New car time. To EV or not to EV?

New car time. To EV or not to EV?

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Discussion

TypeR

Original Poster:

1,146 posts

246 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
Mrs Type R has a fairly long commute and racks up approx 17,000 a year in her Fiat 500 80% of which is motorway. The car is still running fine, but now has 97,000 on the clock.
One way or another we'll need a loan to finance anything less than 5-6 years old, so I need help to work out if buying an electric vehicle is going to pay for it'self financially.

My man maths shows an annual spend of approx £2500 pa on fuel, tax is £30 and insurance is about £250. Maintenance and consumables approx £500 pa. Carwow values her car at £3,800.

So, can I finance an electric car on a PCP deal for similar yearly outgoings.
The boss likes the look of the Honda e:NY1, and Honda's current deal on them looks tempting.


We've not bought a brand new car for a very long time and have not used PCP before, so i'm looking for some advice.





Jimjimhim

1,559 posts

7 months

Sunday 14th July
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Depreciation is your biggest cost, so if it's purely about saving money then it's probably best to just keep what you have.

PetrolHeadInRecovery

152 posts

22 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
TypeR said:
Mrs Type R has a fairly long commute and racks up approx 17,000 a year in her Fiat 500 80% of which is motorway. The car is still running fine, but now has 97,000 on the clock.
One way or another we'll need a loan to finance anything less than 5-6 years old, so I need help to work out if buying an electric vehicle is going to pay for it'self financially.

My man maths shows an annual spend of approx £2500 pa on fuel, tax is £30 and insurance is about £250. Maintenance and consumables approx £500 pa. Carwow values her car at £3,800.

So, can I finance an electric car on a PCP deal for similar yearly outgoings.
The boss likes the look of the Honda e:NY1, and Honda's current deal on them looks tempting.


We've not bought a brand new car for a very long time and have not used PCP before, so i'm looking for some advice.
No first-hand knowledge of the car or owning an EV in the UK in general, but I noticed that the price of a used 2020 e-Golf (similar mileage) and a home charger would be about the same as your fuel budget for four years. The range might be enough for ~90mile(?) daily trip, charging option at work nice to have but you might be able to do without.

If I read the UK EV tariffs right, fuel costs would drop to about 350£/year, depreciation wouldn't be much worse than FIAT's, and maintenance/consumables might bring in some additional savings.


tr3a

576 posts

234 months

Sunday 14th July
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Two pieces of extra information would help: how much does your wife commute in a day and can you charge at home?

chunkyjh

116 posts

175 months

Sunday 14th July
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I would imagine those miles would be fairly prohibitive on a PCP as the likes of the Honda deal is for 6000 miles PA. You'd be better off buying with a loan so you're not restricted to mileage

TypeR

Original Poster:

1,146 posts

246 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
tr3a said:
Two pieces of extra information would help: how much does your wife commute in a day and can you charge at home?
Hi commute is 30 miles each way, and we can charge at home.

Merry

1,418 posts

195 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
I'd be looking 2nd hand, 50kwh Zoes, e208s and the like if they're big enough.

Zoes in particular can be had for around £10k with warranty left on the and will easily do the milage.

I wouldn't be buying new at the moment, particularly with the miles you're doing.

TheDeuce

25,227 posts

73 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
TypeR said:
Mrs Type R has a fairly long commute and racks up approx 17,000 a year in her Fiat 500 80% of which is motorway. The car is still running fine, but now has 97,000 on the clock.
One way or another we'll need a loan to finance anything less than 5-6 years old, so I need help to work out if buying an electric vehicle is going to pay for it'self financially.

My man maths shows an annual spend of approx £2500 pa on fuel, tax is £30 and insurance is about £250. Maintenance and consumables approx £500 pa. Carwow values her car at £3,800.

So, can I finance an electric car on a PCP deal for similar yearly outgoings.
The boss likes the look of the Honda e:NY1, and Honda's current deal on them looks tempting.


We've not bought a brand new car for a very long time and have not used PCP before, so i'm looking for some advice.
If you're spending around £3000 on maintenance and fuel a year... that saving alone would go a long way towards simply leasing a new EV. I would imagine the savings would easily out compete with anything ICE you could buy once you factor in monthly depreciation too.

https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/hybrid-electric...



Sheepshanks

35,059 posts

126 months

Sunday 14th July
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This is same use-case (65 mile round trip commute) as I'm looking at for one of my daughters. We're currently waiting to see if the salary sacrifice scheme her firm is looking at happens, and if so, what the pricing is, but everything I'm hearing suggests it won't be a good deal at normal mileages and 20K really kills it.

If that fails, then thinking is to buy something like a 2-3yr old Hyundai Kona, approved used come with 5yrs warranty, hopefully for high teens £K. Run it for 5yrs and assume it'll be worthless at that point - any upside will be a bonus. My hesitancy is it'll be the previous shape Kona and they look old now compared to the new one. Same applies to Kia Niro.

Thinks like Mokka look amazing value but too many horror stories.

