You also cannot buy a new Ford Ka for £3.5k. If no one buys new EVs, there is zero change you will ever be able to buy an used EV for £3.5k.
Are we being forced to go electric?
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You also cannot buy a new Ford Ka for £3.5k. If no one buys new EVs, there is zero change you will ever be able to buy an used EV for £3.5k.
A mere bagatelle
On the subject of heaters, back in't day, I owned two VW Beetles. They were reknown for the cables to the heating shutoff panels to rust through. On one, they had rusted open; great in the winter, but in the summer, cor - ! T'other they'd rusted closed, so in the winter, we froze our a***s off - !
The heater channels also rust through, the heating on air cooled beetles is completely useless
midlife
Guru
There are people buying new EVs but still couldn't buy a used EV for my budget.
There are many buyers who would buy a used EV if they were within their budget.... Me for one.
cyberknight
As long as I breathe, I attack.
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My employer is working toward a car sharing/ use on demand future where you dont own a vehicle permanently but lease when needed .
vickster
Squire
What's the situation with the batteries on one of those though, ie the cost of replacement? I've never personally bought a car with more than 50k miles on the clock and don't intend doing so in the future
Replacing a battery on a leaf costs about £2000 now for a refabricated battery. It used to cost £20,000. Those 5-6k leafs will likely be first generation where the battery lasts about 100,000 to 150,000 miles. If it's second gen it's worth 200,000-300,000 miles. Although age degradation is also a thing. For newer cars, the battery is likely to last longer than the Car.
That doesn't mean that the battery stops working, it just means that the range gets pretty short. For the original leaf (2011/12), it only started at about 73 or 109 miles tops (depending on how measured), so if 50% of the battery is gone, that does make your range short - although fine for a runabout.
Looking on Autotrader I can see a 2011 leaf with 20,000 miles on the clock for 5k, but also one with 112,000 miles for 4.7k.
Nope - and I totally agree with you that there isn't really an EV small estate that isn't extremely expensive. Closest match is an ID4 and the cheapest second hand one I can find is £38,000, which is only about 5k cheaper than new.An old Leaf still doesn't meet my small estate practicality non-negotiable criteria though
There was an MG estate parked around the corner, simply too big for me, not sure it would fit on my drive for starters!
vickster
Squire
Which is an utterly ridiculous amount of money for a car imo!
I'll not disagree. The only reason I am able to get one is that it is a company car, so I am not paying for about half of it. The down side is that I don't own it at the end of the lease either 😢
Although you do have to factor in:
- Over 50% less cost in fuel (at the moment) - over 80% less if only home charging. Over 4 years at current rates, Diesel will cost me about £10,000. Leccy about £2,000
- Almost no maintenance required.
- No ULEZ or Congestion charge fees
- No road tax (at the moment)
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vickster
Squire
I do under 3k miles a year, the petrol costs aren't a burden for me even at around 180p a litre for super UL.
(my car is probably worth more than a year ago, VED is about £15 a month, insurance £400, no idea what a £30k EV would cost to insure, MOT £50, I've done so few miles since the last service I won't bother with anything more than an oil change this year, large service was last year)
I would never ever break even on a £30k EV - even if it never depreciated as I would lose the interest on the money to buy the thing
Presumably you have some level of tax burden on a Company car, even an electric one?
I expect the next battery powered mode of transport I buy (if any) would have 2 wheels and pedals that go round
(my car is probably worth more than a year ago, VED is about £15 a month, insurance £400, no idea what a £30k EV would cost to insure, MOT £50, I've done so few miles since the last service I won't bother with anything more than an oil change this year, large service was last year)
I would never ever break even on a £30k EV - even if it never depreciated as I would lose the interest on the money to buy the thing
Presumably you have some level of tax burden on a Company car, even an electric one?
I expect the next battery powered mode of transport I buy (if any) would have 2 wheels and pedals that go round
The benefit in kind tax is 1% at the moment - so not much :-)
I spend about £200 per month on diesel, so that's about 800-900 miles in a month. That should reduce to about £20-£30 on leccy. So of the £425 lease, £150 is diesel savings. So cost wise it's about the same as I used to pay when I was buying the scenic but without the need for a deposit or to buy insurance.
So yes, it is money down the drain but it means we have a nice new electric car for when we need a car (which is most days).
But I agree that everyone has their own use case, and for many if not most people, it's difficult to justify the cash on electric. The best way to change it over is to learn from Norway where EVs are cheaper than ICE cars thanks to punitive taxes on ICE cars and incentives on EVs.
vickster
Squire
Norway has bucket loads of money from selling oil to other countries and then subsidising EVs for its tiny 4m population. Not really comparable to the U.K.
What’s the French or Italian stance on EVs for example of countries with a comparable population to here?
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