EV running costs starting to look expensive?

[2020M3SR]

I'm getting around 3 miles per KWH on my M3 and the electricity provider is now charging me 30p per KWH (up more than 50% from when I bought the car), which translates to about 10p per mile.

The tyres are pretty good, but wear fairly quickly, and you are talking ballpark £1k worth of tyre for every 10k miles, or 10p a mile. So all in, 20p per mile (forgetting brakes, suspension wear and tear and that type of thing which will come down the line at some point)

At £7.50 a gallon diesel right now, a 60mpg car costs 12.5p per mile and tyre wear will be dependant on the car of course, but around 5p per mile on previous cars I've had. So thats 17.5p per mile and for every 10k miles, you should really be changing oil and filters (forget that long life 20k miles oil, 10k max in my book) so about £250 for every 10k miles, which brings it to 20p per mile, which is pretty much what my M3 costs me per mile.

So green/carbon footprint aside, its not as cost effective as it was when I initially bought the car. I'm sort of thinking I should maybe cash in my M3 while prices are high, and get a diesel again. My initial plan was a MY (was hoping a SR version would eventually come out) but when you look at running costs and purchase price, that 50+% increase in electric has switched the maths quite a bit.

Like many of us no doubt, it was these sort of man maths that helped me buy the M3 to begin with but those maths don't work like they used to. There is a hefty premium to buy an EV but over the long term, you get that back, and then some. Well, that used to be the case. Its not quite so simple now.

Anyone else having similar thoughts about EV running costs and considering going back to fossil fuels? I'm talking from a pure financial perspective, rather than the obvious rabbit hole of climate change, emissions etc

 

[Tigermad]

You have forgotten to add things in like road tax. Why are you paying 30p? You could be paying 7.5p off peak on Octopus. Also not many cars give you 60mpg unless you want to drive 30mph everywhere in a 1 litre car. Where’s the fun in that. It’s fun driving a Tesla.

 

[Zeit93]

At £7.50 a gallon diesel right now, a 60mpg car costs 12.5p per mile and tyre wear will be dependant on the car of course, but around 5p per mile on previous cars

Also what car with the performance and spec of a Tesla is getting 60mpg? Absolutely none

+ No servicing, which is £500 for a luxury car these days

 

[Masklin]

Pays your money and takes your choice, cost of everything isn’t going down the way for the foreseeable. Well, possibly bar insurance, which I renewed this morning and was actually cheaper than last year!

 

[PITA]

I'm paying 7.5p per 1 kWh from the Grid, and £0.00 from Solar Power during Summer.

Tyres will cost me a fair bit, but worth every penny for the performance you get in return.

I can recover 20% VAT back from maintenance as the car was purchased through my Company.

No road tax, no congestion charge, no ulez charge, no finance or interest payments.

Love being able to charge from home.

Seems OK so far.

 

[bc1979]

Why are you not on an EV tariff like Octopus Go?

Costs me around 2p per mile for the electricity. I came from an incredibly efficient Diesel Passat and at best I was getting 55mpg by really cruising on motorways, what Diesel were you getting 60mpg with?

 

[PITA]

Why are you not on an EV tariff like Octopus Go?

Costs me around 2p per mile for the electricity. I came from an incredibly efficient Diesel Passat and at best I was getting 55mpg by really cruising on motorways, what Diesel were you getting 60mpg with?

Could be they don't own their property with a Smart Meter.

You're dead in the water without a Smart Meter.

 

[adsheff]

Where are your tyres from? The special acoustic ones that came with the car were about £175 each when I replaced them a year ago. That's nowhere near £1k for four. Also, how are you driving? I've done 45000 miles and replaced two out of four. The others are probably due to be replaced now, but even so you can get far more than 10000 miles out of them if you drive normally. I'd wager you could improve on your 3 miles / kwh at the same time.

 

[GRiLLA]

£1k worth of tyre for every 10k miles, or 10p a mile.

The fully fitted price for the OEM Pilot Sport 4's on black circles is £198.17, so are you running through a full set of tyres every 8,000 miles?. I'm at 23K miles at the moment, still got some range left on my original tyres.

 

[Chrisgillett]

Saving me loads.
I do 80 miles most days, charging at home on intelligent octopus so 7.5p/kW for about 30% battery per day. Averaging about 270w/mile so I figure about 2p per mile. I also have some free supercharging miles that I’m working my way through so less overall.

My 330d was 13p/mile (over 25’000miles) back when diesel was at most £1.30, add ~50p/L to that and perhaps over 20p/m so the costs are pretty simple. (My S5 was 27p/m ). Tesla = No tax. No servicing. Tyres are about the same or better - I’m still on first set of fronts on my TM3 at 21k, changed the rears at about 18k, which is actually less often than I did on BMW.

I’m sticking with EV for commuting and planning on getting a TVR before fuel is banned!

