This. Even a ding to the battery casing is considered a write off as over half the value is the battery. Insurance premiums are only going to increase as the proportion of EV's increase.
EVs aren’t crap though, they’re really quite good. The new pricing is just prohibitive (but not for business users so a fair few about and filling the secondhand market), but secondhand demand is low because those buyers are not business salary sacrifice users - they’re private buyers. That means secondhand EVs end up side by side with VW Golf’s etc. So pure economics come in to play and demand is very low due to those factors as clearly a Golf will cost a lot less. That makes EV depreciation massive at the moment as secondhand EVs need to compete with much less expensive ICE cars. Add to that people’s reticence to make the leap from ICE to EV due to fear of change and the investment in chargers, insurance costs etc. It’s really not surprising that EVs are where they are at the moment. That’s having a knock on effect of making business lease costs higher now (because they’re priced based on expected depreciation, which is now massive, plus insurance costs etc). Then add in that BIK rates are going up - they’re gradually becoming less attractive to business users too. Overall it’s not good news for EVs. But like I said, they’re actually great cars! Given the choice we’d never have an ICE car again (if it didn’t come down to cost).
I assume you can charge at home at a reduced tariff. Unless this is an option EV ownership is going to be expensive and an inconvenience, no matter how good the vehicles are to drive.
Yes absolutely, it’s a game changer. Cost is around 2p/mile. Our Cali is about 25p/mile! Wouldn’t be without the Cali though.
A good, balanced OpEd of the current state of things. A rethink is long overdue.
i5 looks like a great car. Will certainly be on our shortlist when the time comes.
Reviews always quote a % depreciation figure over 3 years which wasn't too bad with the previous norm of 52% on a £26K new car but now that new are mostly over £50K and the 52% still applying it's daunting.
So how much do you reckon a two year old i5 will be in 2025?
When I first got into company EV ownership the energy rate at services was about 30p per kw, its now double that or more. Fossil fuels however have not increased at the pump anywhere near as much in the same time. Think this also needs to be addressed if nations are serious about increasing EV sales as not everyone can charge at home or has low enough consumption to avoid using public charging stations.
That's a very rare engine so not really representative.
Very true. Though your mileage would have to be very high to rely on public chargers if you have a home charger. We can easily get 20-30k miles of charge from our home charger each year without even thinking about it. It provides plenty of charge miles.
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