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Should I buy an EV - real world advice needed.

beammeup

beammeup

pfm Member
I have the opportunity to buy an EV - from a local dealer - what seems to be a great price! It's a Vauxhall Corsa-e 50kWh SRi Premium (11Kw charger) - for £15,500 with only 5400 miles on the clock.

71 plate 2021.

I put a deposit down because these cars are so expensive new - and with this mileage this car is nearly new.

This would replace the second car (a quirky little Toyota IQ) which does a reasonable 58 mpg with zero road tax - admittedly 87,000 miles on the clock - however it's working just fine and we have no complaints about it for what we use it for.

Now I don't "really" need to change the IQ - I am pulled in by the deal and the thought that an electric car might pay back a good deal of my PCP monthly outlay. Average mileage 12,000 miles p/a.

I've fully paid off the IQ - and now I will be starting over with a PCP payout of £230 per Month over 48 Months.

So - are EV's really that efficient over the IQ in that I will get some pay back (I don't have solar panels)?

I know this isn't a fancy EV - but the opportunity is there to get it - however, I shouldn't necessarily buy for the sake of it either.
 
Will you be buying electricity for it, or do you have solar/storage/free charging at work?

What sort of journeys will it be doing?
 
The used cars in circulation/use will not change no matter the fuel. You buy the EV to replace a combustion engine vehicle, or someone else will - it matters not who.

The only thing that you need to add up are the £££££££

The only major effect is in what is selling, new.
 
Are you wondering if the cost of running the EV versus the iQ will pay back some of the £230 PCP cost? Not forgetting that at the end of the PCP term you'll have. final figure to pay if you want to keep the EV? And you're paying interest on the whole loan throughout the PCP term. At what rate?

Without looking at relative running costs, I'd be amazed if taking that Corsa added up. I think I'd stick £230 a month in an interest bearing account and see how the iQ continues to fare.
 
Have you a driveway?

If so, get a home charger and a smart-meter electricity tariff with very low rates in off-peak periods. You can program the car to only charge at certain times of the night. I'm not in the UK, so I can't give useful figures, but I get 3 hours of as much electricity as I want at around 13p per kWh every night, and that's when I charge the car.

Charger and installation is around £1000 - there may be UK government grants toward this, though.

Without knowing the PCP final balance, it's hard to give any more advice, but EVs only really become cheap if you're able to charge them at home...
 
Tony Lockhart said:
Will you be buying electricity for it, or do you have solar/storage/free charging at work?

What sort of journeys will it be doing?
Click to expand...

Yes I will likely be buying electricity for it, an no - no work benefits in that regard. Journeys will be up to the maximum the car can do on a full charge if I wanted a trip out - mostly local journeys perhaps - commuting to work (44 mile round trip).
 
KrisW said:
Have you a driveway?

If so, get a home charger and a smart-meter electricity tariff with very low rates in off-peak periods. You can program the car to only charge at certain times of the night. I'm not in the UK, so I can't give useful figures, but I get 3 hours of as much electricity as I want at around 13p per kWh every night, and that's when I charge the car.

Charger and installation is around £1000 - there may be UK government grants toward this, though.

Without knowing the PCP final balance, it's hard to give any more advice, but EVs only really become cheap if you're able to charge them at home...
Click to expand...

Yes I have a driveway - and I could look around for grants but I don't see anything so far. PCP final balance is £7100 if I decide to buy it outright after four years - but I probably wouldn't.

The thing I'm scratching my head over is that pump fuel prices are coming down and electricity prices aren't really "that" cheap - the IQ does 58 mpg with zero road tax and is working just fine and dandy. One could argue that it's about time I replaced the IQ and the EV would make a suitable replacement - but I'm not thinking like that at the mo'.
 
Ginger said:
Are you wondering if the cost of running the EV versus the iQ will pay back some of the £230 PCP cost? Not forgetting that at the end of the PCP term you'll have. final figure to pay if you want to keep the EV? And you're paying interest on the whole loan throughout the PCP term. At what rate?

Without looking at relative running costs, I'd be amazed if taking that Corsa added up. I think I'd stick £230 a month in an interest bearing account and see how the iQ continues to fare.
Click to expand...

I didn't think the Corsa savings would add up as such in a big way - but it might "effectively" shave approx £100 a month off the Monthly payments by way of fuel saving and servicing (isn't it cheaper to service an EV?) savings (based on 1000 mile per Month average) - but I'm not sure that is necessarily the case.

Sure, if I had a Monster gas guzzler right now as my second car ...
 
As a sanity check, punch the reg no into WBAC and see what the dealer margin spread is.
 
Grants for home EV 'chargers' went off line in March '22. There are grants available for work fitting chargers.
'Cheap' tarrifs for overnight charging.
Do the maths very, very carefully.
They increase both the daily rate and the standing charge substantially.
I would have been well out of pocket doing it for my PHEV.
Whatever the quoted range is - divide it by two for winter use. (Rough guide)
 
OK I will do a WBAC check in a mo' - online calculators fuel-wise only (not counting possible savings from servicing etc) show that for 100 miles the IQ (based on 58 mpg) will cost £11.65, and Corsa-e £6.85 (based on an electricity tariff of 32p per kWh).

