Buy a car in London - Fully Electric, Hybrid Plug-in (HEV), Hybrid, or Petrol ?

Theresonly1

With fully electric you don't need to pay road tax (exempted because of zero omission) but people say cost of it is more expensive at first plus cost of installing home EV charging point (comes at around £1K from Halfords - although some car retailers offers free installation as part of new car purchase plus home charger is optional). 

With Hybrid types - i feel it's coming more popular but still need to pay some portion of road tax i believe depending on omission levels. 

With petrols, might be cheaper to buy initially and lots more options - trade off is some people say might be more expensive in the long run due to rising costs of petrol fuel.

 So in your opinions - which is cost effective overall would you's say?

HumberFlyer

Road tax, same as petrol on ev's from april 2025

Mark_d

I would go for a plug-in hybrid

Theresonly1

HumberFlyer said:

Road tax, same as petrol on ev's from april 2025

omg just learned that

Theresonly1

Mark_d said:

I would go for a plug-in hybrid

why? any particular good reason? is it for cost or purely just preference ?

Hoenir

What type of journeys are you planning to use the vehicle for? 

Theresonly1

Hoenir said:

What type of journeys are you planning to use the vehicle for? 

short city journeys

born_again

Can you charge at home?

SiliconChip

Theresonly1 said:

Hoenir said:

What type of journeys are you planning to use the vehicle for? 

short city journeys

Then it's very likely that the optimum solution is no car at all, and use public transport, taxis or walk/cycle for your journeys. I lived in London for a while 30 years and sold my car in the first few weeks after I got there and never missed it.

Goudy

Theresonly1 said:

Hoenir said:

What type of journeys are you planning to use the vehicle for? 

short city journeys

An EV if you can charge it cheap enough (home charger) would work out cheapest, but you would need to work out if the cheaper mileage costs even out against the increased cost of an EV and the home charger.

Short city trips don't rack up many miles, so the calculation would need to be over a good few years before it started to pay off 

Used EVs are becoming quite cheap, so that will help if you went down that route.

Full hybrids do well in the city for mpg. If you can't home charge it's a option worth considering, but again the extra cost of a hybrid Vs fuel cost needs careful consideration.

Low mileage with a straight petrol and fuel costs aren't really that much of an issue unless you are thinking of a supercharged Range Rover. It's just down to the cost to buy.

It shouldn't be too hard to run some cost figures for a few different cars over your mileage to see which might be better.

As mentioned, from next year VED is pretty much the same whatever it is.

Ectophile

For short journeys around town, you may be surprised how much more pleasant less unpleasant it is to drive an EV.  Especially if you're used to driving a manual.  No gear changes, no turbo lag, no being in the wrong gear by mistake.  And every time you're forced to slow down, you can be smug as regenerative braking puts a little charge back into the battery.

Chargers are about £1K.  Mine was fitted by a local electrician.  I couldn't really recommend an EV at the moment to someone who doesn't have anywhere to put a charger.

If you're ever thinking of doing longer journeys, do a bit of research before deciding what model to buy.  What's its range?  How fast can it charge?  Does it have the right charging socket?