Would you buy a electric car?

[ghtt]

So I need a car for my new job after only having one car that my husband uses, I can only drive a automatic, so debating a electric car, would you get one?

I think people mean that because of the higher purchase price even though the fuel source is cheaper the whole thing is not cheaper.

Good point. We also have a petrol estate for doing longer journeys. We do as much driving as possible on electric to reduce fuel costs but as we consciously bought a low range EV have a fuel car for distance. We couldn't justify the cost of a large EV as to get what we would needed cost more than an older fuel car plus petrol and associates costs.

I'd get a hybrid

They are cheaper to run if you can charge at home (or work etc), which not everyone can. Electricity from a garage can cost nearly as much as petrol per mile.

However, unless you have been given the car for free, you have to factor in the purchase or lease price. And like for like, electric is much higher than petrol. As I said above, my £8k petrol car was £19k in the electric version, for a car only a few months newer.

Now I don't know about you, but if I'm comparing two very similar things that do the same job but one costs £11k more than the other, I'm going to have a really good think about whether that extra £11k is worth it, and how long it will take for the cheaper running costs to add up to £11k. For me, it was about a decade so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Now, I'm not completely against electric cars, although I do have some reservations about the viability of the infrastructure, as evidenced by all the queues at service stations over Christmas because lots of people were travelling longer distances in their electric cars and also the fact that as a nation, we don't currently have the generating capacity for a massive increase in demand for electricity that would be needed for 'everyone' to convert to electricity. So my current hope is that, in 10-15 years time, when the time comes that my little petrol car needs replacing, that the infrastructure will have developed to match demand and there'll be a decent scrappage scheme in place to make the cost look sensible because, if not, I might be looking to get one of the last newish petrol cars in 2029 instead to buy some more time before electric is forced on me.

@Userusing1 - ours is cheaper. We aren’t in uk, so insurance and fuel used to be very high. And repair costs and not high also.
Old 17 year old small car - 180 insurance, 150 petrol =€320 min a month.
Not including annual mot, emergency cover, compulsory tire changes (winter/summer), and repair bills and every mot or in between ( we had new axel , exhaust, battery, brake pads all in the last few years costing small fortune) - averaged an extra 200 a month. Ie mot and repairs were 1500 alone last time before we sold.

Our electric Costs €400 a month. That includes all insurances, mot, repairs, car replacement, aa, tire changes, and cost of electric.
It’s a fixed cost, no unexpected large repair bills, no high insurance.
And we now drive a brand new nice car, not a rusty banger than was costing us the Same or more a month

Thank you all! Lots to think about.

No because the local charging infrastructure is pretty sparse and I live in a flat so no option to have a charging point at home although this doesn't seem to stop my neighbour who currently has a cable trailing across the path and into his letterbox

Yes, have Hyundai Kona, love it. 500 k range, charge at home or in town. Amazing to drive.

Our EV is a company car and is working out considerably cheaper, both from a tax and running cost point of view. The only issue is that DH's company gives a lower mileage allowance for work trips in an EV and whilst that is fine if he's charged at home it doesn't always cover the cost if he uses commercial chargers, which of course is necessary on long trips. Of course the fastest chargers are the most expensive so you have to balance off speed and cost. Overall we are saving quite a lot, but I agree with PPs that if you factor in purchase cost and cost of having a charger installed, it's not so clear cut. Oh, and tyres for our car are eye wateringly expensive. Not a worry for us, but it would make me think twice if I was making a private purchase.
The first few weeks took a bit of getting used to, but now we are in the right habits we love it and don't worry about long journeys etc. The charging infrastructure still has a way to go, but they are popping up all over the place now and getting faster too - we "filled up" in 8 minutes at a supercharger recently, which is barely longer than you would spend in a petrol station (that was expensive though!) and longer charges can generally be timed to coincide with a meal or drinks break. You do have to plan more carefully, no doubt about it, but it's getting noticeably easier even in the time we have had our EV. I've still got a conventional car but am seriously considering electric when I next replace it - it does now seem rather agricultural compared to DH's and it's a pretty good car itself.

Yes. We just ordered ours for a 2024 delivery. A lot of cars are taking ages to arrive these days anyway, and I think by the time ours arrives, the infrastructure will be that much better.

@Mark19735

'freeloading off the neighbourhood' ???

How on Earth is parking on the road, freeloading??

That's not correct.

I recently bought one and love it. The infrastructure is very good where I live. We have a charge point at home and most supermarkets and car parks in my area also having charging points. Parking is sometimes free if you charge. It’s so quiet and no diesel fumes either! The only downside is long trips take a little more planning.

Dh has just got one.

I wouldn't have one. He now has to plan long journeys carefully and they will take longer. He's also planning based on the services charger working and being free. Quite often this doesn't seem to be the case.

We've just been quoted £1300 to install a home charger 🙄

The fear of running out of electricity is too big for me.

Oh, and since having an EV my idea of convenience has changed. When we first got it, I was thinking "hmm, all this having to think about charging is a bit of a pain" but having been using DH's car a lot recently I've taken mine on a couple of moderately long journeys this week and as I got in and looked at the fuel gauge yesterday I thought "Shit. I am going to have to go somewhere to get fuel. What a nuisance". I've got so used to just plugging in at home that now going to a petrol station feels inconvenient!😂
It's just different. If you expect to be able to drive an EV exactly the same as an ICE powered car you'll be disappointed but if you change your mindset a bit they have advantages. DH just got a message on his phone in fact, reminding him when his car is due it's next service. November 2025.

No, we have a hybrid. It is supposed to do 40+ miles on a charge. The max I have had is 25-ish, on cold mornings I am lucky to get 15. When we first had our charging unit installed on our house it broke, there was a 3 week wait to fix it. That would have been a huge PITA if we had a full electric car. Public electric charging provision is woeful around here and if you travel on major motorways, particularly at holiday time, you will find there is insufficient provision and you will probably have to queue.

if you travel on major motorways, particularly at holiday time, you will find there is insufficient provision and you will probably have to queue
There are loads of chargers short distances from motorway junctions that are usually quicker, cheaper and less busy then motorway services and there are numerous apps to help you find them. At Christmas when there were all those pictures in the press of huge queues at a popular services we were charging on an almost empty bank of 150kW chargers probably less than 5 miles away. We don't buy electricity from motorway services any more often than we ever bought their ridiculously over priced petrol.

No, for lots of reasons. One of them being I live in the area end of nowhere so the infrastructure for them is crap.

When I lived in a council house with no driveway there was a car park 50 yards away.

When I was a kid, I used to roller-skate down our street for hours each day. Needed to watch out at around 6pm when one or two commuters came home from work, but other than that the street was pretty much a playground. Now every soccer mum is parking her Chelsea tractor there, I can't. My kids' amenity of these public spaces has been substantially reduced as a result of all these cars being parked on the road. They're not paying for it, but they are stopping everyone else using it. That's what I mean by freeloading.

@Mark19735 car drivers pay a road fund licence. As long as they're parked legally, how is it freeloading?

Yes, I did and I love it! Best thing I ever did.

The infrastructure here for electric cars is appalling and until that changed I won't be getting one.

I run my card until they're uneconomic to repair anyway so I get the best use out of them. And carbon footprint wise it has to be best to use the car I've got until it's dead rather than buy a new car.

We've got a Kia e-Niro, which is fully electric, and it's great. No complaints. Goes more than 300 miles on one charge but it's much cheaper than a Tesla. We bought ours secondhand - it's a slightly odd shade of brown so it cost less than the other colours.

We live in a rural hamlet of 3 houses and it works fine for us 🤷‍♀️