How do electric cars compare on cost?
How do electric cars compare on cost?
With an electric car, you’re saving money, you’re saving the environment and you get to drive a car of the future. What’s not to love?
The government encourages making the switch to electric by offering a range of grants and schemes to make buying an electric car cheaper. Read on to discover how you could benefit.
Easier to run
Electric cars not only cost less for the Earth, but also cost you less to run. Electricity is far cheaper than petrol or diesel, meaning you could reduce your running costs by a third.
Easier to service
Battery. Motor. Converter. That’s all an electric car needs. With fewer parts, it’s easier to diagnose problems and cheaper to fix them. Plug-in hybrids are also easier to maintain because their petrol engines are used less frequently.
Easier to protect
Electric cars are often cheaper to insure than their petrol equivalents. Take the Golf GTE for example, its insurance band is 25E whereas the TSI Golf GTI is in 39E. Given that insurance groups go from 1-50 in ascending order of cost, this could make you a substantial saving.
Electric cars are exempt from London’s congestion charge and can be driven in the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). This could save you up to £27.50 a day. Electric cars also get free parking in many areas of the UK.
Electric vehicles are completely exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED), more commonly known as road tax. This is because for cars registered after March 2001 the tax is calculated using the tailpipe’s CO2 emissions. If you choose an electric car as your company car, you’ll also pay no Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax.
The value stability of electric vehicles depends primarily on two factors: a competitive range and the durability of the battery. In both cases, you can sit back and relax in the new ID.3.
On the one hand, the ID.3 offers much longer ranges than most previous electric vehicles, making it suitable for everyday use and ensuring that it remains competitive for years to come. On the other hand, all ID. models come with a battery guarantee for eight years or 100,000 miles/160,000 km.
On the whole, we are expecting your ID.3 to reach the same residual value as a similar combustion engine vehicle in future.
The overall costs for an electric vehicle are likely to be similar to that of a comparable combustion engine vehicle – possibly lower. That’s thanks to attractive pricing and leasing instalments, expected government funding, good residual values and lower maintenance costs.
Ask our useful tool to calculate the total cost of owning any Volkseagen electric vehicle.
