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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think there are no real perks to driving an electric car?

344 replies

MyHeartyBlueShaker · 15/04/2025 15:46

You’d think there would be more incentives - cheaper parking, easier charging access, or some kind of priority. But in reality, it often feels like there are just extra costs and hassle. What are the actual rewards?

OP posts:
Itsjustnotthevibe · 15/04/2025 16:33

The rewards are it's mega cheap to run, I never have to stop for petrol because I charge over night, our home charger cost hardly anything to install because we did it when there were government grants for them and I get half price parking at work. I love my EV, it's so fun to drive and so quick. I'm not sure I could go back to an ICE car now.

nobodywantsit · 15/04/2025 16:35

DelphiniumBlue · 15/04/2025 16:03

The safety ( electrical fires), the huge cost of replacing the battery, the distance that you can travel on a single charge and the not very accurate of the amount of charge left would all put me off buying an electric car. And the fact of needing to rail wires across the pavement or pay for underground cabling (over a grand around here) would also put me off. I don't understand how a poster only pays £3 for a charge that lasts 250 miles. Public charging points cost way more than that. Dh drives an electric vehicle for work sometimes and and a fully charged battery works for 100 miles max. It can be less, part of the problem is that sitting in traffic can use up charge disproportionately and reduce the range.
Why aren't the people responding to the OP mentioning these things? I'd have thought they outweigh any of the benefits.

Maybe people didn’t post about those issues as most of those things don’t apply to them.

How common are the fires?

Many EVs are on lease/PCP so the battery costs don’t apply or the battery is guaranteed if it did need replacing.

The car your husband uses has a very low range. Ranges can be great now and getting better.

The vast majority of EV drivers will charge at home usually and will likely have a driveway.

This last point need to be thought about to be able to expand EV ownership because many people don’t have driveways.

Motherknowsrest · 15/04/2025 16:37

DenholmElliot11 · 15/04/2025 15:53

We are still 20 years away from getting the infrastructure right but I do believe it's good for the future, it just isn't quite there yet.

I agree.

And "Eggnog?" 😁

indigovapour · 15/04/2025 16:38

DelphiniumBlue · 15/04/2025 16:03

The safety ( electrical fires), the huge cost of replacing the battery, the distance that you can travel on a single charge and the not very accurate of the amount of charge left would all put me off buying an electric car. And the fact of needing to rail wires across the pavement or pay for underground cabling (over a grand around here) would also put me off. I don't understand how a poster only pays £3 for a charge that lasts 250 miles. Public charging points cost way more than that. Dh drives an electric vehicle for work sometimes and and a fully charged battery works for 100 miles max. It can be less, part of the problem is that sitting in traffic can use up charge disproportionately and reduce the range.
Why aren't the people responding to the OP mentioning these things? I'd have thought they outweigh any of the benefits.

Almost every word of this is just bollocks.

if you think batteries are a fire risk then I’m afraid I have some very bad news for you concerning petrol.

a full charge in my car costs just under a fiver on the Octopus overnight rate and will get me about 200 miles in the depths of winter to over 300 in summer.

sitting in a traffic jam uses almost exactly zero battery because the car isn’t moving…

I don’t know why people persist in posting nonsense like this. There are real potential downsides to electric cars - charging infrastructure being the obvious one for people who don’t have off street parking, but if you muddle that perfectly valid point in with all the other crap you’re banging on about you make it very clear that you’ve no idea what you’re talking about.

HarryVanderspeigle · 15/04/2025 16:39

Rocknrollstar · 15/04/2025 15:54

Saving the planet

Surely no one believes that personal motorised vehicle ownership is planet saving? To do that we would need a total rethink, not just keep basing our transport on horse pulled carts.

I'm hoping for a great leap in the advancement of driverless vehicles as the next step. We would need fewer, as they would spend less time sitting still on driveways. Resource management could be centralised for efficiency. I could go on with benefits, although really i am selling the dream as I hate driving!

