Buying an EV outright?

RavingMad

I was thinking that the next car would be ev for the wife as she only has a small daily commute to work. With technology getting better and better, I thought it would be better to go PCP and change the car rather than drive outdated tech, much like a phone?

Having never gotten a car on finance, I was on Arnold Clark website, only because they have PCP and hp laid out quite easy. But I reckon once you've done your 3 or 4 years, you've paid 3/4 of the car! Where's the logic?

Grumpy_chap

When you buy a brand new car, the first three or four years of ownership is typically something like 60% of the total depreciation. Add the interest charges to that, so any finance on any car is going to cost something like 3/4 of the total cost of the car.

If you have the cash and can avoid the finance charges, that makes buying the car cheaper. Obviously you lose the opportunity value of the cash in the meantime.

Whether you buy a car outright or on PCP, you can sell the car at any time for an alternative model.

Bigwheels1111

When I purchased my last car in 2016, I made a list of the basic things I needed.

Large boot as wife was disabled and used a wheelchair, Automatic, Diesel, Air con, Cruise Control, Speed limiter, seat height, plus a handle on the passenger inside side roof. So she could hold on when getting in or out.

The car will be 10 years old in September, what do I miss or need now, would love adaptive cruise control, climate control, digital radio.

The Tec in new cars looks amazing. I’m 3/4 years from buying a new car. I will buy outright and keep for 10 plus years, so only look for best price, brokers for the best price, use then or use price to beat dealer with, autotrader is also a good place to look a lot of new or pre reg deals.

For an EV it’s not the best time to buy, due to the fuel prices at the moment EV’S prices have risen a lot in the last few weeks, supply and demand. People panic buying, spend 30k on new car as fuel is £500 more a year.

Not the best maths calculation I’ve ever seen.

A friend was looking at an MGS5 or MGS6. both have gone up in price by £1500 in the sat two weeks.

Have a look here.

https://www.360vehicleleasing.co.uk/search-cars?noindex=1&ft=op0

https://www.new-car-discount.com

https://www.uk-car-discount.co.uk

https://www.broker4cars.co.uk

shinytop

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667527/buying-an-ev-outright

What does she think? Does she want an EV?

Keep_pedalling

I used to purchase my cars outright including my first EV, but last year I switched to leasing. I also considered a 0% PCP option but payments over three years were considerably cheaper than PCP. Yes I know there is no option to purchase at the end of the lease but all the depreciation risk is with the finance co not me.

There are some great smaller EVs out there now, Kia EV2, Renault 5 look good as does the soon to be released VW ID Polo and Škoda Epiq.

Mildly_Miffed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6667527/buying-an-ev-outright

You're paying for the depreciation over the term, plus interest on the entire purchase price.

So, yep, no surprise.

But they don't want people to look at the total. They just want you to look at the low monthly payments…

QrizB

When you buy a brand new car, the first three or four years of ownership is typically something like 60% of the total depreciation. Add the interest charges to that, so any finance on any car is going to cost something like 3/4 of the total cost of the car.

Mrs QrizB paid cash. Bought a 4yo VW e-UP! with less than 30k on the clock for about £10k. That's a bit less than half the price it had been when new.

FFHillbilly

I have just done a similar thing, weighed up if contract hire was going to be worth it for a new EV and reached the same conclusion as the OP, no it's not.

The EV I'm looking to buy is a Kia PV5 Cargo Van, £31,832 for the Plus long range with heatpump option in a nice colour(not basic white)

to get that on a BCH (business contract hire) deal I'd be looking at £32,500 over 6 years, thats for 2 seperate 3 year deals so I would get a new van after 3 years again which is something to consider…

But after 6 years I expect the Van to still be worth something, so theres no way I'd go for the BCH deal

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992073#Comment_81992073

the part about spending £30k as fuel bill has gone up £500 might not look like good maths short term if you just look at the increase of £500, but when switching to EV if you charge at home your cost for fuel could come down by 90% per year, it's the biggest reason to switch to an EV in my opinion

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992145#Comment_81992145

You let you wife, a woman, buy her own car?

Sounds a bit radical.

I take it that the only thing she was concerned about was the colour?

WellKnownSid

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992085#Comment_81992085

Ha ha - I did a similar thing to my wife, swapping her diesel for an EV in 2023. She was extremely sceptical - told me all the reasons it would be horrible including being unable to charge it in the rain (???) and how she would 'never drive the thing'.

Her diesel car covered a whopping 1,600 miles in 2022. Our EV covered 15,000 miles in 2025 and she drove most of those miles. She has re-discovered driving again and I have to wrestle the keys off of her. On the one occasion she drove a new 3 series automatic she found it incredibly unresponsive switching back to an ICE, which to be fair is true - you press the throttle and wait for the carrier pigeons to be released from their cages and fly gracefully to the front of the car where the message will be removed and eventually passed on to the engine.

Keep_pedalling

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81992156#Comment_81992156

I don’t think the OP has even considered PCH let alone reached any conclusion on it. There are usually some very good deals on PCH if you shop around. When I was looking to lease last year it was the best financial option for the Škoda Elroq I eventually went with even though I could have purchased it out right. With purchasing I had to factor in loss of interest on the £45k I would have had to fork out as well as depreciation.

I was also considering a Kia EV 3 but leasing costs on one of those were far higher than the Škoda even though list prices were almost the same and like you have found with your Kia van the numbers don’t stack up.