesitate to call me stupid if I am being stupid! I know it's not the most intelligent use of money, but I'm quite frugal generally.

Goudy

I don't want to get into the usual EV argument, but I can see a couple of your data points being a bit too variable to get a good reflection.

EV's will pay RFL from 2025.

Fuel costs tend to vary.
Obviously at home is dependent on your supplier and tariff which is worked out on the wholesale price or cost cap.
That's been on a wild ride recently.

Away from home, fast charging and destination charging can be quite expensive.
Current fast chargers are something like 70p and 85p/kwh.

Then of course there are owners that have free charging at work.

If you aren't going far enough to need to worry about fast/destination charging, then your MPG figures are likely to be over optimistic too.
To balance things, petrol/diesel prices are also on a bit of a wild ride as well.


Although it's likely to set of another heated debate on the forum, depreciation hasn't been kind to most EV's recently.

The general feeling of other forum contributors seems to be used EVs are becoming as cheap as ICE equivalents, which is almost always pointed out as a good thing.

If that is true, EV's were generally far more expensive new so they must have depreciated more and used prices do seem to reflect that, even if you don't like that fact.

Your own figures seem to suggest that too.
Your Polestar 2 was around £49k new in 2020 but now £24.5k (50% of new price)
Your Ateca was around £23k new in 2019 but now £17k. (74% of new price)

Things like manufacturers cutting prices haven't help.
Also you'd think this is going to progress as more and more manufacturers launch cheaper and cheaper (better and better) EV's, that has to effect the last models values.

I am not saying do one or the other and I think you have done a pretty good job on your figures.
All I am saying is you might want to look at them with a keener eye.

Nobbie1967

I’d be very careful in what you buy. There is some very strange dealings going on in the EV sector with pre reg cars that are going to kill the residuals on recent cars. Here’s a pre reg with 80 miles on it for £32k. I can’t see how a 2019 car at 35k miles for £24.5k makes any sense. This seems to be a common issue across EV models at present, lot of registrations this month to keep apparent sales high?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202312074640334?sort=price-asc&make=Polestar&page=2&postcode=sk94bg&radius=1500&year-from=2023&advertising-location=at_cars&fromsra

Ectophile

I took the attitude that the sudden price correction in the used EV market was an opportunity for me, rather than a problem.  Nearly new ones can be picked up for reasonable prices, even while the new ones are horribly expensive.

But I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have my own driveway to install a home charger on.  Public rapid chargers are too expensive, and regular public chargers too slow for modern EVs with their huge batteries.

MikeJXE

I have been tracking the cost of my car for the last almost 4 years, everything actual, 

Why have you not shown service, tyres, parts, repairs ? 

aled123

Nobbie1967 said:

I’d be very careful in what you buy. There is some very strange dealings going on in the EV sector with pre reg cars that are going to kill the residuals on recent cars. Here’s a pre reg with 80 miles on it for £32k. I can’t see how a 2019 car at 35k miles for £24.5k makes any sense. This seems to be a common issue across EV models at present, lot of registrations this month to keep apparent sales high?

Thanks for that. The Polestar is 2021/22 in the table however, not 2019. So it is a newer car than the other ones listed.

I know it's very difficult to predict residuals but I think £12,500 is pretty low when comparing to other ICE cars.

aled123

MikeJXE said:

I have been tracking the cost of my car for the last almost 4 years, everything actual, 

Why have you not shown service, tyres, parts, repairs ? 

Do you mind sharing a rough estimation? Especially if you have been tracking so have access to the data. 

Aware that every car will be different of course and will depend on mileage. 

aled123

Ectophile said:

I took the attitude that the sudden price correction in the used EV market was an opportunity for me, rather than a problem.  Nearly new ones can be picked up for reasonable prices, even while the new ones are horribly expensive.

But I wouldn't have bothered if I didn't have my own driveway to install a home charger on.  Public rapid chargers are too expensive, and regular public chargers too slow for modern EVs with their huge batteries.

Thankfully I have a drive and free charging at my workplace.

MikeJXE

aled123 said:

MikeJXE said:

I have been tracking the cost of my car for the last almost 4 years, everything actual, 

Why have you not shown service, tyres, parts, repairs ? 

Do you mind sharing a rough estimation? Especially if you have been tracking so have access to the data. 

Aware that every car will be different of course and will depend on mileage. 

I will share the data on 29th December, thats when the 4 years is complete, everything is logged including every Ltr of fuel, I will say it's for an Approved used Jaguar XE Portfolio Auto Diesel 2016 I purchased in 2019, I can also say it cost less than a 2016 same model same milage on sale today if that helps