Which electric car now?

[midlife]

Incidentally, I saw a very good cartoon that went along the lines of two guys talking about ev cars. Says the sceptic "Oh there are flaws and limitations to implementing this technology now, I'm just going to wait for that technology even though it's 15, 20 years away".

The problem with that is the climate crisis is now and no matter what technological solutions we come up with, there's always a seemingly better one on the horizon but we can't afford to do nothing.

And therein lies the rub in your last sentence. Lots of people can't afford to swap their ICE car for an EV

 

[geocycle]

EVs are much simpler than ICEs and should be no more expensive. The fact they are must be down to problems of obtaining component, much like bikes or electronics. Part is likely down to tooling up factories to produce at scale which has slowed due to the global situation of the last few years. Its also down to very high demand And short supply. The price gap is slowly closing.

 

[JhnBssll]

The other thing driving EV price heavily at the moment is the fact that the market is heavily driven by fleet requirements, company car perks and other incentives. Currently these are all aimed at the mid to high end of the new car market so naturally manufacturers are designing high spec cars to sell in these segments. As soon as there's a trend in the market for cheaper alternatives there'll be a flood of models appear very quickly I'd imagine.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

And therein lies the rub in your last sentence. Lots of people can't afford to swap their ICE car for an EV

Which is fine. "Can't" is a good reason not to do something, "Won't" isn't.

 

[Milzy]

Do you travel between places of work, or at a single site, just wondering why you qualify for a vehicle allowance

It’s my wife’s allowance but always doing a mixture of working from home, office work & visits. So I can be a named driver & use it myself.

 

[fossyant]

The new MG looks one of the most affordable, either that or the Leaf.

 

[gbb]

Were it me, the main considerations would be...
How much can I spend on one
How many miles do I do ?, if its a lot, I'd buy the car that offers the best mileage per charge within that pricepoint....not the best equipped of highest end model I could buy, simples.

 

[CXRAndy]

The Betamax remark is invalid. EVs are the VHS. The battle has been won. For the foreseeable EVs will be king.

It took 20 years for DVD to knock VHS off its top spot.

There is no viable alternative to BEV for the next 20 years at least. Besides manufacturers are all ready going down this route big style. They won't want to retool once committed

 

[FishFright]

And therein lies the rub in your last sentence. Lots of people can't afford to swap their ICE car for an EV

But it won't be very long before they can't afford to run ICE car either.

 

[vickster]

But it won't be very long before they can't afford to run ICE car either.

On my mileage (3-4k a year), the EV I want would need to cost far less than currently to offset petrol costs at £1.50 a litre.
The only one that might even vaguely appeal assuming range ok would be an E-Golf if I like on a test drive (not the fugly ID3) and those are still at least £25k for nearly new/low mileage (and only in seriously dull colours).

There need to be much more options for the type of car I want before that would change (not an SUV/not a saloon/not a small hatchback and certainly not white/ black/sliver/grey)
I'll be keeping my 10 year old low mileage petrol Skoda a fair while longer

 

[FishFright]

On my mileage (3-4k a year), the EV I want would need to cost far less than currently to offset petrol costs at £1.50 a litre.
The only one that might even vaguely appeal assuming range ok would be an E-Golf if I like on a test drive (not the fugly ID3) and those are still at least £25k for nearly new/low mileage. There need to be much more options for the type of car I want before that would change (not an SUV/not a saloon/not a small hatchback)
I'll be keeping my 10 year old low mileage petrol Skoda a fair while longer

ICE cars will be priced off the roads , it's already started and it won't be reversed.

 

[vickster]

ICE cars will be priced off the roads , it's already started and it won't be reversed.

I can happily afford to run mine for the foreseeable. It doesn't cost me much more to run than when I got it 10 years ago

 

[FishFright]

I can happily afford to run mine for the foreseeable. It doesn't cost me much more to run than when I got it 10 years ago

Have you worked that out or guessed ?

But on a serious note driving an ICE car won't stay affordable for very much longer for most people.

 

[vickster]

Have you worked that out or guessed ?

But on a serious note driving an ICE car won't stay affordable for very much longer for most people.

What increases are expected? Fuel is cheaper now than earlier in the year, VED goes up a few quid each year and my car is ULEZ compliant. Other running costs are no more than they’ve been (a few hundred a year).
Electricity costs for charging are rising too.

I need a car to support elderly parents who are pretty local. I don’t need to spend 20k on an EV to do 4k miles a year

 

[FishFright]

What increases are expected? Fuel is cheaper now than earlier in the year, VED goes up a few quid each year and my car is ULEZ compliant. Other running costs are no more than they’ve been (a few hundred a year).
Electricity costs for charging are rising too

All of them .
Also try not to extrapolate from your own single data point.