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How much are electric cars?

How much are electric cars?

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Is it expensive to buy an electric car? 

For many of us, cost is one of the most important things when buying a car, whether it’s electric, petrol or diesel. If you’re just dipping your toe into the electric car market, you might have heard they’re expensive. Like any car, the cost depends on what you’re after. A swanky model with all the bells and whistles will cost you more than a dependable family car or a zippy little city number. It also depends on whether you choose hire purchase (HP), personal contract purchase (PCP), buy the car outright or maybe through your business.

How much will a lease set me back? 

You can lease an electric car, like the Renault ZOE, from about £346.47 a month (February 2024) from our leasing partner CBVC. View our full range of electric cars to lease here with some available in as little as 30 days. 

With both leasing and PCP, you pay a fixed monthly fee to rent the car. Both have limits on the number of miles you can drive – this would be agreed when you signed up to the agreement and you might have to pay for any damage excluded from the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association’s Fair Wear and Tear guidelines when you give the car back.  
 
If you’re leasing, you’ll hand the car back at the end. With PCP you can buy the car by making a final payment, called a balloon payment. Alternatively, you can just hand the car back. It’s more flexible than a standard lease, but can cost more.  

charger plugged into the car

What if I want to buy one outright? 

A Renault ZOE is available to buy from just under £30,000 (January 2024). For something a bit bigger, like a family hatchback, estate or SUV, you’d be looking at about £35,000 plus. 

Would a second-hand electric car work for me? 

If you just tend to potter about locally, to the shops, on the school run or to visit family nearby, you can pick up a used electric car like a 2018 Nissan Leaf on AutoTrader for under £10,000 (January 2024). You can drive it on longer journeys too but you may need to plan in charging stops due to the smaller batteries on older electric cars. To find public charge points on route to your destination, visit our public charge point map

If you’re interested in finding out more about the total cost of owning an electric car compared to a petrol or diesel vehicle, have a look at our Total Cost of Ownership calculator, which compares a number of electric cars with their petrol and diesel equivalents.

Is an electric car
right for me?

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How long does it take to charge an electric car?

How long does it take to charge an electric car?

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Does it take a long time to charge an electric car?

This is a classic ‘How long’s a piece of string?’ question. You’ve got to factor in the age and model of your electric car, where you charge and what type of charger you’re using. 

In super-simple terms, there are three levels of charging: plugging into a normal plug socket (which isn’t recommended – as we’ll explain later), home charging with a proper charger set-up, and public charging (either at standard or rapid speeds) away from home.

It really does vary from vehicle to vehicle. Some are renowned for how quickly they can charge. Others are notorious for how slowly they charge. The ballpark range for an average home charger is anything from 5 hours to 12 hours for a 100% charge, although people rarely charge from a very low state of charge. But some cars can charge from 5-80% in a speedy 18 minutes on the most rapid public chargers. 

Access-and-space-is-prioritised-for-all-drivers-at-Ospreys-ultra-rapid-charging-hub

How long will it take to charge from low to 100% at home? 

Using the Hyundai KONA Electric 64kWh as an example. This is Hyundai’s electric answer to its ICE equivalent. According to the Electric Vehicle Database it has a WLTP range of about 240 miles when it’s fully charged.   

To charge a Hyundai KONA Electric 65kWh from 0-100% using a 7kW standard charge point would take 10h 15m. Based on these figures, a one hour charge at the supermarket would give your battery a 10% charge, and seven hours at your workplace would give your battery about a 70% charge.

Find out how one electric car driver thinks it’s even less…  

“I love the fact that it takes me ten seconds to charge my car at home! This is the time it takes for me to get out of my car on the driveway, plug the car in and go inside. Then I let the smart charger do its stuff, and wake up the next day to a car full of electrons. I tend to top up regularly, to take best advantage of off-peak hours.”

Ben Afia, September 2022

Home charging

Let’s take home charging first. Most electric car drivers do most of their charging at home, overnight. It’s relatively cheap if you can charge at home, even with rising energy prices – as long as you’re on the right electric car-friendly energy tariff. 

But what do you use to actually charge your car? If you’re charging it at home, there are three main ways.

  • Smart charger (tethered) – a charger with a cable attached to it, that you simply plug into the car
  • Smart charger (untethered) – a dedicated charger where you connect your charging cable
  • Three-pin plug – a standard three-pin plug that you connect to a 13-amp socket

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right for me?

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Do I need an electric car charger fitted at home?