Longer term, we would need to accept that communal transport is generally more energy efficient.

kindlyensure · 15/04/2025 16:39

DenholmElliot11 · 15/04/2025 15:53

We are still 20 years away from getting the infrastructure right but I do believe it's good for the future, it just isn't quite there yet.

TBF, the Tesla infrastructure is bloody amazing. (Mr Tesla, not so much)

Chersfrozenface · 15/04/2025 16:40

We usually can't park on the street outside our terraced house - sometimes the only available space is in the next street. There are no lamppost chargers and the council has no plans to instal any.

Fast chargers cost more per mile than petrol or diesel. Slower chargers would make journey times so long as to be impractical.

We camp a lot and need a large estate car which is heavy on any fuel when fully loaded. Public fast chargers are sparse in many places we go - I've checked the maps.

So for us the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

Cyclebabble · 15/04/2025 16:41

I have an EV via a company scheme. It is very cheap to run. I get c 270 miles for four quid or so and as I have a large range of solar panels I could argue that this is largely free. In terms of parking privileges, you can at the moment (changes at the end of the year), drive into central London without paying the congestion charge. Depends where you live, but I can drive in and park for free in the City at weekends which is good. High speed chargers are expensive, but still means that my running costs are cheaper than petrol or diesel. If I were paying for the car personally then I could not get the figures to add up.

nobodywantsit · 15/04/2025 16:41

BumpyaDaisyevna · 15/04/2025 16:16

Lovely to drive and costs so little to run if you have a home charger. Nothing much to go wrong with it.

Have never met anyone who’d gone electric and then decided they wanted to go back! They must be out there of course but I’ve never met one ….

So easy to drive too!! None of that gear changing with your left hand and clutch operating with your foot. Mine brakes when you raise your foot off the accelerator so I barely touch the brake pedal either. It’s like driving a very high spec safe hi tech golf buggy 🛺

I know one person but the car range was too low and they were driving a lot for work. That was about choosing the style of car over a decent range though. It hasn’t put them off electric but they do regret the car they chose.

DiscoBeat · 15/04/2025 16:45

I love mine. It's a lot cheaper to run. The acceleration and braking are amazing. It's not belching out fumes and I don't have to trek off to the garage for fuel every week.

Boredlass · 15/04/2025 16:47

I get free charging at work. Haven’t paid a penny for electric in 4 years. I have solar panels as well so that can be free to use when I need to charge at home which is rare.

Ginandthings · 15/04/2025 16:49

I’m switching back when my lease expires but that’s because the car doesn’t suit the driving that I do.
I have a Tesla model 3 long range but motorway driving is a killer for the range, I can just about get 240 miles if the weather is ok, unfortunately it’s often not ok so on the 230 miles round trip I do about twice a month I am getting hammered for costs at super chargers. The public charging cost (plus time) is the reason mine will be going, but I can imagine if you aren’t regularly driving long distances on motorways then they make sense from a cost perspective.

ziggazigboom · 15/04/2025 16:52

How would it work for us who live in terraced houses with no driveway? A few of my neighbours have EVs and charge them at a charging point on the next street. My local area has a lot more of these points around now but I imagine they won’t be anywhere near as cheap as charging at home?
The only time we drive any serious distance is when we go on holiday and drive through France/ Belgium etc. What is the EV infrastructure like in Europe? Actually do recall seeing lots of Tesla charging points in France but we’d never get one of those for multiple reasons!

Rollercoaster1920 · 15/04/2025 16:53

I like the automatic, press to go, relative silence of electric vehicles.

I do question the no / low maintenance cost views. My petrol car has mainly cost on consumables that an electric car will also use. Tyres, brakes and fluid, air con re-gas, electrical gremlins (central locking!), gas struts, pollen filters. Plus an MOT every year.

In addition the annual service adds oil changes, and every couple of years spark plugs, and every 5 a cambelt. But they aren't expensive really. I did need a clutch which was £700 , but that was after 12 years! Dealer servicing to retain the warranty puts costs right up compared to independents or DIY.

