EV vs Petrol Car Dilemma

[66HFM]

I'm in a bit of a dilemma, I've never wanted an EV car and have been a petrolhead for a number of years.
We have just moved house to a modern eco house on the south coast, its fitted with a number of solar panels and the previous owners had a Tesla Powerwall 2 fitted - a battery that stores power generated from the solar panels, they've also left their electric car charger point.

We currently have a D5 XC60 and an Octavia VRS (170 diesel...), as I'm working from home now the VRS is only doing short runs and nearly constantly has a DPF light on... We are also restricted by off road parking spaces, with being 500 yards from the sea, we can get two cars off road but the VRS makes it difficult to get past it into the house, due to its length.

Do I bite the bullet and get an EV car, something like a 3 year old Fiat 500e, with the larger battery for circa £13k and utilise the 'free' electricity from the solar panels or again get something similar as in a 10 year old Fiat 500 / Mini Cooper for £2k-£3k.
The free electricity will need to provide a lot of miles to offset the extra £10k spent on the EV...

Head says EV, heart says petrol. Historically I also like to change my cars at least annually, just because I get easily bored and I then see something for sale that I like...

Any thoughts welcome or whether anyone has been in a similar position

[66HFM]

CivicDuties said:

I'd get a Nissan Leaf for about £5-10k for your local running about/short trips. Absolute no-brainer with the set up you've inherited. Then you can spend your running cost savings on something special and petroly to have alongside it.

With 3 kids and an SUV loving wife unfortunately the petrol special car won't happen...

[66HFM]

EdMX5 said:

I would go for the cheap ICE car. Nothing against EVs, but if you change your cars annually, you’ll get quite a hit from EV depreciation. Much less of a hit from an older ICE. You have solar panels and a battery, so will still benefit from low/no cost electricity to power your home, and may even be able to sell some electricity back to the grid.

I think if I went for an EV I'd have to change my car buying habits and keep it for a few years... not looking to buy new but to always have an ICE option available.
Appreciate technology moves on so quickly with EVs...

[66HFM]

Thanks all for your comments and thoughts.
I honestly wouldn't be looking at or even thinking of an EV without the previous home owners having invested heavily in the EV set-up.

I think I just need to take my time and think about it but in the short term I need to sell my VRS as its too large for the 2nd off-road parking we have...
As others have said maybe its time to change both... we've had the XC60 just over a year now so its due a change.... its a 2014 so will be getting back nearly what we paid for it...

I also need to check what Feed in Tariff (FIT) I can get for feeding excess power back into the grid.