Multiply that out by 120 equating to an annual 12,000 miles: EV = £822, Unleaded = £1398, so £576 saving over the year (fuel savings only) = £48 per Month savings going towards the £230, reducing my Monthly outlay to "effectively" £182 per Month.

My maths is poor so, correct me if I am wrong.
 
I have a home charger (cost £900 including installation) and now charge overnight with the energy company Octopus on their intelligent octopus tariff. This costs 7.5p per kWh so a charge of say 50 kW will be £3.75. That level of charge will get me about 200 miles of range. Service intervals are every couple of years so a bit cheaper than ICE cars.
 
Whether it's worth it depends on why you want to change.
If it's for saving money I'd say don't bother.
If it's for saving the planet, don't bother, you'll spend less carbon, energy and resources using your current car.
You want to drive a new car and can afford it? that's good enough reason.

You already have a paid for, cheap to run and reliable car.
Why replace it with a car you need to pay monthly for?

There are situations where replacing a petrol/diesel car makes sense, from what you've told us, it doesn't make sense.
 
My home charger cost £360, 7KW with a tethered type 1 connector.

There are other options that you can explore, for example :
32a-3-pin-single-phase-interlock-socket.jpg

71hFOnuT6XL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


The two items above cost about £250.
The adaptor end has selectable current, so you can lower the limit if you need to.
You can get the 32A socket fitted by any qualified electrician.
If the run is short then 6mm t&e, otherwise 10mm t&e to the CU.
 
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Sonority said:
Grants for home EV 'chargers' went off line in March '22. There are grants available for work fitting chargers.
'Cheap' tarrifs for overnight charging.
Do the maths very, very carefully.
They increase both the daily rate and the standing charge substantially.
I would have been well out of pocket doing it for my PHEV.
Whatever the quoted range is - divide it by two for winter use. (Rough guide)
Click to expand...
Been pondering this one too. Don’t have an EV yet, but may do in the next year or two.
The industrial unit I work from is on three phase and, as you say, an installation subsidy/grant would most likely be available, so that seems the sensible place to put the charger.
Home has a driveway, but single phase only and no installation grant.
However, home would be overnight charging so potentially much cheaper compared to work on daytime tariffs.
In the long term I would most likely end up with both, but at the start, I’m leaning towards putting the charger at work. Any major reasons why not?
 
There’s some comment on the other EV thread about the used costs of many EVs having dropped dramatically in the last 6 months, which suggests the Corsa the OP mentions might not be the unmissable deal he thinks it is.

Something else to factor in. It may not retain as much value as an ICE car either, if this trend continues.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
There’s some comment on the other EV thread about the used costs of many EVs having dropped dramatically in the last 6 months, which suggests the Corsa the OP mentions might not be the unmissable deal he thinks it is.

Something else to factor in. It may not retain as much value as an ICE car either, if this trend continues.
Click to expand...

A charger at work would be good, 3 phase would allow max charge rate easily.
With 3 phase you could go the DC route, but those are silly money imo for now.
Home changing probably limits max amp input to 22a (you would have to check this) as the car then does the conversion to dc to charge. (Max level 2?)
 
Sonority said:
A charger at work would be good, 3 phase would allow max charge rate easily.
With 3 phase you could go the DC route, but those are silly money imo for now.
Home changing probably limits max amp input to 22a (you would have to check this) as the car then does the conversion to dc to charge. (Max level 2?)
Click to expand...

Not many EVs can take advantage of 3 phase AC charging. Majority are SP with a max of 7KW, many plugin hybrids and some older EVs only half that at 3.6KW.
I've seen 3P AC to ChadeMo chargers, but they're expensive and obsolete really.

All domestic should be 7.2KW (32 amps at 240v), but some people went for half that to save a few quid or were given dumb advice by unscrupulous "professionals".


Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
There’s some comment on the other EV thread about the used costs of many EVs having dropped dramatically in the last 6 months, which suggests the Corsa the OP mentions might not be the unmissable deal he thinks it is.

Something else to factor in. It may not retain as much value as an ICE car either, if this trend continues.
Click to expand...

Take a look here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=255&t=2020026&i=0

Just in case some may think I'm an EV hater or some such - Definitely not, I'm on my second EV since 2014.
 
beammeup said:
Yes I have a driveway - and I could look around for grants but I don't see anything so far. PCP final balance is £7100 if I decide to buy it outright after four years - but I probably wouldn't.

The thing I'm scratching my head over is that pump fuel prices are coming down and electricity prices aren't really "that" cheap - the IQ does 58 mpg with zero road tax and is working just fine and dandy. One could argue that it's about time I replaced the IQ and the EV would make a suitable replacement - but I'm not thinking like that at the mo'.
Click to expand...
And the iq is likely to remain very reliable and the Vauxhall less so.
 
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