Do I need an electric car charger fitted at home?

The simple answer is no as there are loads of public charging points across the UK. But it is easier to charge an electric car at home with a charger.

Do I need a charger installed at home to charge my car? 

The simple answer is no – but it’s not quite as straightforward as that. 

For example our home sockets are designed for kettles and toasters, not to charge an electric car for hours so it’s much safer to have a home charger installed for your electric car.

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But I’m renting – so what can I do to charge an electric car?

If you’re renting, you’ll need to speak to your landlord, hopefully they’ll be keen to do it, it’s a great selling point to have a charge point fitted, especially if you offer to pay or contribute to the cost of the installation. Also the Government’s EV charge point grant has a £350 cap for installing a charge point in a flat or rented accommodation so it’s definitely worth asking the question.

I don’t have off-street parking – so where can I charge my car?

As you can see from the density map there are already a lot of public charging points in the UK – over 45,000 as at September 2023, so don’t worry if you don’t have off-street parking. Furthermore, if there isn’t one handy for you, it’s worth a chat with your local council. They can get a government grant to cover 75% of the cost for installing charge points on your street or in a council-owned public car park.

To find the nearest charge point to you in the UK, visit our interactive charger map.

It’s worth mentioning that if you have an electric car energy tariff, it’s normally cheaper to charge at home than to use a public charge point, unless you can get a free charge at your workplace or local supermarket car park.

Electric car drivers may be wondering if now’s the time to change tariffs, switch to smart chargers or change where they charge. But before you make any decisions, it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons, and to make sure any changes suit your lifestyle and EV usage.

This article contains links to other sites. ElectriX is not responsible for the contents of any of these websites.

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I like the idea of an electric car – where do I start?

I like the idea of an electric car – where do I start?

Electric cars are a great option if you want to save on running costs or go greener. And you’ll be ahead of the game before the planned 2035 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

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Want to know if an electric car is the right choice for you?

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Step 1 – Where will you charge? 

Let’s start by thinking about where you can charge an electric car; we know that’s what most people worry about when thinking of going electric. 

If you have a drive or garage at home it does make life easier, because you can have a home charge point installed which is the cheapest way to charge.

If you don’t have the option to charge at home, find out where your nearest public charge point is located. This might mean an on-street charge point (lots of local councils have installed them), a trip to your local supermarket, petrol station or public car park, or charging your car at work. You can track down one of the 53,906 (Dec 2023) or so public charge points across the UK using our charge point map.

electric car charging on driveway with charger in the background

Step 2 – Where do you drive to and how often?

Now let’s think about your daily commute and how many people you need to fit into your car.

The average UK round-trip commute is under 30 miles. That’s easily within the travelling range of any electric car, even the oldest second-hand models run for 60-80 miles on a full charge. If you often drive longer distances, look for an electric car with a more powerful battery. Most new models do over 200 miles on a full charge. 

Like petrol or diesel vehicles, most electric cars comfortably seat 4 people –  5 at a squeeze. But what if you need something bigger? Until recently, you had just a few pricey electric cars to choose from. But that’s slowly changing with cars on the market with six, seven or more seats. The Citroen ë-Spacetourer can almost fit a football team in.

image of car driver with sat nav

Step 3 – What’s your budget?

EVs can be leased from CBVC, our leasing partner from as little as £260 a month with some models available within 30 days – view our range of electric cars to lease.

Some workplaces offer electric car salary sacrifice schemes, where the money for the lease is taken at source from your gross salary, resulting in you paying less tax each month. You can talk to us about salary sacrifice too.

Electric car charge point

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right for me?

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Are electric cars better for the environment?

Are electric cars better for the environment?

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Are you ready to go electric?

Want to know if an electric car is the right choice for you?

Join in with our simple online quiz to find out more.

Start the quiz

Are electric cars greener? 

The short answer is, yes. If you compare them to cars with petrol or diesel engines, EVs are better for the environment.  

When you drive a petrol or diesel car, CO2 from burning fuel are released into the environment from the exhaust. These are dangerous emissions that are contributing to air quality and the environment. On the other hand, when you drive an electric car you’re not creating any exhaust emissions at all. So the main way electric cars are better for the environment is because there are no emissions from burning fuel.    

Driving an electric car does produce some emissions from electricity generation – but you can power your car partly or fully using renewables. Like through solar panels and a smart charger, or by buying your electricity on a 100% green tariff from a green energy supplier. And even if you charge an electric car from a coal or gas plant. The carbon emissions still work out lower than from the petrol or diesel equivalent. 

