Would you still buy a new EV?

[Pudsey Bear]

 

[maingate]

I would be prepared to buy a used EV. They lose a lot of value quickly, we just use a car for local runs, so why not? So a 2 or 3 year old model should last us a long time before the battery dies.

 

[CriftinsCampers]

New, no, not necessarily an EV but any new vehicle is simply not worth the initial depreciation imho, many people seem to lease nowadays and treat their cars like mobile phones, changing them prematurely as a fashion item, or to keep up with the jones! So there’s always a plenty of almost new cars available at a massively reduced price compared to the original retail.

Both our EVs have been bought that way, very low mileage and between a third and half of the original price.

As for commercial motor homes despite the obscene prices the build quality is often so poor I don’t know why anyone buys them new!

Although in my later years I can now afford to do so I just couldn’t

However same argument can apply to new houses! The build quality is often staggeringly poor!

 

[Molly 3]

No from me , too expensive no intention of buying a new car because I don't need one .

 

[wildebus]

An EV would suit the driving I tend to do perfectly. But on the same front, the cost of the petrol I use is pretty low so the fuel saving would be very small if switching to an EV and totally outweighed by the cost of changing.

The only repair cost other than fuel in my car that I wouldn't have experienced in an EV is a new rear silencer. I don't think the servicing costs would be any different.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

The best eco-friendly car would be an old one, even a diesel, as it cannot be benefiting the planet to build cars now, using up resources, not sure it does the folk mining the lithium either.

 

[GeoffL]

I have an old diesel. EVs won't work for me -- even if I didn't have to buy it. I can't charge at home and the nearest public rapid charger is over ten miles away! One of my neighbours has a company car. His employer won't let employees use their own cars and now only supply EVs. He can't charge at home. He can't charge at work either because he works at client premises; but he's managed to negotiate with a company three miles away to use one of their chargers outside working hours, and so twice a week his wife follows him to the charger in their petrol car so he can plug in, and then takes him back early the following morning to pick the EV back up. That's twenty-four miles a week in a petrol car and huge inconvenience just to charge an EV that he doesn't want. He also can't get rid of his petrol car, because he needs that to get to and from the charge point. Hence that company car is a liability rather than a benefit...

 

[Geek]

An EV would suit the driving I tend to do perfectly. But on the same front, the cost of the petrol I use is pretty low so the fuel saving would be very small if switching to an EV and totally outweighed by the cost of changing.

The other factors hugely outweigh any consideration of fuel costs for most people.

EVs are tricky and expensive to store and repair after accidents, which has pushed up the premiums for insuring not only EVs but any other vehicles that might crash into EVs.

Spare part supplies for EVs are slow, leading to long delays getting them repaired, which pushes up costs and leads to even more write-offs.

EVs seem to suffer really high rates of depreciation. I'm not clear why, but it seems to be a major issue.

My driving pattern would mostly make an EV a suitable choice, and I like driving my when it is in EV mode (you can hardly tell whether the engine is running in any case) but financially an EV is ruled out for me. The numbers just don't add up.

 

[Molly 3]

Yep depreciation is a problem because nobody wants a used ev even dealer's don't want them,

 

[wildebus]

I have an old diesel. EVs won't work for me -- even if I didn't have to buy it. I can't charge at home and the nearest public rapid charger is over ten miles away! One of my neighbours has a company car. His employer won't let employees use their own cars and now only supply EVs. He can't charge at home. He can't charge at work either because he works at client premises; but he's managed to negotiate with a company three miles away to use one of their chargers outside working hours, and so twice a week his wife follows him to the charger in their petrol car so he can plug in, and then takes him back early the following morning to pick the EV back up. That's twenty-four miles a week in a petrol car and huge inconvenience just to charge an EV that he doesn't want. He also can't get rid of his petrol car, because he needs that to get to and from the charge point. Hence that company car is a liability rather than a benefit...

You can advise him that as he has to use his own petrol car for work purposes (to facilitate charging the company EV), he can put the 24 miles a week in his HMRC Self Assessment submission at 40p/mile (for first 4,000 miles pa) - that will be around £450 reduced tax liability.

Also, can he not plug in the EV into a charge point at a supermarket or car park when they do some shopping?

