When are you going fully electric?

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,150
Location
West Midlands
Always YMMV. My savings are considerable against my old car, given the mileage I do and the consumption difference.

They quote £40 per month on fuel, which to me means at an average of 40mpg on an old cheap car, that is 40/5.448 (cost per gallon), only about 293 miles per month, or 3,516 miles per year. However that also means even only spending £2k on a car, plus the other running costs, is making the cost per mile (over 6 years as suggested) £8,480 for 6 years divided by 21,906, or £0.4019ppm. 40 pence per mile to drive an old knacker round for less ~ 3,500 miles per year.

Spend £5,000 on a crap Nissan Leaf 24kWh with a ~60 mile range, more than enough for anyone that does 3.5k miles per year, and the TCO would be 24kwh x £0.15 = £3.60/ 60 miles = £0.06 pence per mile, add the insurance and M.O.T. (same figures) so £30 + £20 x 12 = £600 plus the on 3,516 miles of fuel = £210.96, so a total of £810.96 per year, or £4,865.76, plus the £5k for the car, or £9,865.76 over 6 years. So over six years it would be £1,400 more, not including any VED, fuel increases or the opportunity to have a reduced priced EV tariff saving up to 66% of the fuel costs per year (~£140 x 6 = £840), so to me it looks like it would be break even, and you'd be able to scrap the car and sell the pack to a battery recycling company at the end for more than any ICE knacker.

Yep totally unaffordable. ;)
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
Posts
23,375
They quote £40 per month on fuel, which to me means at an average of 40mpg on an old cheap car, that is 40/5.448 (cost per gallon), only about 293 miles per month, or 3,516 miles per year. However that also means even only spending £2k on a car, plus the other running costs, is making the cost per mile (over 6 years as suggested) £8,480 for 6 years divided by 21,906, or £0.4019ppm. 40 pence per mile to drive an old knacker round for less ~ 3,500 miles per year.

Spend £5,000 on a crap Nissan Leaf 24kWh with a ~60 mile range, more than enough for anyone that does 3.5k miles per year, and the TCO would be 24kwh x £0.15 = £3.60/ 60 miles = £0.06 pence per mile, add the insurance and M.O.T. (same figures) so £30 + £20 x 12 = £600 plus the on 3,516 miles of fuel = £210.96, so a total of £810.96 per year, or £4,865.76, plus the £5k for the car, or £9,865.76 over 6 years. So over six years it would be £1,400 more, not including any VED, fuel increases or the opportunity to have a reduced priced EV tariff saving up to 66% of the fuel costs per year (~£140 x 6 = £840), so to me it looks like it would be break even, and you'd be able to scrap the car and sell the pack to a battery recycling company at the end for more than any ICE knacker.

Yep totally unaffordable. ;)

But then you have to drive around in a slow AF shopping cart with rubbish range, and not a fun hot hatch.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
60 mile range is taking the proverbial. That won't even get me to Plymouth. Heck I'd be unable to get to many places in Cornwall and back. My max range would be about to Hayle :p

And I'd have to spend £5k up front for the privilege of cutting my range from ~300 miles to 60, plus refuelling time of 5 mins to ... how many hours?

That sounds like a seriously retrograde step, especially on a budget!
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,235
Sorry what? Are you saying my figures for my own use case are wrong?

In that case please tell me how much I'm spending :p I'll have to assume you're my bank manager...

Well for a start, you didn't budget for tax, routine maintenance and repairs. You also didn't amortise the cost of the car over its expected life less any scrap/re-sale value.

You also can't lease a brand new EV for £200 a month.

So no, your sums do not add up in reality.

I do agree that buying an EV at this end of the market as your only car in the household makes little sense and you'll probably not save any money and it could be inconvenient. You didn't answer my question though.

That said contrary to what the troll says, a Leaf will 'smoke' your average car off the lights and you also aren't running a 'hot hatch' at this end of the market either.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
Well for a start, you didn't budget for tax, routine maintenance and repairs. You also didn't amortise the cost of the car over its expected life less any scrap/re-sale value.
Maintenance and repairs I listed under MOT. I'm sure you know that an MOT isn't £240 without maintenance and repairs.