What about electric car batteries and landfill? 

You might worry about car batteries cluttering up landfill sites or lithium in electric car batteries. The good news is battery tech is now so good that new batteries usually last as long as the car (Tesla, the electric car pioneers, even have a ‘million mile’ battery!). Yes, electric car batteries do degrade but only very gradually and they will still have enough oomph for most people’s needs even when they’ve covered hundreds of thousands of miles. 

In an unlikely scenario where a battery needs replacing, it can usually be used in another way, like powering the National Grid for example. You can rest easy knowing that a car battery goes on being useful for years afterwards before it’s recycled  – and there are lots of companies building up state-of-the-art electric car battery recycling facilities already. Batteries very rarely end up in landfill at all.  

Electric car batteries need lithium, but luckily there is more than enough of this natural resource in the world. There are different ways it can be extracted and here in the UK we’re leading the way in producing lithium from brines in ways that have less environmental impact. 

Other factors

Any kind of manufacturing process tends to use energy and create waste and car manufacture is no different.  

But with so much growing awareness of the dangers of Climate Change. Car manufacturers are finding ways to reduce the negative impact of their manufacturing processes, and create genuinely eco-friendly cars.  

The best brands are looking carefully at every stage of the process and trying to cut out the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they produce because CO2 is one of the most harmful greenhouse gases causing the planet to become dangerously warm.   

Many car makers are aiming to go zero carbon and where that’s not possible, they’re making up for their carbon emissions by investing in climate friendly projects such as tree-planting. Those trees absorb carbon from the atmosphere which slows down global warming. 

Some people think synthetic fuels are the way forward, but although they’re an alternative to petrol and diesel. The complex process of making them and transporting them to fuel stations uses several times more energy than making and running an electric car. And burning the fuel is bad for the environment.

It’s greener to drive an electric car because the National Grid infrastructure is already in place to provide the electricity to charge your car, cutting down on transportation of fuel.

There are more and more renewable energy tariffs available from your energy provider  which means that the electricity you use comes from things like wind and solar power,So whichever way you look at it, it’s still greener to power and drive an electric car than to use synthetic fuel. 

We know that carbon emissions are bad because they’re causing global warming but tiny particles, which are too small to see, are a problem too.

Unfortunately all cars produce some of these harmful particles from their tyres and brake pads. However, electric cars produce less than normal cars because of the way the electric motor recycles energy. This means there’s less use and wear of the brake pads.  

But the vast majority of these dangerous particles are pumped out of the exhausts of petrol and diesel cars. In heavily built up areas with a lot of traffic, these particle emissions are leading to serious health problems.

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All you need to know about chargers and plugs

All you need to know about chargers and plugs

Confused by all of the electric car charger lingo? Don’t worry we’ll help you learn your CCS from your CHAdeMO, your Type 1 from your Type 2 plugs and what the differences are between destination charge points and rapid chargers.

Indra smart pro home charger with electric bolt graphic

What are the differences between electric car chargers and plugs?

If you’re up-to-speed on the basics of how to charge an electric car and want to understand a bit more about the different types of chargers and plugs, you’re in the right place.

Electric car plugged in a rapid charge point

What’s destination charging?

A destination charge point is when you use your own cable, plug in, walk away and come back when you’re ready. That might be after a day at work or when you’ve finished shopping, for example.

While you can leave your car plugged in, it’s polite to move your car when it’s finished charging so other people can fill up. If you’re charging at a park-and-ride and you’re in the middle of town though, there’s no need to rush back. But watch out for any time limit on charging sessions. 

Find chargers near you!

What are Type 1 and Type 2 plugs?

Types 1 and 2 are kinds of charging plug. A few older cars have a Type 1 socket. But they also have a Type 1 to Type 2 cable for charging when you’re out and about, so you can plug in anywhere. 

Most UK public charge points have Type 2 sockets and you’ll usually use your own cable to connect your car, though some come with the cable already attached. This is known as a tethered cable.

Don’t worry too much about the differences, it’s a bit like using either petrol or diesel. Once you know what your car uses, you’ll know what you’re looking for.

Graphic of Type 1 (5-pin) charging plug and Type 2 (7-pin)

What’s rapid charging?

Most newer cars can rapid charge and it’s something you do when you’re out and about – similar to how you fill up with petrol or diesel. It’s a little more expensive than charging at home but it can be quick.

You plug your car in, pop for a coffee and by the time you come back you should have enough charge for the next bit of your journey.

