As someone who has driven over 40,000 miles in an EV over the last three years, here's my tuppence worth:- The price of EV's has come down, and there are some real bargains /massive discounts out there (new and used), so purchase cost is no more than petrol or diesel now.- I would not buy new just yet because cars are getting better by the month (range, speed of charging, price) hence fast depreciation (because a three year old car is no longer “state of the art”). But there are real second hand bargains out there.- I reckon that I save more than £5,000 a year running costs and about £10,000 a year "BIK" income tax compared with an equivalent petrol or diesel car.- The tax breaks for a company car are massive - effectively halves the price;- - No road tax;- No London congestion charge- 2% "BIK" company car tax - Very low maintenance costs. Not much to go wrong. Most braking is regenerative (returning power to the battery) rather than using the break pads. Still on the original brake pads and discs after 40k miles. No oil, filters, etc.- Still on the original tyres (apart from a couple of punctures). Perhaps I am a wossy driver. EV’s have a lot of torque and fast acceleration, so I am sure that if you always pull away like in a drag race tyres may only last 7,000 miles.- EVs particularly work if you can charge at home overnight. Then costs about 1p – 2p a mile (equivalent to 300 – 600 miles to the gallon). But 10 x this (70p – 80p kwh) on fast public chargers – so equivalent to 30 – 60 mpg -probably about the same as a petrol car. But I reckon that less than 10% of my charging is on public chargers. - And now there are plenty of cheap, slow chargers – on every residential street (in the lamp posts) – about 40p kwh so equivalent to about 60 – 120 mpg. Just plug in an leave overnight.- Charging infrastructure is improving fast. Even a year ago it was necessary to plan ahead (rather than just wait until you need to fill up, then stop at the next filling station). It is still better to plan on long journeys – but nothing like the issue it was.- My (three year old) car has a low range (about 175 miles). An new car today has about 300 miles plus range. But even 175 miles is not a problem. Usually, even on long journeys, it is enough to “top up” whilst parked up at a destination – which actually saves time (no refuelling on route). On cross continental routes, it means planning stops about every two hours or so (for a coffee, or lunch) so does not add to total journey times (and no standing in smelly fuel stations).- In fact, when driving into London, I start with a partly full battery because it is cheaper to park at a charging point (Source London) and pay for the electricity than to pay for parking. Electricity (and no parking fee) works out at about £4.40 an hour, enough for about 20 miles.Two or three years ago a few “range anxiety” issues a year (e.g. arriving at chargers which didn’t work, or queues) was to be expected. But that is not the case any more. Occasionally a charger doesn’t work (usually Shell), but then there is usually another around the corner. I still have about 5 different charging cards or apps – but now only need to use Octopus, which works with most chargers (apart from Tesla).So this is from the horse’s mouth from someone who actually has and drives an electric car on a daily basis. I don’t know anyone who has gone back to petrol or diesel. All of the negative comments seem to be hearsay, from people who have never owned or driven an electric car.And this is before you get onto the pleasures of driving in silence, with constant instant power from standstill.And using off peak electricity does help the enviroment. Pollution free at "tail pipe" and at wind farm.
T P Howell ● 269d