6k electric car scrappage scheme

[dodgy]

I think the old Model X with doors perpetually open is a bit tired now, we all know they're cool and all that. I also don't think the taxpayer should be helping wealthy people buy expensive new cars.

Just in case you think I'm on a downer with Tesla, I'll likely be ordering one once I know what's happening with the virus. The current £3000 contribution is already generous enough.

 

[RoadRider400]

People buying new cars already pay for it through massive deprecation of a new car versus old, our 2009 Mazda worth about £500 will get us from A to B just as well as our Tesla costing x100+ more. VED also does this a degree, a brand new combustion car can attract over £1K+ in first year VED.

The cost of depreciation is a consequence of choosing to buy a new vehicle. If you want to avoid depreciation then dont buy a new vehicle.

Point still stands that somebody replacing a vehicle every 3 years will have a greater carbon footprint than somebody who isnt. Assuming the emissions of said vehicles remain a constant. Indeed for most internal combustion cars the footprint of production is roughly the same as that produced by driving 30,000 miles driving in it.

 

[Electric_Andy]

The scrappage scheme just sounds like what Hoover were doing with vacumm cleaners - offering £x off a new one if you give them your old one. An inflated new price, and they say it's "green", but all they want to do is reduce the number of used vacumms in circulation so more people buy new ones (preferably theirs). I think also the EV makers might be latching on to the idea that charging at home isn't for everyone, so lots of ads for self-charging hybrids. As others have said, it's still a rolling con to get your money and discourage you from using any other form of transport than your shiny new car. Which is the exact opposite of what we need to be doing.

 

[gzoom]

We'd be interested in hearing what other problems you think they solve, or how they're in any way fundamentally "better" choice?

The bottom line for me is simply running costs. If I didn't have the Tesla I would have an equivalent performance petrol car.

I was saving for a £50Kish M5, and actually ordered a £50K Model S initially. But when the X was finally launched I couldn't resist so ordered a base spec X at £70K.

The running costs of the M5 would have been 20mpg of superunleaded so your looking at 27p per mile on fuel along. Having owned a twinturbo 335i I know you have to be mad not to service one which is around £500/year service, it'll also chew through brake pads like candy, roughly £200/year, £550/year VED. So doing 15K per year that's £5,300 a year in fuel/maintance.

Our X costs roughly 3p per mile in fuel rounded up, £0/VED, and I haven't serviced it in 3.5 years (the warranty is maintained regardlesss of servicing), so £450 a year - 10 times cheaper to run, for the same on road performance (not talking about track days here), with insurance/tyre costs equal.

You than come on the to issue of deprecation, our £70K X is now worth £50K so £20K deprecation in 3.5 years. If I had bought a £50K used M5 in 2017 (so a 2016 car), it'll be worth now about £30K, so exactly the same deprecation but much much higher running costs over 3.5 years.

I make no pretence about the 'green' credentials of EVs, for me its about having your cake and eating it. Crazy real world performance coupled with crazy cheap real world running costs, thats a no brainer for me.

 

[biggs682]

Some interesting theory's and answers but how can anything beat the total banning of all vehicles within a certain radius of town centres .

 

[Profpointy]

Some interesting theory's and answers but how can anything beat the total banning of all vehicles within a certain radius of town centres .

The snag with that is that it'll drive (unfortunate pun) a lot of people to live out of town and thus increase the need for using their cars to get anywhere. I live in the middle of a city (Bristol) so pretty much walk everywhere, but do use (and arguably need) a car maybe once a week. If I was no longer allowed to own one, or even bring a hire car to the house, I'd probably have to move. That said my house might halve in value so that'd kybosh my retirement plans too and I'd be completely buggered financially after a lifetime's saving. Maybe I'm being selfish but the loss to me personally would be crippling.

What I'd like is an easy way of hiring a car without a huge load of rigmarole and with weekend pick up and Sunday return. My car mostly sits idle so hiring would be perfectly economic, but the time and hassle factor pushes it into the "too hard" bracket

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Maybe it's jealousy but the thought of spending £70k on a car, any car be it EV or not is just beyond comprehension for me, 3 years wages on a car!

On the other side of the coin, B-I-L is paying £300+ a month to have his PCP car sat on the drive for the last 3 months to only drive it 10 miles a week to go to Aldi.

 

[dodgy]

Maybe it's jealousy but the thought of spending £70k on a car, any car be it EV or not is just beyond comprehension for me, 3 years wages on a car!

On the other side of the coin, B-I-L is paying £300+ a month to have his PCP car sat on the drive for the last 3 months to only drive it 10 miles a week to go to Aldi.

3 years of who's wages? Do you mean the average wage?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Do you mean the average wage?

Nope why would I? As that is around £30K however there are lots of people who can only aspire to that,

 

[dodgy]

Nope why would I? As that is around £30K however there are lots of people who can only aspire to that,

Still not sure what your point was Are you suggesting the buyer of a £70k car spent 3 of his own years wages on it? That would be a bit mad, wouldn't it? There probably are lots of people who over extend on financing cars to keep up appearances or for a variety of other reasons, but I doubt many are spending 3 years wages on it.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Self charging hybrids are a joke. Not exactly a green way of charging batteries is it?

 

[dodgy]

Self charging hybrids are a joke. Not exactly a green way of charging batteries is it?

Always fun when someone suggests to Robert Llewellyn they're a good thing

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Still not sure what your point was

Not sure if you are just trolling for a reaction, so I'll leave you with your conundrum as it seems very simple to me.

 

[dodgy]

Not sure if you are just trolling for a reaction, so I'll leave you with your conundrum as it seems very simple to me.

Honestly not trolling, I mean it. I simply asked you to clarify 🤷‍♂️ For now, let's just agree that splurging 3 years wages on a car is madness.

 

[vickster]

I'm assuming 70k doesn't represent 3 years of the poster's wages?