Most economical way to do 30k miles a year
Discussion
Interested to hear peoples views on the most economical way of covering 25-30k miles a year. Nearly all of that will be business miles - which I can claim the full 45p for the first 12k miles, then 25p thereafter. Toting that up, gives me a fairly healthy £750-£800 a month budget. (I'm just about to exit the company EV car scheme at work).
Prior to having the EV, I shedded similar miles for about 3 years, which worked well - and I'm absolutely not adverse to going back down that route. I have a toy car for weekends and my wife is just about to lease a runabout EV now that daft sub-£150pcm leasing deals are appearing again.
Only must have? Cruise Control (95% of my mileage is motorway / dual carriageway) and a decent Stereo with Aux Input. Ideally hatchback or estate, but not adverse to a good value saloon. An auto would also be a bonus as the toy car is a manual. I don't carry anything with me for work outside of a rucksack and overnight bag so doesn't need to be big.
The obvious are:
- Lease, but on 25k miles per year its pricey
- Diesel Shed, rolling the dice and throw it away every 12 months
- Better Shed - £5-7k, eg. 1.6TDI Golf / DSG with 60mpg+
- Posher used car - Volvo V90 / Audi A4-A6, but top of budget c. £15k
- And the leftfield - Tesla Model S - pre-2016 with free supercharging for £13-£15k
Any other ideas???
Prior to having the EV, I shedded similar miles for about 3 years, which worked well - and I'm absolutely not adverse to going back down that route. I have a toy car for weekends and my wife is just about to lease a runabout EV now that daft sub-£150pcm leasing deals are appearing again.
Only must have? Cruise Control (95% of my mileage is motorway / dual carriageway) and a decent Stereo with Aux Input. Ideally hatchback or estate, but not adverse to a good value saloon. An auto would also be a bonus as the toy car is a manual. I don't carry anything with me for work outside of a rucksack and overnight bag so doesn't need to be big.
The obvious are:
- Lease, but on 25k miles per year its pricey
- Diesel Shed, rolling the dice and throw it away every 12 months
- Better Shed - £5-7k, eg. 1.6TDI Golf / DSG with 60mpg+
- Posher used car - Volvo V90 / Audi A4-A6, but top of budget c. £15k
- And the leftfield - Tesla Model S - pre-2016 with free supercharging for £13-£15k
Any other ideas???
I had the same predicament before settling on a Tesla Model 3 LR.
I had a hybrid, a shed diesel and then a Tesla. Fuel p.a. was £3K for both the diesel and the hybrid and the electric for the Tesla is only £940 ish and with far less things to go wrong and little to no maintenance it was a no-brainer. (before the Tesla I had an ID.3 to 'test the EV water' as such)
I had a hybrid, a shed diesel and then a Tesla. Fuel p.a. was £3K for both the diesel and the hybrid and the electric for the Tesla is only £940 ish and with far less things to go wrong and little to no maintenance it was a no-brainer. (before the Tesla I had an ID.3 to 'test the EV water' as such)
ConnectionError said:
Tesla
Yeah, the maths does work, 2015 Model S on 80k miles with free supercharging.One of the downsides of doing big miles in an EV is the cost of charging on the road, even at 48-55p if you shop around, it soon wipes out any cheap rate overnight stuff and then you may as well go back to ICE and have a little more convenience.
My journeys are regularly Mids -> Cornwall -> London -> Suffolk without being able to charge on the drive once I leave home. So 70% of that trip is charging on the road.
Guess the risk is if a 10yo Tesla goes bang, you can't exactly throw it away and buy another one like you can with a shed!
grumpy_dave said:
Yeah, the maths does work, 2015 Model S on 80k miles with free supercharging.
One of the downsides of doing big miles in an EV is the cost of charging on the road, even at 48-55p if you shop around, it soon wipes out any cheap rate overnight stuff and then you may as well go back to ICE and have a little more convenience.
My journeys are regularly Mids -> Cornwall -> London -> Suffolk without being able to charge on the drive once I leave home. So 70% of that trip is charging on the road.
Guess the risk is if a 10yo Tesla goes bang, you can't exactly throw it away and buy another one like you can with a shed!
Having done the shed thing first, it became financially unviable because of the upkeep. There were cambelts, DPFs, servicing, glow plugs, spark plugs, filters etc etc. Having said that, given your charging opportunities are going to be away from home it means the savings I've mentioned in a post above start to deminish. I charge at home, overnight. One of the downsides of doing big miles in an EV is the cost of charging on the road, even at 48-55p if you shop around, it soon wipes out any cheap rate overnight stuff and then you may as well go back to ICE and have a little more convenience.
My journeys are regularly Mids -> Cornwall -> London -> Suffolk without being able to charge on the drive once I leave home. So 70% of that trip is charging on the road.
Guess the risk is if a 10yo Tesla goes bang, you can't exactly throw it away and buy another one like you can with a shed!
I'd go for a Japanese hybrid like the 1.8 Corolla which is the same engine as the Prius and can go for miles.