With rapid charging, you won’t be leaving your car to power up for hours at a time.

Download the Osprey charging app

Osprey Public Charging stations lined-up in a row

CCS and CHAdeMO 

At DC rapid chargers you’ll find two kinds of cable, CCS and CHAdeMO, these cables are always attached to the charger so you’ll know it’s a rapid charge point.   

These chargers convert AC electricity to DC before it reaches your car, which means the juice goes straight into your battery so it can charge much faster.

You’ll find CHAdeMO on a handful of older cars like the Nissan LEAF. But CCS has won that format war and is what you’ll see on most electric cars.

Some rapid chargers also have a Type 2 cable for older models like the original Renault ZOE. But these won’t rapid charge most cars, unfortunately.

Graphic of rapid DC charging sockets CCS (9-pins) and CHADeMO (4-pins).

Charging to 80%

Once they’re 80% full, most cars slow their rapid charging down to protect the battery. That means 80-100% can take as long as 0-80%, which makes 80% the best time to unplug, especially if someone else is waiting to charge.

Rather than trying to reach 100% it can actually be quicker to stop for another rapid charge later on, because charging is so much faster up to 80%.

Using a public charger

To use a public charger, you’ll need a way to pay. That’ll mean either an app, contactless card or a plastic tag known as a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), depending on what network the charger is on. The key is to plan ahead – check your route and see where you’ll find chargers.

You’ll find it much less hassle to download the right apps and create accounts while you’re at home. That hassle will start to disappear, though.

The motorway rapid charger network, for example, is being replaced and all new chargers have to accept contactless payment.

Find out more about our Indra Chargers

Indra smart chargers let you charge your car when energy is cheapest for you and best for the grid.

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Should you buy or lease an electric car?

Should you buy or lease an electric car?

It’s a big decision with lots to consider. Let us take you through some of the differences when you buy or lease an electric car…

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To buy or not to buy?

With plenty of gleaming brand-new models in the showrooms, you might wonder why you or your business should lease an electric vehicle instead of buying. It’s a good question: there’s nothing quite like the warm glow that comes with ownership. Or is there?

One good reason to take an electric car lease, not buy, is the capital outlay. People often perceive buying and leasing a car is similar to buying and renting a house. But that’s not really true. Purchasing a house is usually (but not always) a sound investment: purchasing a car may not be. And electric cars usually cost more than their petrol or diesel counterparts. Their high-capacity batteries and the technology that translates all that power into motion doesn’t come cheap. Even a mid-range car such as the Hyundai Kona 64kWh will cost you in the region of £33k (Sept 2023).

New cars typically depreciate quickly

Also average rates of depreciation are around 15-35% in the first year and considerably more after that. The instant you drive a new car off the forecourt it loses a hefty chunk of its value. And that’s a lot of money to lose when you come to resell it.

Family-charging-an-electric-car

Electric car lease types

There are two main types of car lease – Personal Contract Hire (PCH) and Business Contract Hire (BCH). The first is where an individual enters into a lease agreement with a leasing company, such as CBVC – which works with ElectriX. The second is where a company enters into an agreement with a leasing company to provide its staff with cars. There’s also Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) that allows the individual to pay for a car over a fixed period of time, with the option of buying the car at the end of the term.

ElectriX is also offering salary sacrifice. This is where an employee has the monthly leasing fee deducted from their wages at source, from their gross salary. Even though the employee has to pay benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax, there are significant savings, as the employee’s overall tax bill and National Insurance payments will be lower. ElectriX now offers the most flexible salary sacrifice scheme on the market, with different levels of risk protection tailored to the employer’s needs.

Leasing a family-sized electric car like a MG4 Hatchback can cost from as little as £256.04 per month on PCH (as at February 2024). Or take a high-end electric car such as the Tesla Model Y – this can be leased from £425.80 per month (as at February 2024). And, after the contract period is up and no matter which model you’ve gone for, you hand it back with no cash payment at the end. You also have the option of getting another brand-new car of the same model, or an entirely different one, by which time technology will probably have moved on and the car may come with even more specs.

Nissan Ariya SUV in red

Other electric car lease benefits for businesses

Leasing electric cars and vans is a particularly attractive option for businesses. With BCH business owners can lease as many vehicles as they wish, with a range of benefits, including 50% VAT redemptions for cars and vans used for work and the employee’s own use, and 100% for commercial vehicles where the vehicle is used solely for work. There are also tax savings to be had on BiK tax.

