Our prime minister might have thrown a spanner in the works with his announcement that the ban on petrol car sales will be pushed back to 2035, but there are still plenty of good reasons why an electric car might be the smart option for you.
Right now, around one in six new cars are electric, and that’s set to increase despite the PM’s intervention, especially as car manufacturers ignore the extension and double down on electric power; Volvo will drop diesel engines next year, Vauxhall will be all-electric by 2028, and Nissan is going EV across Europe by 2030. And then some brands are pure electric already, with the likes of smart
, Polestar, and Tesla not offering anything that needs to see a petrol station.
Electric vehicles aren’t suitable for everybody, but for the vast majority of drivers, they’re not something to be concerned about, so what’s stopping you from making a positive move to electric power?
Are Electric Cars Expensive To Buy?
Well, yes, prices are an issue. An electric car is more expensive than a petrol-powered equivalent. There’s good reason for that — huge research and development costs are clawed back over fewer sales, while manufacturing costs are higher thanks to expensive battery packs — but none of that matters when you’re signing the contract. The good news? Prices are coming down rapidly, so you can get a smart #1 for less than £40,000, which gives you a family car with more space inside than a Mercedes E-Class, while the MG4 comes in at £27,000. Rivals from China will soon arrive, such as the BYD Dolphin, and that’s going to force prices lower still.
Okay, they’re still not cheap, but in a world where the cheapest Vauxhall Corsa costs £20,000, perhaps the gap isn’t as large as you might think. And, once you’ve bought the car, you’ll save money every single day.
What Does It Cost To Run an Electric Car?
The average UK car manages 38mpg, so you’ll need roughly 1,000 litres of fuel annually if you cover the current average annual distance of around 8,000 miles. Using the price board at my local petrol station as a guide, that means you’ve got a fuel bill of £1,600.
With a suitable home charger, you could cover the same distance for just £162 of electricity. In our time with the smart #1, we travelled 3.7 miles for every kWh of energy used, but there are more (and less) efficient cars out there, so you could cut costs even further. Granted, plug it in at expensive motorway chargers, and you’ll see those benefits eroded, but stick predominantly to home charging, and you’ll make four-figure savings.
Servicing costs tend to be lower, too, as an electric motor doesn’t need oil changes, there’s less wear and tear as there are just two moving components compared to thousands in an engine, and even things like brake pads and discs get less use thanks to regenerative braking that turns your car into a giant dynamo.
There’s no car tax to pay, saving another £180 a year, and company car drivers will make enormous tax savings — with a Benefit in Kind rate of 2%, the tax bill for a 20% taxpayer on a Peugeot E-2008 GT would be about £165 a year, compared to £1,920 for the petrol model.
You’ll also be exempt from most congestion or low emission zone charges, although these change frequently, and every city with such zones in place run to their own rules.
Is Range Anxiety Really a Problem?
Electric cars of old (ok, not that old; we’re thinking Nissan Leaf from about 2010) couldn’t go far and suffered if the weather was anything but clear, dry and warm. Today, life is a lot easier, with the Mercedes EQS able to travel more than 450 miles on a single charge — that’s London to Edinburgh, with some spare.
At the other end of the scale, the entry-level Fiat 500e manages 118 miles. It is less useful for long motorway runs but perfect for a city car, and enough to cover a couple of weeks of driving for most city dwellers.
Most cars’ range sits between 200 and 300 miles, which is well above the average 25 miles most cover each day. Even when covering long journeys, that’s likely to be enough to get you to your destination, or at least far enough along the road that you’ll only need a top-up while stopping for a Starbucks.
Most of the time, assuming you’ve got a home charger and keep your car topped up, you’ll never even think about range limits.
Will I Waste Time Charging an Electric Car?
When you do need to charge on longer journeys, the time sitting and waiting for the battery to be topped up can feel lengthy, especially coming from the splash and dash timings of a petrol station. Of course, if you’re plugging in and then wandering into Costa to get a coffee, much of the time isn’t wasted.
Rather than looking at total times, it’s helpful to consider how many miles of range you get, as each car will charge at different speeds. Slower models, like the luxurious Lexus UX 300e, will only add about 100 miles per hour of charging, so a 20-minute top-up (about the time it takes to get a coffee in a motorway services!) will only add 33 miles to the virtual tank. At the other end of the scale, a Hyundai Ioniq 6 will squeeze in 800 miles of range in an hour, so 20 minutes will get you going another 260 miles or so.
Charging that quickly requires finding a specialist rapid charger, but most cars will manage around 300 miles of range per hour of charging without needing to find rare superfast units. The smart #1 adds 310 miles per hour (103 miles in 20 mins), the Nissan Ariya adds 330 miles (110 miles in 20 mins), and the Peugeot E-2008 adds 290 miles (97 miles per 20 mins), so a quick top-up might be all you need for the rest of your journey.
So, Should I Buy an Electric Car?
It’s fair to say that an electric car is not the right solution for everybody. If you’re ploughing up and down the motorway all day, covering 60,000 miles or more a year, staying away at hotels and relying on the public charging infrastructure, you’ll likely come up against some problems.
Likewise, if much of your time is spent towing trailer caravans, limitations on towing capacities might interfere with your plans. Some models will work for you, but they’re few and far between.
For the rest of us, there’s little to be concerned about. Yes, the purchase price can be high, but leasing or PCP finance packages mask that to some degree, and the savings you can make in day-to-day driving will soon overtake the higher price tag.
The most important thing is to pick the right car for your needs. Be honest about what driving you do — do you really cover 500 miles every weekend, or is it just twice a year and stopping to charge while having lunch won’t impact the journey? — and consider the size of the car you want. That’s important, as larger cars are, naturally, less efficient. Yet, electric cars bring all sorts of packaging improvements over conventional cars, meaning a smaller car than you might usually choose can have more space inside.
If you’re still not sure, then hold off. Electric vehicles are constantly improving, with new brands like BYD, Ora, Fisker, Lynk and Co, Zeekr, Omoda and Nio all making strides as they fight to establish a presence in Europe and the UK. Legacy carmakers won’t stand still in the face of that threat, so there will be some rapid developments and lowering of prices over the coming years.
But if you make the jump now, there’s an exciting world of fascinating and money-saving models available, from fashion icons like the Honda e and Fiat 500e, through sensible family models like the Kia Niro EV and smart #1, to luxury and performance models like the Maserati Grecale Folgore and Rolls-Royce Spectre.
He is the founder of Huff Media, publisher of Professional Pickup, Professional Van, Average Janes, Average Joes, and CALIBRE. His work focuses primarily on light commercial vehicles, pickups, and real-world vehicle use, with much of his time spent on manufacturer launches, industry events, and long-term vehicle testing.