its an absolute monster- 44 rapids, solar canopies, the full works. In an area which is pretty shit for charging, its excellent news
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I totally agree on the prices. I was just listening to PMQs and the PM avoided answering the question on public/private VAT on electricity. If we can have prices closer to 50p by reducing vat, it will cost about the same as petrol in an efficient 4.0kw vehicle. A big problem is people who drive really inefficient EVs like the ipace, also use them as company cars and so dont pay the price themselves. theres no pressure to lower prices from the business side, and the consumer side hasnt got its voice together in quite the same way sadly. Although I suppose asking the PM about it, must mean theres something going on
Don’t own a car and probably never will, but is anyone able to give a rough guide about how much cheaper EV is compared to (average) petrol diesel prices per mile? I know these things must fluctuate but, what, is it two / three / four / something else times cheaper?
Great news nevertheless, good to see things are moving forward.
theres different ways and different data to work out the cost which is where alot of costing falls over and gets annoying/confusing.
if you have an efficient EV you should get 4kw per mile and theres two prices for 1kw: home charging is about 8p and rapid/high st whatever is about 70p today. So, assuming a tank of fuel is £1.50 a litre and you have a 45 litre tank, £67.5. Now in miles per gallon the Uk average is about 40, and theres 4.5 litres in a gallon. Luckily that means 10 gallons in a tank, so you should get 400 miles but mostly people get 350 miles from the £67.50.
Now, going back to the comparison, £10 at a public rapid in my efficient car is getting me, in winter, about 120 miles. So the equivalent mileage is roughly £30. In summer its about 20% more miles/less cost as the battery dosnt need heating to reach optimal output and roads are dry, no rain or snow etc. If I charge at home its about £3, using the cheapest tariff overnight etc the total cost for 360 miles is about £10.
The big problem people cant generally get their heads around is change in efficiency in seasonal weather. This does happen with petrol, engines run richer and hotter in winter to get the same output and a big loss in un-noticed efficiency because you can top up in under 5 minutes at any petrol station.
The other thing is maintenance cost and cost to run. EV motors have 2 moving parts and a solenoid, ICE have hundreds. Because EVs use engine braking properly theres no manual brake pad wear and tear but because EVs have zero or instant torque there is much higher tyre wear as the engine braking will use the rubber to slow the car as well as grip the road off the lights. The other big difference in cost is super efficient air conditioning which dosnt use petrol. You still need to re-gas but its a different ball game.
Theres no ulez, no c-charge and no road tax on EVs, at least until 2025 but probably longer as they need to work out a road tax system not based on emissions which is still being discussed rather than implemented. So you will save thousands a year in London, and hundreds in the UK generally, just on taxes and charges.
That’s a really good explanation. Cheers 🍻.
No worries. Also worth noting, this week the 2nd hand market is looking really great for EVs. You can get a decent EV like a fiat500e for £12k which is about half price… the big trick is having home charging on a driveway or private space. If you do a certain amount of rapid charging a week, ie, live in a flat or something there are subscriptions which can make it really worthwhile. Tesla offer one for non-tesla now, but on my routes there’s only one option so I’m still sticking with my VW version which has contracts with chargers near me.