Some electric cars have a 2 year service / inspection schedule which save some time / hassle. But batteries are only warrantied for 8 years by Vauxhall and BMW. Replacing them is a LOT. Probably more than the car is worth at that age. So I expect lower initial maintenance costs, then a really big one.

eurochick · 15/04/2025 16:53

We’ve got one of each.

The EV is incredibly cheap to run - we haven’t got a charging point installed yet ( we will do when we get some other works done) but it charges overnight on a three pin plug. The electric bill hasn’t noticeably increased. It’s lovely to drive - very smooth, good acceleration, quiet. And it isn’t belching out pollution. It is also great not to have to go to the petrol garage and queue for fuel.

We bought ours second hand and the range is a bit lower than advertised and can drop quickly in winter. With heater and lights plus our local hills it will use about 15 miles of range to travel five miles. If it was our only car I would want a bigger newer battery. But as our second car mainly doing local journeys it is great. We charge it once a week and that is plenty for school runs and trips to the station for commuting.

We got it as a bit of an experiment but we will be comfortable going for an EV for our main car when we replace that in a couple of years.

ilovesushi · 15/04/2025 16:53

I love ours. Easy to drive. Easy to charge at home. Cheap to run. Only annoyance has been having to hang around a service station at the dead of night to recharge it on the way back from the airport. But I'm sure the super fast charging technology and availability will catch up soon.

I'm not convinced about how much better they are in terms of environmental impact. They still need to be manufactured and need an energy source and infrastructure to run.

I did find it weirdly silent inside the car initially. It was unnerving to hear people's conversations on the street as I passed. Also found the motion strangely smooth and felt a bit queasy at first. Used to it now.

FlowerFairy12 · 15/04/2025 16:55

We’re not overly keen on ours tbh and are planning on getting a hybrid next time. It’s fab for pootling around where we live but long distances are a real pain in the butt.

Sahara123 · 15/04/2025 16:55

Gustavo77 · 15/04/2025 15:51

Ease and pleasure of driving
Being massively cheaper to run. I get 250miles for just over £3
Not having to go into petrol stations
Very little to go wrong in electric cars
Servicing only every three years
Decent road tax pricing

I could go on but suffice to say, I'd never go back to a mechanical car.

Yup. All of this .
Another thread where no electric drivers don’t get it and electric drivers love it ?!

Sahara123 · 15/04/2025 16:58

Bunnycat101 · 15/04/2025 16:00

If you’re doing the right sort of mileage it’s brilliant. It is saving us a lot as my husband commutes an hour each day and can charge on cheap rates overnight. Where it isn’t so good is really long distance routes where you have to ‘fill up’. A charge is pretty much the same price as petrol and the charging points can be temperamental and faffy.

Just done Scotland and back, no problems at all . Love it

Angrygirl · 15/04/2025 16:59

We can't charge at home due to not having a drive and charging it is proving very challenging, even though we live in a big city.

A lot of places (tourist attractions, supermarkets etc) say they have electric charging points but they aren't maintained / updated so don't actually work and often you're still charged and have to claim it back!! Or there's just 1 point and if it's being used then that's that.

We spend way too much time just driving around trying to find somewhere to charge.

Redpeach · 15/04/2025 17:01

Its a perk for others to breathe cleaner air. Drivers are pretty self centred creatures

Pedallleur · 15/04/2025 17:02

Depreciation seems a big issue. Charging obv if you can't home charge. Saving the planet? Only in a not using oil way. Car still costs to make and batteries are not friendly for those who have mine the minerals

Upstartled · 15/04/2025 17:03

Humans are pretty self centered creatures. In that vein, the air quality in the cabin of an electric car is generally better for the occupants than in a ice vehicle.

Chocaholic1216 · 15/04/2025 17:04

Costs my husband less than £10 to charge it to drive around 300 miles

Boomer55 · 15/04/2025 17:05

MyHeartyBlueShaker · 15/04/2025 15:46

You’d think there would be more incentives - cheaper parking, easier charging access, or some kind of priority. But in reality, it often feels like there are just extra costs and hassle. What are the actual rewards?

It’s a car. Why do you need rewarding?🤷‍♀️