EV running costs starting to look expensive?

[Xdama]

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?

I had a BMW 320d Estate 2015 model, easily achieved 60mpg sat at motorway speeds, replaced with a 630d GT which only managed 42mpg, wish I’d kept the 320 lol

 

[Jason71]

I agree. I’m not saving money driving an MY. I had a low payment on my 2019 Tiguan Diesel. It didn’t come down to running costs but we had to make changes to our behaviour and an EV was the obvious and easy choice.

maybe but you aren't driving a Tiguan Diesel anymore so there's that.

 

[Undecided_2]

"driving" maybe, sorry to hear that but I think you will have lower service costs, and strong residual, to look forward too.

I think crash survivability better in MY too. Hopefully you won't need that

We love our MY and do not regret our decision. Home charging made it even more enjoyable. Not having to visit a diesel pump or think about servicing each year - although Tesla recommends an annual check which we’ll do - and the performance is excellent for a £60k car.

It’s making us change our home setup regarding gas usage by removing central heating and the gas rings. We’re moving to solar, battery and heat pumps.

 

[Peteski]

I had a BMW 320d Estate 2015 model, easily achieved 60mpg sat at motorway speeds, replaced with a 630d GT which only managed 42mpg, wish I’d kept the 320 lol

What was your overall average mpg? That's what really matters in this comparison. I've never achieved anything over about 36 mpg average and with nothing remotely close to the performance of a Tesla. That's mixed driving, but mostly rural and not a huge amount of motorway.

 

[Simavon]

So to add to the comments about tyre wear... not sure if it's an M3P or LR (probably not SR given the quoted usage) but I bought a 2yo used car in 2015 from a main dealer, it had about 15K miles, and the front tyres were shot, particularly on the nearside edge. I got them replaced before I bought. The cheapo tyres they put on lasted me over 30K miles. I also had them check the alignment, which was fine.

Previous owner was a female, who probably liked to take roundabouts fast and was probably heavy on the brakes. My M3LR has 25K miles and I've used up at most 4mm of tread on any single tyre. Will comfortably exceed 30K, might reach 40K.

 

[Dilly]

I guess if we are avert global warming, we should be dumping personal transport entirely and have a nationwide fleet of electric buses and trains that are frequent and reliable. …and dare I say, some robotaxi’s…
However, in the real world I’m afraid we’re spoilt and I speak from experience. For my sins, I haven’t been on a bus since 1969 but I did go to London by train once in 2002 and that was the first time on a train since 1966.

 

[WannabeOwner]

avert global warming

You can do what you like provided it is net-zero

Don't build a house from bricks / concrete / steel today ... but once those industries have figured out a way to be net zero we can start using them again.

I'm sure I didn't over simplify anything there. Definitely sure ...

 

[pgkevet]

I guess if we are avert global warming, we should be dumping personal transport entirely and have a nationwide fleet of electric buses and trains that are frequent and reliable. …and dare I say, some robotaxi’s…
However, in the real world I’m afraid we’re spoilt and I speak from experience. For my sins, I haven’t been on a bus since 1969 but I did go to London by train once in 2002 and that was the first time on a train since 1966.

The trouble with public transport is the disgusting passengers aboard...

 

[GRiLLA]

I guess if we are avert global warming, we should be dumping personal transport entirely and have a nationwide fleet of electric buses and trains that are frequent and reliable. …and dare I say, some robotaxi’s…
However, in the real world I’m afraid we’re spoilt and I speak from experience. For my sins, I haven’t been on a bus since 1969 but I did go to London by train once in 2002 and that was the first time on a train since 1966.

Busses yes, it's affordable to electrify them and they are fundamentally convenient. As far as I can tell rail is just a money pit, expensive for the country to electrify and ruinously expensive for people using them. Add to that the huge carbon cost of building new rail like HS2 and Cross Rail (all justified assuming we would be driving petrol cars for the next 100 years) and it frankly does stack up. Scrap the lot, turn the tracks into roads for autonomous vehicles and busses to leave cities.

 

[Rooster6655]

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

In a p- on 18s I got about 13k on the tyres but that was on the rear and then probably 16k on the front, it does depend on how you drive the car.

