OT(again) - Guardian and electric cars

[David]

Basic premise seem to be that you can save around £1,000 a year by switching from a petrol/diesel to an electric car.

My basic maths suggests that you won't get payback for 20 years or more. That is if you buy the very cheapest model, costing somewhere above £20k. It looks as though anything half decent will cost more than £30k.

Of course, the car will have to last that long, or have a good residual to cash in.

It suppose it makes sense if you were going to buy a new car anyway, and decide to buy an equivalent electric car for up to £5k more so you get your extra money back in 5 years.

However as a basic choice of swinging in your old but still working oil burner for a shiny new electric thing it doesn't seem to make economic sense.

Cheers

Dave R

[Max Demian]

Worth it as a second car for shopping; and commuting if you don't live too far from work; *and* if you can charge at home.

[Chris Hogg]

Did you factor in the cost of replacing the knackered battery every five years or so?

[ARW]

I think pub car parks would be an excellent place to install EV chargers should I buy an EV.

[Theo]

MG5 LR Estate EV: £24k new (250 miles range) Skoda Octavia Estate 1.0 petrol: £22k new (prices from autotrader)

Servicing on the MG5 from MG: £6pm / £72pa Servicing on the Octavia: £19pm / £456pa, rising to £28pm/£672 after third year. (both official dealer service plans)

Not much in it, even before the cost of fuel.

No, because they don't need that. Tesla has a 'million mile' battery, and other manufacturers' current offerings are similar. Some first-gen cars (eg Nissan Leaf) suffered from battery issues, but that's because they skimped on the battery management.

Theo

[Tim Streater]

£28k, Shirley? According to the MG website, anyway.

[Theo]

[newshound]

One of our kids has just leased a Korean electric (can't remember what). They have been managing with a single vehicle (7 seater diesel van) plus an electric cargo bike to take kids to school but can now easily justify the second car for the extra flexibility as the growing kids activities are getting further afield. They are pretty astute financially and reckon it is cost effective. Currently waiting for the local utility to upgrade their main supply to support a charging point, but able to charge from their friendly neighbours!

[Tim Streater]

Righto.

[Vir Campestris]

Apparently Which? did some calcs the other day and got a payback time of just over 10 years for MINI electric vs petrol (or it could have been diesel - some sort of fossil...)

Andy

[Sn!pe]

Obvs. that would change if a punitive tax was applied to fossil fuel to speed the changeover. Would they do that? Nah...

[Clive Arthur]

<snip>

I've moved to Cornwall which has lots of short steep hills, and my petrol consumption has increased markedly. I don't need to go on long journeys and have been wondering if the regeneration of a battery car would come into its own here.

[alan_m]

But they are talking about taxing EV to make up for the fuel duty they are losing.

[Sn!pe]

Not to mention road tolls.

One thing you can be sure of: private motoring will cost more. Some say they want to kill it off.

[alan_m]

When all the refineries close as we end our dependence on oil will there be the materials to surface the roads and for car tyres?

Are we just exchanging a dependence on oil for a dependence on materials to make batteries to maintain our transport system - not necessarily personal transport but the transport of food and goods?

[Andrew]

What if there is 1 EV charger and more than one pub-crawlers all want to use it at the same time ?.

[Andrew]

But do you want to support the Chinky economy ?.

[Jim Stewart ...]

this is the only EV I would buy ..... look at that... looks almost normal....

[Jim Stewart ...]

better than supporting P&O

[Andrew]

I'd rather support an Indian or Philipino who sends most of his wages home to his family (who live in a democracy) than a bunch of Chinky's (who don't have democracy).