Once all the necessary paperwork is completed, ElectriX and CBVC can get you behind the wheel of a brand-new car in as little as 30 days. That’s generally much quicker than buying one. If you want a factory order where you choose some of the specs like trim and interiors, it may take a little more time. Take a look at some of our stock offers here.

Leasing an electric car also means you’ll have more control over your finances, helping you to budget. You’ll have fixed monthly costs, with some contracts also covering maintenance. ElectriX can also sort out your insurance and home charging for you.

Find out more here

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right for me?

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Electric car jargon buster

Electric car jargon buster

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Are you ready to go electric?

Want to know if an electric car is the right choice for you?

Join in with our simple online quiz to find out more.

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Click on a term below to bust the jargon on all things electric…

A vehicle that’s 100% powered by electricity, and needs to be plugged in to charger. Also, sometimes called an electric vehicle (EV).

This is the name for the control electronics that look after the battery pack. It keeps the cells in the battery at the right voltage and temperature, and makes sure that the current that goes through them isn’t too high. 

At rapid chargers you’ll generally find the cable you need to power up already attached. There are two kinds of rapid charging plugs – CCS and CHAdeMO.

Rapid chargers convert AC electricity to DC before it reaches your car, which means the juice goes straight into your battery so it can charge much faster.

You’ll find CHAdeMO on a handful of older cars, but you’ll see CCS on most electric cars today.

Charging is the electric version of fuelling up your car. And a destination charge point is when you use your own cable, plug in, leave (usually at places you are at for a good amount of time) and come back when you’re ready.

A vehicle that’s 100% powered by electricity will need to be plugged in to charge. Also, sometimes called a battery electric vehicle (BEV).

Discover electric cars that are available through our partner CBVC

This can mean any car that has some kind of electric credential. So everything from a fully electric car that needs to be plugged in to charge to a mild hybrid. This is a very basic hybrid vehicle with no electric-only range – it’s 100% fuelled and powered by petrol or diesel.

Sometimes called a hydrogen car, or hydrogen fuel cell car. It powers the wheels using electricity, just like an electric car. The electricity comes from a hydrogen tank in the car, this then creates through a chemical reaction of mixing hydrogen and oxygen.

A standard three-pin cable that you can use in any normal household plug socket to charge your electric car. This isn’t a great way to charge an electric car though.

100% refuelled using petrol, but it can use some of that petrol to charge up a small battery that lets you drive a handful of miles using electricity.

The battery is mainly there to grab energy from regenerative braking – a clever system that recycles power back into the battery when you brake, just like in an electric car. 

ICE stands for Internal Combustion Engine. So an ICE vehicle is just your everyday petrol or diesel car.  

Units of electricity, which you can think of like a litre of fuel for your car.

You’d check the price of a litre of fuel at the garage. And with electric cars you check the price of a unit of electricity.

A very basic hybrid vehicle with no electric drive. It’s 100% fuelled and powered by petrol or diesel.    

A mild hybrid generally has a small electric motor and can often use regenerative braking, which recycles power back into the battery when you brake.

The electric motor can also sometimes help the petrol engine a bit with power – but it can never power the car by itself, unlike regular hybrids.

Plug-in hybrid EVs can be powered by petrol, diesel or electricity, with the option to plug it in to recharge the battery.

The battery is normally much smaller than in an electric car – it’s only able to go about 20 to 30 miles on each charge.

The petrol engine does the heavy lifting on long journeys and they can take quite a while to charge.

How many miles an electric car can go on one fully charged battery.

An electric car that also has a petrol engine to charge the battery. You get some of the performance upsides of electric but often not as many miles as pure electric.

Most newer electric cars can rapid charge, which you do when you’re out and about – similar to how you fill up with petrol or diesel.

It’s a little more expensive than charging at home but it can be quick, charging your car in minutes rather than hours.

So you’d tend to rapid charge on a long journey or if you’re in a rush. 

Electric cars cleverly recycle power back into the battery when you brake.

As soon as you ease your foot off the accelerator, you’ll feel the car slow much quicker than other cars.

This gives you more miles and creates less wear on your brake pads, so it’s a handy money-saver.  

Real world range is how far your electric car will actually go on a single charge. This will vary depending on your driving style and weather conditions. Often the real world range of a vehicle will be less than the figure provided by the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), the official test of fuel efficiency for all cars. 

To use and pay for some public chargers, you’ll sometimes need a special card, called an RFID card (radio frequency identification card).