 

[WannabeOwner]

electricity provider is now charging me 30p per KWH

That's unfortunate. Charge on overnight off-peak rate would be 1/4 of that, which of course would make a massive difference to your running cost sums.

tyres are pretty good, but wear fairly quickly, and you are talking ballpark £1k worth of tyre for every 10k miles

Surprised you are only getting 10K miles, I get at least double than that (but lots of my driving is motorway). I tend to use regen to slow down - i.e. lift off early. Not if I'm driving like a loon , but in town coming up to a junction with traffic queuing I lift off early, and don't use the brakes. My guess is that saves some tyre-wear, and if I were to brake I'd waste the slowing-down-energy as heat, rather than regening it back into the battery

forgetting brakes... which will come down the line at some point

No, don't forget them! Your brakes are good for probably 100-150K miles. That isn't the case with Fossil

Need to turn regen on (if it is currently off, but I doubt that is the case)

At £7.50 a gallon diesel right now, a 60mpg car costs 12.5p per mile

But you won't get that every mile you drive. I don't know what a 60 MPG car gets doing 70MPH on the motorway, but my guess is "less than that".

I'm sort of thinking I should maybe cash in my M3 while prices are high, and get a diesel again

A snag with that is the residual value. 3 year old Tesla will sell with tiny depreciation. Fossil will get worse and worse over time. In 3 years I expect that will already be "dreadful" as significant numbers of Fossil drivers decide to move to EV. They are all in for a shock on the 2025 trade-in price

 

[Bantam]

I'm stuck on the standard rate for the Foreseeable. As @PITA points out without a smart meter you have no chance of getting an EV/off peak tariff.

I have a smart meter fitted, but it cannot get a WAN connection, something about the network they use in the North of England to send meter readings not strong enough to get a signal in my specific location and no plans (as far as I can decipher from the hours I have spent asking) to fix the issue.

 

[2020M3SR]

I should have added that I live in NI - we don't have Octopus go or anything like that. That would absolutely change the numbers for sure - 30p is x4 times Octopus go that you guys are getting so I'm paying quadruple what you guys are paying. Thats significant lol!

 

[2020M3SR]

You have forgotten to add things in like road tax. Why are you paying 30p? You could be paying 7.5p off peak on Octopus. Also not many cars give you 60mpg unless you want to drive 30mph everywhere in a 1 litre car. Where’s the fun in that. It’s fun driving a Tesla.

Good shout, thats around 2p a mile as well

 

[2020M3SR]

Why are you not on an EV tariff like Octopus Go?

Costs me around 2p per mile for the electricity. I came from an incredibly efficient Diesel Passat and at best I was getting 55mpg by really cruising on motorways, what Diesel were you getting 60mpg with?

VW Golf was the most efficient I've had, 60MPG was no problem. Although to be honest - I'm looking at all sorts. Less MPG but offset by lower price to buy for example. Just running some numbers on a few cars.

 

[WannabeOwner]

without a smart meter you have no chance of getting an EV/off peak tariff
... send meter readings not strong enough to get a signal in my specific location

I've had off peak for decades, and smart meter only installed a couple of months ago (lousy mobile signal here too - but it seemed that they no longer cared about that). Original installation, years ago, the fitter got his mobile-signal-meter out and said "Signal not string enough, I'm off".

Although maybe smart meter is now a requirement for changing supplier / tariff ?

 

[2020M3SR]

Where are your tyres from? The special acoustic ones that came with the car were about £175 each when I replaced them a year ago. That's nowhere near £1k for four. Also, how are you driving? I've done 45000 miles and replaced two out of four. The others are probably due to be replaced now, but even so you can get far more than 10000 miles out of them if you drive normally. I'd wager you could improve on your 3 miles / kwh at the same time.

Probably my driving to be honest, or not inflated to the correct pressure all the time. I should check more often tbh.

 

[WannabeOwner]

VW Golf was the most efficient I've had, 60MPG was no problem

I had Blue Motion Golfs before Tesla. On the early one, before they dimmed down some of the fuel saving ability, I could get 60-70 MPG by hypermiling country roads, but not on a motorway

 

[2020M3SR]

That's unfortunate. Charge on overnight off-peak rate would be 1/4 of that, which of course would make a massive difference to your running cost sums.



Surprised you are only getting 10K miles, I get at least double than that (but lots of my driving is motorway). I tend to use regen to slow down - i.e. lift off early. Not if I'm driving like a loon , but in town coming up to a junction with traffic queuing I lift off early, and don't use the brakes. My guess is that saves some tyre-wear, and if I were to brake I'd waste the slowing-down-energy as heat, rather than regening it back into the battery



No, don't forget them! Your brakes are good for probably 100-150K miles. That isn't the case with Fossil

Need to turn regen on (if it is currently off, but I doubt that is the case)



But you won't get that every mile you drive. I don't know what a 60 MPG car gets doing 70MPH on the motorway, but my guess is "less than that".



A snag with that is the residual value. 3 year old Tesla will sell with tiny depreciation. Fossil will get worse and worse over time. In 3 years I expect that will already be "dreadful" as significant numbers of Fossil drivers decide to move to EV. They are all in for a shock on the 2025 trade-in price

Its hard to figure out used prices at the moment as they are all over the place. Used BMW X5 prices have went through the roof, same for the likes of VW Tiguan and cars like that. Same for EV's. A nice low mileage iPace was £40k last year and now its £50k. Used Teslas have always kept their value, and continue to do so.

 

[2020M3SR]

I had Blue Motion Golfs before Tesla. On the early one, before they dimmed down some of the fuel saving ability, I could get 60-70 MPG by hypermiling country roads, but not on a motorway

Good year efficiencies on that Golf. Got almost 60k miles out of them. That was a lot of A road commuting though, so not hard on either the tyres or the MPG.