If you're going for "diesel shed" or "better shed" option, I'd recommend going for the VW 2.0TDI instead of the 1.6TDI. Its just a little more power and nicer all round. And if you're after an auto, the 2.0 litre will come with the DQ250 DSG gearbox. The 1.6TDI would be paired with the DQ200, which is the dry clutch 7 speed and is more prone to issues such as clutch wear, mechatronics failures, etc and is to be avoided. Just be sure to service it (the DQ250) at the regular intervals and it should be good for a while.
If I was spending £13k on a Tesla for this purpose and was worried about running costs I'd go for a higher mileage early 2021-on (China built) Model 3 over a lower mileage, older Model S with or without free charging.
The Model 3 has far fewer things which tend to go wrong and usually if/when they do they are much cheaper to fix.
The Model 3 has far fewer things which tend to go wrong and usually if/when they do they are much cheaper to fix.
Agree that if you're doing ~800 miles from home, EV and diesel are comparable in fuel costs given the majority of electricity will be from pricey public charging. As stated, a Model S with free supercharging would seem to be the optimum answer.
Otherwise you have a trade-off between an economical EV, Japanese hybrid petrol, or European diesel. With the latter I think the diesel will use less fuel, but be more likely to go wrong.
A real outlier would be a Mk1 Honda Insight, these are genuinely economical on the motorway I believe, however the (lack of) refinement would probably make it a bit of a chore. But it's probably the second-best answer to the specific thread title question after the old Tesla, without the need to spend time charging.
https://petrolblog.com/articles/mk1-honda-insight-...
Otherwise you have a trade-off between an economical EV, Japanese hybrid petrol, or European diesel. With the latter I think the diesel will use less fuel, but be more likely to go wrong.
A real outlier would be a Mk1 Honda Insight, these are genuinely economical on the motorway I believe, however the (lack of) refinement would probably make it a bit of a chore. But it's probably the second-best answer to the specific thread title question after the old Tesla, without the need to spend time charging.
https://petrolblog.com/articles/mk1-honda-insight-...
confused_buyer said:
If I was spending £13k on a Tesla for this purpose and was worried about running costs I'd go for a higher mileage early 2021-on (China built) Model 3 over a lower mileage, older Model S with or without free charging.
Exactly what I did, mine's up to 120K miles now p4cks said:
confused_buyer said:
If I was spending £13k on a Tesla for this purpose and was worried about running costs I'd go for a higher mileage early 2021-on (China built) Model 3 over a lower mileage, older Model S with or without free charging.
Exactly what I did, mine's up to 120K miles now And a decent Model S is still a f
king quick, decent car.Hmmmm.
Blue_star said:
Can you confirm you can claim the 45p for an EV as well? Not a reduced rate?
Yeah, the firm I work for, the policy is:-Co Car (taxable BiK) and pay business fuel at HMRC rate
-Car allowance (about £7k) and pay business fuel at HMRC rate (Car allowance is taxed at 40% so it’s rubbish)
-No car or allowance and pay for the first 12k miles at 45p then 25p after - again, HMRC rates
Guess all co car schemes differ
I do reasonably big miles on a 1.6tdi bluemotion Golf with a manual gearbox. Bought it at 70k miles, it’s now passed 150k miles… and outside of regular service I have replaced 1 wheel bearing, both rear calipers and 2 glow plugs. It gets pretty good fuel economy, is quiet and comfortable.
Tesla is best choice when it comes to EV, every other brand is a compromise in some way. The model 3 is good fun to drive and more reliable than any modern diesel too. As above, go for a Chinese built one, late 2020 / early 21.
2022 plates get the ryzen media system which is still updated, the Intel one only gets security updates now. Spec varies on early cars, think some miss heated steering wheel, better sound system etc.
2022 plates get the ryzen media system which is still updated, the Intel one only gets security updates now. Spec varies on early cars, think some miss heated steering wheel, better sound system etc.
My situation is almost identical (allowance and 45p/25p) and I went for a 2 year old Model Y LR.
It's costing me £50/month in servicing (service, tyres, tracking), naff all in home charging. 230 miles in Winter, 280 in summer at motorway speeds limits.
The Model 3 is better on efficiency by around 10-15%
It's costing me £50/month in servicing (service, tyres, tracking), naff all in home charging. 230 miles in Winter, 280 in summer at motorway speeds limits.
The Model 3 is better on efficiency by around 10-15%
confused_buyer said:
If I was spending £13k on a Tesla for this purpose and was worried about running costs I'd go for a higher mileage early 2021-on (China built) Model 3 over a lower mileage, older Model S with or without free charging.
The Model 3 has far fewer things which tend to go wrong and usually if/when they do they are much cheaper to fix.
You don't want an 85 variant of the Model S, slow to charge. And remember you will be spending a lot of time "free" supercharging rather than letting the car charge on a cheap tariff at home. The 75 and 90 are supposed to be the better ones, not the P version. Model S is a lottery, Model 3/Y much less so. The Model 3 has far fewer things which tend to go wrong and usually if/when they do they are much cheaper to fix.
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