The cost for 4 tyres PS4 non acoustic from Costco was £500 fitted

 

[Xdama]

What was your overall average mpg? That's what really matters in this comparison. I've never achieved anything over about 36 mpg average and with nothing remotely close to the performance of a Tesla. That's mixed driving, but mostly rural and not a huge amount of motorway.

52MPG over 60k miles. Best all rounder I’ve owned tbh. I do more motorway than urban though.

 

[Xdama]

Busses yes, it's affordable to electrify them and they are fundamentally convenient. As far as I can tell rail is just a money pit, expensive for the country to electrify and ruinously expensive for people using them. Add to that the huge carbon cost of building new rail like HS2 and Cross Rail (all justified assuming we would be driving petrol cars for the next 100 years) and it frankly does stack up. Scrap the lot, turn the tracks into roads for autonomous vehicles and busses to leave cities.

Not helped by the fact the electricity companies have been ripping them off for years. I had a job 7yrs ago fitting energy meters to SouthWest rolling stock (can’t remember which class). They reckoned a saving on electricity bills of several million per quarter because they’d never had a means to check the bills before that.

 

[prabhu]

I'm now paying 39p/kWh residents' rate for my on-street fast charging...

This is excessive. With apps such as Bonnet, even rapid charging at 50/75 kW costs just 25p per kWh.

 

[Lord Farquad]

Commute home today I averaged 6.7 miles pkwh (149wh/m). That’s 1.1p mile I’m my Go 7.5p rate. 740mpg in a diesel equivalent at 180p litre.
My average over 6500miles is 222wh/m or 4.5 miles pkwh.

 

[yessuz]

drove from Luton to NWLeics - 85-ish miles. used 25% of the battery on LR (so ~20 kwh).
more or less 4 miles per kwh. or 250 wh / mile.
@ 71 mph.
if charging at home - cheap as chips...

 

[yessuz]

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!

but I am sure you should be able to get at least Ecinomy 7 in NI?

 

[Jason71]

In a p- on 18s I got about 13k on the tyres but that was on the rear and then probably 16k on the front, it does depend on how you drive the car.

The cost for 4 tyres PS4 non acoustic

Glad I am not the only one who had to replace rears at 13K. I don't drive it like I stole it either. I was just doing a lot of miles on twisty Welsh A roads at the time and they seemed to just eat the rears. Fronts lasted 22K but Covid changed my driving patterns long before that so not a straight comparison.

 

[Jason71]

Commute home today I averaged 6.7 miles pkwh (149wh/m). That’s 1.1p mile I’m my Go 7.5p rate. 740mpg in a diesel equivalent at 180p litre.
My average over 6500miles is 222wh/m or 4.5 miles pkwh.

Is it down hill by any chance? what did you get on the way to work?
Need to add +30% to that if you really want to know what it's actually cost you since that is how much energy you will actually consume at the plug.

 

[vanhtu1987]

Is it down hill by any chance? what did you get on the way to work?
Need to add +30% to that if you really want to know what it's actually cost you since that is how much energy you will actually consume at the plug.

30% is quite pessimistic. The Tesla AC charger is rated at 95% efficiency and I routinely get between 80% (below 5 degree C) to 96% (15C) charging at 7kW at home. The lower efficiency mostly comes from the car needing to heat the battery to a suitable temperature, rather than an inherent loss of energy at lower temp (in other words, charging an already heated battery at freezing temp would still be as efficient).

Assuming an average temperature of 10C, we could expect 90% charge efficiency.

Idle drainage is car-dependent and seems to be negligible on other EVs and more modern Teslas. Taking my 2017 MS with MCU2 as an example: it consumes 30W on idle. Over the period of a year the car would consume ~262kWh which is not ideal, but acceptable. It was reported that newer Tesla (from 2021?) has improved on this drastically and could sleep for many hours.

Energy consumed for heating is a function of the set vs. outside temperatures. In an ICE additional energy loss is represented by the reduced MPG on cold engine, in an EV it is represented by the increased consumption in the beginning of the journey. After the initial periods the ICE of course gets the heating for 'free', but cabin cooling consumes energy for both ICE & EV.

 

[Peteski]

52MPG over 60k miles. Best all rounder I’ve owned tbh. I do more motorway than urban though.

Yeah those BMW diesels were very efficient compared to most. But still nowhere near as impressive as a Tesla drivetrain.