You tap this against the charger to start and stop your charging session.

Some companies offer a scheme called salary sacrifice. This helps you save a bit of money when leasing an electric car.

Salary sacrifice works when lease payment is taken from your full salary, before tax and National Insurance (NI) is taken off. This means your gross (pre-tax) salary is lower, so you pay less tax and NI.

Although it sounds great, you should check this is right for you. For example, it can affect benefits or mortgage applications  because your take-home pay is lower. 

Learn more about salary sacrifice

This is just another name that some car manufacturers use for a hybrid electric vehicle.

The car doesn’t magically produce electricity out of thin air – it’s just talking about using the petrol engine to charge the battery and regenerative braking .

This is where it recycles power back into the battery when you brake and is normal in every electric car or hybrid, 100% fuelled by petrol and you can’t plug it in to charge.  

This is like your petrol or diesel gauge. It lets you know how full the battery is so you can keep an eye on how much you have left. 

This tells you how much capacity your battery has now, versus how much it had when it was new.  

These are kinds of charging plug. Nearly all UK public charge points have Type 2 sockets and you’ll usually use your own cable to connect your car, though some come with the cable already attached.

A few older cars have a Type 1 socket. But they also have a Type 1 to Type 2 cable for charging when you’re out and about, so you can plug in anywhere.  

Some urban areas have created zones where petrol and diesel cars have to pay a hefty admission fee or are even banned.

Often called Ultra Low Emission Zones or Zero Emission Zones.

A lab test that measures how efficient an electric car is, and how far it can go on one charge.

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right for me?

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How much do electric cars cost compared to others?

How much do electric cars cost compared to others?

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Are electric cars more expensive than petrol or diesel? 

First, let’s bust the myth that you need a big budget to go electric. For a mid-range new electric model, you might pay around £10k more in the showroom than a petrol or diesel. But you can seriously save on running costs.    

Electric cars are more efficient than petrol or diesel, so you offset that higher price tag quickly. And don’t forget there are second hand electric cars out there, plus great options for leasing where you pay a smaller monthly amount.

Comparing running costs 

When you’ve got your head round the up-front cost, start comparing running costs. Just think of a unit of electricity like a litre of fuel for your car. You’d check the price of a litre of fuel at the garage. And with electric cars you check the price of a unit of electricity. Units of electricity are kilowatt hours (kWh).  

The price of electricity varies just like petrol, depending on where you are (home, supermarket, motorway etc.) and what kind of charge point you’re using. Let’s compare the Volkswagen ID.3 and its equivalent, the bestselling family favourite, the Volkswagen Golf.  

Electric vehicles only parking spaces

Charging your electric car at home 

All electricity companies have tariffs, on an average tariff you’ll pay about 29.9p per unit of electricity, so 29.9p per kilowatt hour (kWh). It costs 6.9p to drive the VW ID.3 for a mile, compared to 16p (with fuel at £1.48 a litre) to drive a mile in the petrol Golf. If you drove 100 miles from Chester to York, it would cost you around £6.90 in a VW ID.3 and around £16 in a Golf. That’s a serious saving.  
 
But it gets better. Plenty of electricity companies charge less at night, some off-peak tariffs like Economy 7 go as low as 9.5p a unit.

Charging your electric car in a public place 

If you charge your electric car in a public place, the cost of a unit of electricity goes up to around 50 – 80p a kWh, pushing your cost of driving a mile to about 13-21p. It’s the most expensive way to charge but look out for discounts and loyalty schemes which make it a bit cheaper. And even at the highest price, it still costs less than petrol or diesel. 

Electric car charge point

No tax and much cheaper maintenance 

You don’t pay tax for your electric car. However, from the 1st of April 2025 car tax will apply to all electric cars. One advantage of electric cars is they don’t break down as much as they are simpler machines than petrol or diesel. Electric cars hardly ever break down. And they rarely need new brake pads because the way you brake causes much less wear.   

What about servicing, MOTs and tyres?

Servicing is usually cheaper for electric cars. But MOTs are similar and wear and tear on tyres is about the same. The environmental benefits of switching to electric are a whole other conversation but they’re worth factoring in when you’re weighing things up. 

What about hybrids? 

We’ve kept the comparison simple, but hybrids roughly compare to petrol and diesel cars for running costs and fuel economy. You’ll pay more for fuel than electric but there’s less wear and tear on your brake pads. 

Is an electric car
right for me?

Discover electric cars that are available through our partner CBVC today.

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