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

[MyHeartyBlueShaker]

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?

I love ours. They are really nice to drive and electricity costs about 1-2p per mile when we charge at home. We will only need to charge from a public charger on holiday. A few years ago I was standing next to a busy road in a busy city breathing in all the pollution and thinking how our cities will be so much cleaner when all cars are electric.

A major part of infrastructure that needs sorting is those who can’t have smart meters because they don’t work where they live or have a smart meter but it only works in dumb mode. I have a smart meter that is no longer smart, they won’t replace it because they don’t fit 3 phase smart meters, so I cannot access any time of use tariffs.

I can't wait until the povvos like me can own an electric car. Even if I could afford the car, I live in a flat so no chance of a home charger! I wonder if the cost of using a public charger will come down once the infrastructure improves?

Dunno but ours is always charged overnight at 8p/kwh when there is very little demand on the grid.

Yeah, I get that but if everyone had an electric car or 2, which is the direction we’re headed, then the demand goes through the roof during the day and night.

What is the resale value like?

Actually, I think the long range direction of travel will be to use EVs to improve the grid. Certainly Octopus has been trialling the use of car batteries to feed into the grid when it is low and discharge into cars when there is too much energy for capacity in the grid.

Or something like that.

No. They are/will be owned by car or fossil fuel companies

Nicer to drive
Cheaper to run in terms of fuel
Big perk as a company car with regards to tax
Don't have to go to a petrol station
No clean air charge (in cities where this is a thing)

Shocking. The lease companies are asking for taxpayer support.Worth looking at on eg YouTube Geoff buys cars

I’ve had my EV for almost 4 years and I mostly charge at home. The public charging infrastructure has improved a lot in that timeframe and on the occasions when I needed to charge en route I’ve always found a bank of empty chargers.

I would hate to go back to an ICE car, they’re sluggish to accelerate and more expensive to run, not to mention the fumes.

i consider it a perk to plug in to next doors charging point!

They are so much more expensive to buy than petrol cars - I have solar panels so could charge the car v cheaply at home but the purchase cost was still too high.

The infrastructure where I live (the Highlands!) is also just not good enough to have an EV as your only car.

We really like ours. We pay around £30 a month to charge it at home - we were paying twice that weekly for our previous petrol car.
We use public charging on road trips and even though it costs more than charging at home it is still cheaper than the petrol car.
Servicing is cheap - no expensive parts.
We wouldn't go back to a petrol car.

I absolutely love my electric. So easy to charge at home. A dream to drive. The only hassle is having to charge on a very long journey but that is rare as I get a good 200 mile range. You just need to Google where the charging stations are but there are plenty of them now.

I'd never go back. The massive saving in fuel is reason enough.

What's the insurance like?

We get free charging at work, so no fuel costs (as mainly used for commuting). It’s quieter. It’s lovely to drive. We have less exhaust in our local area. More space internally and no annoying hump on the floor for the person squashed in the middle on the back seat.

I don’t know if there is enough data yet, but it’s my expectation that newer electric cars will last longer and cost less to maintain than fossil fuel cars.

I do think hydrogen vehicles may replace them relatively soon, though.

No ULEZ or congestion charge in London

I think not contributing to air pollution in the local area is a positive.

I agree.

We have had two EVs and our next car will be a hybrid. For us, the benefits are being taken away (cheaper parking in central London etc) and we cannot have a home charger either. So as our overall mileage is low, actually the financials don’t make sense. We are better off getting a decent second hand hybrid and running it into the ground pretty much. Sad to say but the cost of lamppost charging is really going up a lot and we can’t justify the extra upfront price tag for an EV - and I’m sick of leasing costs etc.

So the bigger picture doesn't come in to it at all?

I pay about the same for my PHEV 24 plate SUV as I did for my 13 plate petrol. I think it was £20 a year more.

The London Congestion charge discount for EVs ends December 25 2025.

Our EV does around 220-250 miles on a full charge. Our energy price plan and the car app is set up to work together with the at home charger - no complicated cabling required as it's on our wall - to ensure that the car charges during periods when there is cheap energy, usually overnight but often during periods of windy weather. There's a section of our bills where electricity is something like 6.7p per kWh and that's typically coming to £8-10 per month, mostly accounted for by the car.

If you bought any car new or nearly new it shouldn't have mechanical issues within 2 years