TheDeuce

25,227 posts

73 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
This is same use-case (65 mile round trip commute) as I'm looking at for one of my daughters. We're currently waiting to see if the salary sacrifice scheme her firm is looking at happens, and if so, what the pricing is, but everything I'm hearing suggests it won't be a good deal at normal mileages and 20K really kills it.

If that fails, then thinking is to buy something like a 2-3yr old Hyundai Kona, approved used come with 5yrs warranty, hopefully for high teens £K. Run it for 5yrs and assume it'll be worthless at that point - any upside will be a bonus. My hesitancy is it'll be the previous shape Kona and they look old now compared to the new one. Same applies to Kia Niro.

Thinks like Mokka look amazing value but too many horror stories.
I don't see any reason to expect the 7-8 year old car will be worthless. Why would you think that?

I would imagine at very least it would be worth the deposit on another 2-3 year old car.

As for the new shape concern - that's always a problem when buying a 2-3 year old car. You just have to accept you're buying it at a price that reflects it will take a bit of a hit when you come to sell it.

Sheepshanks

35,059 posts

126 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
I don't see any reason to expect the 7-8 year old car will be worthless. Why would you think that?

I would imagine at very least it would be worth the deposit on another 2-3 year old car.

As for the new shape concern - that's always a problem when buying a 2-3 year old car. You just have to accept you're buying it at a price that reflects it will take a bit of a hit when you come to sell it.
It'll have something like 120K miles on it and I think there'll be loads of EVs on the used market by then. I don't think it will be literally worthless, but not far off it, so any upside would be a bonus.

Of course, true what you say about model changes - it's just that the old Kona looks.... old. New one is a more useful size too. Similar with Niro too.

TheDeuce

25,227 posts

73 months

Sunday 14th July
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
TheDeuce said:
I don't see any reason to expect the 7-8 year old car will be worthless. Why would you think that?

I would imagine at very least it would be worth the deposit on another 2-3 year old car.

As for the new shape concern - that's always a problem when buying a 2-3 year old car. You just have to accept you're buying it at a price that reflects it will take a bit of a hit when you come to sell it.
It'll have something like 120K miles on it and I think there'll be loads of EVs on the used market by then. I don't think it will be literally worthless, but not far off it, so any upside would be a bonus.

Of course, true what you say about model changes - it's just that the old Kona looks.... old. New one is a more useful size too. Similar with Niro too.
Maybe in this case another car is a safer bet, due to the update in the case of the Kona. Although when looking 5+ years into the future, the difference in value then between a smart or poor buy today is probably minimal.

Tbh the used EV market is still coming together and won't be settled for at least another decade. I really don't think the car will be worthless, but I also have no opinion on it's exact value, because the second market is just too new and volatile right now.

If it were my purchase, I'd probably base calculations on the car being worth at least £5k when you do sell it. I think that's at very least safe enough in terms of doing the maths.

The interesting thing about the used EV market is that if, as suspected, 10 year + EV's prove to be perfectly reliable and maintain useable range, that doesn't necessarily make them more valuable - because the simple fact that they refuse to die would flood the market with excess used EV's! But as a base line I would assume that any reliable and solid car, unless it's way beyond it's first decade of life, will safely be worth £5k+ by the time you sell it. You have to imagine how tempting that £5k car would be to a family of limited means that just wants a decent run-around.

Paul Drawmer

4,962 posts

274 months

Monday 15th July
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1. Cut depreciation costs by buying at 2 or 3 year old and running until maintenance gets silly and then replace. For petrol/ diesel this was usually at about 120K miles. The signs are that EVs will last better.

2. Finance via bank loan or HP. PCP is not a cheap way to buy cars and always reduces your 'get out' options if your finances change.

There are a LOT of 10 year old cars that are just fine to own and use.

ZesPak

24,935 posts

203 months

Tuesday 16th July
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Maybe not completely what you're looking for, but Autotrader did an interesting series on buying the cheapest EV and their experience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii-iWkdTQ_8&li...

TL;DR, as a cheap as chips runabout it's without equal.
Of course, might want something a bit more robust for 30 mile/day commute plus extras, but interesting watch imho.

wyson

2,718 posts

111 months

Tuesday 16th July
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If I ever heard a use case for a D segment diesel…

ZesPak

24,935 posts

203 months

Tuesday 16th July
quotequote all
wyson said:
If I ever heard a use case for a D segment diesel…
Doesn't sound like she needs to tow or plow anything...

romft123

1,023 posts

11 months

Tuesday 16th July
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As has been said above there are some bargain Zoes and leafs under £10k

ashenfie

846 posts

53 months

Monday 22nd July
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A Fait 500 is rather a poor option for doing 17K per year. Something more comfortable is in order surely. You then need to decide if you are doing a one off purchase or PCP, if latter then forget depreciation. EV have tended to be worse depreciation and this can work in your favour when purchasing. EVs you need to consider charging options and if your electricity is more going to be more than 34p a kw(uk), if more then there are no EV savings. Most small/medium sized pure EV are either limited in milage or expensive not really an option. I note you boss shows some interest, so my he could look at a salary sacrifice scheme?