 

[GeoffL]

You can advise him that as he has to use his own petrol car for work purposes (to facilitate charging the company EV), he can put the 24 miles a week in his HMRC Self Assessment submission at 40p/mile (for first 4,000 miles pa) - that will be around £450 reduced tax liability.

Also, can he not plug in the EV into a charge point at a supermarket or car park when they do some shopping?

I'll mention your point re tax relief when I next see him, thanks.
He can't charge while shopping as there are no charge points in local supermarket and other car parks -- I mentioned previously, the nearest workable public rapid charger is more than ten miles away. Ironically, there are several rapid chargers within a few miles as the crow flies. However, they're all in a different county separated from where we live by a car ferry or a twenty mile drive plus a £3 toll and hence little to no use.

 

[wildebus]

I'll mention your point re tax relief when I next see him, thanks.
He can't charge while shopping as there are no charge points in local supermarket and other car parks -- I mentioned previously, the nearest workable public rapid charger is more than ten miles away. Ironically, there are several rapid chargers within a few miles as the crow flies. However, they're all in a different county separated from where we live by a car ferry or a twenty mile drive plus a £3 toll and hence little to no use.

I used to put in the miles into the SA form allthe time in the past but forgot about it the last few years, but made sure I use it last return. Trip to the post office to post an order from my website - 10 mile round trip .... £4.00 expense to apply to earnings... It all adds up.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

Indeed it does I was entitled to put sandwiches or lunches etc down as subsistence, I loved free food and didn't buy shite.

 

[Val54]

Another no from me, living in the sticks means no local charging points without driving 5 miles, so would need to be home install. For the combined annual mileage of our vehicles it doesn't add up, besides I don't want to kill someone because they didn't hear the car coming

 

[wildebus]

Indeed it does I was entitled to put sandwiches or lunches etc down as subsistence, I loved free food and didn't buy shite.

Best one I had was on a 1 week trip to the US, had a per diem entitlement of $100/day for food, newspapers, etc. But the first day I had a burger from a van outside Home Depot and got food poisoning - "meat on the street" as it was described.
Left me unable to eat anything other than plain toast for days But on the plus side, left me with hundreds of dollars to spend on well-priced tools at the Home Depot. Brought back a suitcase load of battery power tools

 

[mariesnowgoose]

Best one I had was on a 1 week trip to the US, had a per diem entitlement of $100/day for food, newspapers, etc. But the first day I had a burger from a van outside Home Depot and got food poisoning - "meat on the street" as it was described.
Left me unable to eat anything other than plain toast for days But on the plus side, left me with hundreds of dollars to spend on well-priced tools at the Home Depot. Brought back a suitcase load of battery power tools

 

[Molly 3]

The lidle 100 yards from me has 2 ev Stations very rare i see any in use a , couple of months after commissioning someone nicked the cables

 

[GeoffL]

I used to put in the miles into the SA form allthe time in the past but forgot about it the last few years, but made sure I use it last return. Trip to the post office to post an order from my website - 10 mile round trip .... £4.00 expense to apply to earnings... It all adds up.

I was a limited company contractor before retiring and, at 40p/mile, the savings on employer's & employee's NI and income tax more than compensated for the cost of diesel for any business trip. The last client I had before retiring had a strict policy whereby you had to use a hire car, at their expense, for any business trips. They wouldn't let me use my own panel van (I had class 2 business insurance) even though that would have saved them money -- it really would have been a win/win arrangement!

 

[Geek]

The lidle 100 yards from me has 2 ev Stations very rare i see any in use a , couple of months after commissioning someone nicked the cables

The lidl local to me is similar. Rarely used.

One problem is that they're not super fast chargers..

They are 69p per KWh, which is one of the cheapest round here, but you still would only use them if charging at home wasn't available and your battery was unacceptably low.

There are two scenarios I can imagine cover most of the cases:

1. Charge whilst you srop in lidl. With the best will in the world, half an hour is as long as anyone wants to browse lidl. And that's not going to put many miles into the battery.

2. Wait until the car is full.
There's no cafe or even a coffee dispenser in lidl, so you'd end up sitting in the car for the duration. Somewhat unappealing, I expect.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I only see Pure EV's as a stop gap, to what I'm unsure, but I see more ICE in our future.