is it going to be cheaper,?

Started by alfred, May 30, 2022, 02:07:48 PM

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alfred

Although electricity   as far as cars go had originally been cheaper and cleaner for the environment , with recent world events concerning fuel (ie) gas and electricity
with the price of electricity which as we've been told is going to treble ,

so is having an electric car going to be worth while, as surely even topping up the batteries on an electric car will have to also have to go up  in line with the expected and predictable on going demands which have already started,

Q; so is having an electric car worth it when you weigh all the factors of cost into the equation, for those who have one i say good for you but sadly today everything comes with a cost , im  sorry to say, :boo:

klondike

The biggest bummer with an electric car is the initial purchase price. Using electric is always going to be cheaper than petrol or diesel as they are taxed extortionately. Home chargers for cars run from the same meter as your lights. It isn't cheap to charge a car but it's still a lot cheaper than filling it with diesel.

My son's electric is a fair sized car and has a 70kwH battery. Now the weather has warmed it is giving 4.1 miles per kwH (cold drops that to 3 and a bit). So at say 20p a kwH it is 5p a mile.  Diesel is around £8 a gallon so at 50mpg a mile costs over 15p. Electric has got to go up a lot to catch up with that and if it does you can bet diesel will get dearer too.

I expect to see changes in the taxes though when electrics take off big time because Rishi loses so much. I expect to see road usage pricing come in.

Michael Rolls

Initial cost - Vauxhall boss some while back pointed out that their cheapest small car (I think the Corsa) was £16k, the electric version was £26k. Even at today's prices  £10k buys quite a bit of petrol
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
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klondike

I doubt that the batteries will be sustainable. They use some fairly rare materials and I don't think that Li-ion batteries are recycled currently. I imagine they are just hoping a miracle will happen.

Alex

I do not want an electric car and I'm glad I can't afford one  :rolleyes:

GrannyMac

My son in law has just bought one. No road tax, and as klondike says, running costs are lower. He's bought it through his business, he does a lot of mileage, much of it fairly short distances. There are income tax benefits to going electric if its a company car.
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klondike

Apart from the high initial cost the availability of fast chargers poses problems on long trips. Doubly so if visiting the boondocks. I think I mentioned the other day and certainly read or heard then that the rate of installing chargers must increase by 500% to have any chance of the 2030 deadline being possible.

My son's electric car is quite impressive and it was one of the cheap ones - only £45k for the version he got. https://www.hyundai.co.uk/new-cars/ioniq5
Plus he kept his diesel car for holidays etc. due to the inconvenience or impossibility of charging in the sort of places he goes in the UK.

Michael Rolls

I like 'only' £45k. My Mondeo hybrid was £31k, and bar sillies like a heated steering wheel (really, what's wrong with gloves?) is top of the range, and I moaned at paying that much, when, had it still been available the petrol only would have been £23k. You can buy an awful lot of petrol and travel an awful lot of miles for that extra £22k and it means he now has to care for two cars. I'm sure he is happy with his decision, but for me it doesn't make an awful lot of economic sense - still - each to their own
Mike
Thank you for the days, the days you gave me
[email protected]

klondike

He had a diesel Land Rover Discovery before and they cost nearer £60k.
That was on lease and so is the electric one and the cost is pretty much the same. He also had two cars before - the other one was some little poop off a shovel BMW that isn't made any more as it couldn't meet emissions standards and he swapped that out for the current BMW X2 which is also about the same cost apparently.

The only £45k while true was just a wind up.  :grin:

Scrumpy


I find it hard to believe what people are prepared to pay for cars.. 
Surely a reliable vehicle that gets you from A to B doesn't need to cost the earth..
Such a waste of money..
Don't ask me.. I know nuffink..

Alex

Men's toys Scrumpy, all we want is to get where we're going ! :grin:

Scrumpy


Is it still true.. what they used to say.. about men with big motors.. ?
Don't ask me.. I know nuffink..

Jacqueline

My brother in law who teaches mechanics at college, was telling me some rather frightening things about electric cars.  The mechanics working on them need to be very clued up, not a job for people who have always tinkered with their cars would be very dangerous.

Although difficult to explain here, I did get the gist of it, about isolating batteries before working on the car, if  involved in a bad accident the car could even be live, wouldn't have one of them as a gift.  

klondike

I think my son said the batteries produce either 700v or 800v. Best not go dobbing your sticky mitts in there.

There is something else I find to be amusing about the batteries - If you buy anthing with a Li-ion battery in from a phone up the packaging has to have a big warning on it. Royal Mail won't take anything from the public as parcels that has a battery in it. Yet our government are quite happy for folks to put wheels on them and drive them around at 70mph  :hmm:

Cassandra

Quote from: Scrumpy on May 31, 2022, 01:24:59 PMI find it hard to believe what people are prepared to pay for cars..
Surely a reliable vehicle that gets you from A to B doesn't need to cost the earth..
Such a waste of money..


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