Tipping point for EV being the most cost effective motoring fast approching.
Price Parity - the point where the costs involved in changing to an EV over a petrol or diesel car - could be as little as 2 years away. New Automotive, an independent transport research organisation, have released their latest report looking at cost of ownership for EV's. By analysing a sample of 7 EV's with a comparable petrol equivalent across the most common funding options of buying the vehicle outright, using Personal Contract Purchase, and Leasing. The headline points from the report are:
- Costs upfront for an EV are roughly 12% more than a similar petrol vehicle.
- In 30% of the options payback for this was within 1 year
- Within 2 1/2 years or less, a further 25% hit the payback point.
- For drivers taking any of the EV options, over 4 years, regardless of funding method savings could be between £3,000 and £7,000.
Amongst all the data compiled to generate these statistics, one of the key factors is that how a driver chooses to charge an EV can make a large impact on the overall savings. While using a 13A plug allows any EV to be charged at home, it prevents owners from accessing some of the lower rate EV charger rates offered. Some manufacturers going as far as no longer supplying this hardware as standard, for example BMW removed this from their EV range as standard equipment across their range this time last year, meaning a driver would have to purchase this separately increasing the initial outlay slightly. These 13A charging cables also increase charging time significantly, and are the least efficient potentially loosing 10%-30% of the energy being lost to heat. Public charging was calculated to be the most expensive way to recharge an EV for the average driver, and the report calls for the a reduction in VAT on the public charging network. The recent House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee Report highlighted this, and no clear outcome was reached and needs addressed to support the policies for Zero Emissions.
As part of looking ahead to helping incentivise consumers, one of the factors that could make the largest impact would be to supporting home charger installs, especially for used EV buyers. Many car brands have some form of offer for new car purchasers to receive some form of charging offer. However with used EV prices as low as £2,500 (at time of writing) for an early Nissan Leaf, supporting the 2nd or 3rd owner is just as important. Regardless of cost and brand of a used EV, home chargers and installs will not vary. With this being our core business at Lemac Power, we know that everything we do for an install is entirely independent of what vehicle you drive, and do everything we can to make sure that your install is the best possible value we can provide for this reason. We understand our part in the overall larger picture of helping customers find the benefits of EV driving, along with the savings that our customers can make.