How much cheaper is an electric car to run?

[BewareTheBeardedDragon]

Totted up the monthly cost of running my 12yo diesel people carrier - all in. With astronomical fuel prices now and additional pollution levies it is about £550 per month.

My preference would be to just get rid if I had the choice but sadly this is not logistically possible for a good few years yet.

So I'm just idly wondering, excluding the cost of buying it, how much the running cost of an electric car would be? Including and tax, insurance, maintenance, and electric costs.

I probably drive approx 300 miles per month averaged out.

Watching with interest as we are considering upgrading DHs car to electric, it will save us about £500 a month which could be put towards paying off a new car, I'm leaning towards a Tesla, but interested in others experiences.

www.zap-map.com/tools/journey-cost-calculator/ (There are other online tools) will give you a good idea of charging costs. Ours are barely noticeable on our bill (our whole electricity costs last month was under £50 for example) but we are on a very cheap historical tariff and have solar/battery so it won’t necessarily be comparable.

Thanks @Brogues I'll have a look.

@purpleboy how have you worked out the saving?

I do about 700 miles a month and it’s costing me £60 in electricity per month at 20p kWh. If that helps?

insurance is the same as our old car, cost will depend on which model you get/ financing etc. Fairly easy to find that out online.

Thanks. I'm also interested in the maintenance costs - for eg. That website linked above says the maintenance costs are less - is this true? Why is that, are electric engines simpler? I am lucky if I come out of my service and MOT with a bill under £1000 and it's a killer.

Mines a smart car, penny a mile in summer, two pence a mile in winter as batteries don’t like being cold.

Last service was £100.

Pffft... adult DS has a nice lekki car, it costs £40 to fast charge from empty to full at Morrisons. He can't have a home charger (right now). So he's still saving about ~£15 on a petrol equivalent car per filling, but not as good as he would get if he could charge at home. He bought his new so can't help you with MoT costs, but I suppose the whole vehicle is just simpler.

It depends how your charge. We charge at home between the hours of 1 and 4 am- with an octopus go Account it’s cheapest then. We also put dishwasher and washing machine on then too to benefit.

our monthly electricity bill is about £10
higher due to the charging. We are a low mileage household though (mostly wfh and local journeys).

if you used public chargers and did a lot of miles it would be a lot more expensive but the EV would still pay for itself within a few years.

bear in mind you also benefit from cheaper tax and less maintenance costs (less to go wrong). Also right now less depreciation as most EV models have several months of waiting list which means 2nd hand is only marginally cheaper than new or in some cases actually more expensive.

i was sceptical but we got ours 3 years ago now and honestly, never looked back.

That sounds like an extremely expensive public charger. I have never paid more than £17 at a public charger. My battery not huge though.

How many miles does he get out of that?

This is all interesting - thank you.

Yes just less to go wrong- less mechanical parts for starters. And the actual regular service charges re less.

We ran a Nissan leaf for a while. We bought it for £8k and sold it 2 1/2 years later for £4k. After taking into account the cost of electricity put into it and servicing we "broke even" on the £4k it cost us - we did 12,000miles a year.

We sold it due to moving to the middle of nowhere, with no possibility of installing a charging point, and we would've needed a much bigger range.

EVs are generally cheaper to service because you don't need things like oil changes. They're rubbish in the snow because of the automatic gearing and having lots of torque.

If you're only doing 300miles a month the savings in fuel won't compensate for the additional cost of getting a new EV.
That doesn't make it a bad idea. There are lots of good reasons to get an EV.

Bless you but that's a bit of a silly question. Electric cars don't have an engine nor a clutch not a gear box.

They have a huge battery, wheels and brakes so there is just a heck of a lot less to go wrong.

I thought the battery powered the engine like the fuel does. I'm quite practical but obviously completely clueless about most things car related that aren't in the cab with me...

They’re also super easy peasy to drive (all automatic)

How long do the batteries tend to last?

Hmm, I sometime drive my parents automatic car and I don't like it. It's very unresponsive.

I am on a cheap electricity tariff, it costs £15 per week to charge compared with £80 petrol. I do get quite a lot of free charge at venues I go to.
Things like a trip to the coast etc are not a cost consideration at all now.
My gas, electricity and car charge cost £200 per month and I have quite a big modern house.

Ours is 4 years old and not showing any signs of deterioration at all. No one really knows with the newest generation but best guess is 12-15 years after which there should be economical replacement options.

They are extremely responsive

just go test drive one.

No oil to change, fewer moving parts. Therefore the servicing is cheaper.
We went electric just over a year ago and I love it. Much prefer charging at home compared to going to a petrol station, and it's soo easy to drive.

The savings on maintenance may be one of the biggest draws so far.

How many miles do you get out of it and what car is it?

Have you considered leasing? Does your work have a scheme? I got mine through salary sacrifice and it is by far and away cheaper - though I do more mileage per month. It’s worthwhile checking as then service/insurance etc are covered by the monthly cost.

i do 1 to 2000 a month and my petrol costs were around £350-400 before the price hikes. Last month I spent just over £120 on charging.