EVs Remain Much More Expensive Than Petrol Cars
FEBRUARY 5, 2020
By Paul Homewood
With EVs back in the news again, it is time to check out latest prices.
We keep being told that EVs will soon be cheaper than conventional cars, but is there any sign of this happening?
The basic Nissan Leaf currently has RRP of £26345, but this includes the government rebate of £3500, shortly to be abolished. Therefore the real price is £29845.
nissan.co.uk
The Leaf is comparable to the Ford Focus, which comes in at £20645 currently:
ford.co.uk
This means that the Leaf will cost £9200 more than the Focus.
Fuel costs for the Focus, based on 10,000 miles a year and 45 mpg, would amount to about £1300 annually. Quite clearly even if the electricity for the Leaf was free, the extra cost of purchase could not be justified by lower running costs.
Worse still for the economics, about half of that £1300 goes to the government as fuel duty. When that revenue starts to decline rapidly, EV drivers won’t be exempt from making up the shortfall.
Some drivers will of course do more than 10,000 miles a year, but would also find the range problems of the Leaf more of an issue.
Given these these bald facts, it is not surprising that pure electric cars are still only making up 1.6% of new car sales. They are no more than a niche purchase, of little value to the vast majority of drivers.
There is no sign of that changing anytime soon.
Gamecock PERMALINK
February 5, 2020 3:10 pm
Paul, you completely leave out the greatest financial problem with the LEAF: depreciation is CATASTROPHIC. 71% in two years.
Not only does the electric* cost way more, it quickly becomes worth way less!
*Tesla is an exception. Their depreciation is comparable to non electric cars.
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