Other costs like tyres will apply equally to an EV as an ICE, so not worth listing.

Tax is the one thing I forget which adds a tenner a month. In any case I was being fairly conservative with my estimates. My insurance is closer to £330 than £360, so it will be less than £30 a month, but that was a nice ballpark figure. Similarly my last MOT was just £40 and no work was done.

I'm not too worried about the traffic lights :p Range does bother me tho. 60 miles (or an effective max range of 30 miles outbound and back without charging) is just not practical. That's "to the shops and back" usage only, really.

e: Ah your question. Cornwall is basically "Land of the Retired" as nobody comes here to earn money :p You can in many fields double your money by hopping over the border into Devon. That's actually true, believe it or not.

Cornwall has a problem with terribly low wages. I'm not sure why, but it's always been the case.
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
21 Oct 2002
Posts
26,259
Location
Here
60 mile range is taking the proverbial. That won't even get me to Plymouth. Heck I'd be unable to get to many places in Cornwall and back. My max range would be about to Hayle :p

And I'd have to spend £5k up front for the privilege of cutting my range from ~300 miles to 60, plus refuelling time of 5 mins to ... how many hours?

That sounds like a seriously retrograde step, especially on a budget!
You spend £40 a month on Fuel. An EV is pointless
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Mar 2003
Posts
14,235
Sorry, but there is no way an old car is not going to throw any bills over its life. £240 gets you an MOT and a service a year, that's it. There are other things like belts and other ancillary items/fluids that will need replacing over years of ownership of an old car to keep it on the road. While stuff like brakes and tyres do wear out on an an EV, you generally don't need to worry about them on a brand new car (which was your original comparison) unless you spend all day launching it from the lights. You'll be handing it back at the end of the lease before they need replacing.

You also ignored the depreciation/amortising the cost of the car over the ownership again....

Like I said, neither were based on reality.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2006
Posts
23,375
You'll spend a lot more on depreciation on a new EV than keeping an old petrol car maintained. You can also do repairs yourself, often cheaply. Good luck fixing an EV that wont turn on or charge (seen this a couple of times now), or its hard wired and integrated "infotainment" system.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
You also ignored the depreciation/amortising the cost of the car over the ownership again....
I'm not even sure what you're getting at.

The depreciation on a £2k car isn't something I'd worry about when running it to the end of it's life. And why would I care about depreciation on a leased EV?

Actually it wasn't my comparison, it was RoboCod's. He said my running costs would probably be cheaper leasing an EV than running my 18 year old ICE.
 
Associate
Joined
15 Feb 2014
Posts
742
Location
Peterboghorror
EVs are definitely the answer for an increasing number of people, probably more than realise it if they would free their minds from the preconceptions built up over years. They emphatically aren't the answer for everyone, especially if you can't charge at home/work or are running round a rural area on low pay in a cheap reliable ICE.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,158
EVs are definitely the answer for an increasing number of people, probably more than realise it if they would free their minds from the preconceptions built up over years. They emphatically aren't the answer for everyone, especially if you can't charge at home/work or are running round a rural area on low pay in a cheap reliable ICE.
Over time they're the answer for everyone. But you're right, the path to get there is long, and there's still a pretty large premium on EVs that make ICE quite attractive to most.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,150
Location
West Midlands
there's still a pretty large premium on EVs that make ICE quite attractive to most.

I kind of agree and disagree, it depends how the vehicle is being bought/rented and how long it may be kept for. Since sadly I'd say a huge majority of (brand new) car purchases take no account of the TCO, only how much the upfront payment/deposit is then any monthly payments/loan costs associated. There is such a lack of education about running a BEV in terms of cost (based on 90% home charging, 10.8k of every 12k miles), and the significant saving from servicing, and then ultimately understanding what the residuals might be in this fast development paced market, while trying to account for increasing demand as well.

I agree there is a premium, but not as much as assumed once all the factors above are taken into consideration and in some cases it may end up being cheaper than the equivalent ICE model over a longer term. There are still ways to go, and the semi-artificial higher prices don't help, but neither does the terrible information that is swung about from both sides.
 
Back
Top Bottom