ELECTRIC vs PETROL CAR – which is REALLY cheaper?? | What Car?

Is an electric car REALLY cheaper to run than a petrol car? Doug Revolta and Will Nightingale do two road trips to reveal a SURPRISING outcome.

#WhatCar #PetrolvsEV #EVTest




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[whatcar]

Would you still buy an electric car? 🤔👇

[normanboyes]

I think a more holistic - ‘total cost of ownership’ approach is required.

[jazzman]

Would have loved to see the price differences in service costs over the years to be included in this comparison.

[mickw]

Changed to a ev a year ago and have a home charger (10p per unit).
Saved approx £2000 on running costs in the 12 month.

[airspike]

Interesting test, and yes, using public fast chargers is more expensive. Taking the i4 84Kwh requirement for full charge on my home tariff comes to £6.30. On the basis that I have used public chargers twice in the last year, it still makes sense for me.
One needs to look at the proportion of the population without the ability to charge at home - usually they have public transport available, whereas for myself in Somerset with the sparkling good public transport (No bus, train 14 miles away etc) home charging with an EV makes perfect sense.
A worthwhile test though and realistic too for some people. Keep up the good channel!

[GarryMcGovern]

And if you live in a flat/apartment, terraced house, or indeed ANY home where you cannot avail of home charging - you are well and truly screwed. And considering it is usually the less well off who live in these types of homes, then once again - they are going to be the ones penalised most heavily when the government finally forces everyone out of ICE powered vehicles, and in to these 'cheaper' EV's. What a compassionate, forward thinking government we have here.

[paulaschofield]

The situation here in NZ is currently very different. We've recently done a 1, 806km (1, 122 miles) road trip in our 2017 Ioniq 28kWh EV with a range of ~220km (136 miles). We charged at public chargers during our trip, but charged on a 3-pin plug home charger overnight once we arrived at our destination, which is what you would do in a real world scenario. So the total return journey was 1, 346km (836 miles) and the total cost of electricity was $105 (£50). An equivalent petrol car would have cost $250 (£120). From next year EVs will need to pay what is called Road User Charge (RUC) which in this example would have added $102 (£49) to the cost, making the total cost for the EV $207 (£100). So still cheaper than the petrol car. One thing to know is that we don't have anywhere near as many public chargers here in NZ, and the largest charging site can only charge 6 vehicles simulatneously.

[RobBradshaw]

Last weekend we did your first long trip in our new electric BYD Atto3. We were selling our old 2013 VW GTI. Dropped of the GTI to the buyer in Tamworth NSW - 370km and $16 of petrol. We then took the the BYD on an additional 790km trip through rural northern NSW and southern Queensland. We were able to find some free chargers, plus charging at home at the start and finish. It cost $9.47 on the road plus $30-ish charging at home.

[steveegger]

The one thing you failed to state is the BMW could of turned around and completed a round trip on the original tank. Where the electric car would of had to take another full charge. That is over double the cost.

[andyportm]

I drive a Hyundai Kona Electric - since March. In the summer, by driving sensibly, I got better than the the full 300m range 5miles per kWh (320miles range) vs 4.7kwh for 300miles. This included a weekly average of 100miles plus at 60 - 70 mph on motorways and about the same on country roads. Misunderstanding when to use regenerative braking is often the problem that makes EVs less efficient. Getting energy from breaking when you need to slow down is great. However slowing the car down when you are coasting along is inefficient. There is a loss of energy putting the kinetic energy of momentum into the batteries electrochemistry and then getting it out again. So on the motorway, when there is a lot of coasting opportunity, it is far better to turn regen off. Easy in the Kona where it is controlled by paddles on the steering wheel. Also get some solar panels on your house roof if you can and travelling around is virtually free. I didn't pay a penny to travel between Sept 3rd and October 25th. (August was touring in France - much cheaper than in the video too). Before that I didn't have the Solar panels for charging and it was still much cheaper than my hybrid was. There will be more charging costs through winter - less sun, lower battery capacity at cold temperatures and less sunshine on the roof. But still it will be a fraction of the cost. Electric cars require a different way of thinking about it all, and there is hassle in learning about it. But my running costs have plummeted now.

[mikesrandomcrap]

That petrol BMW engine is great!
I had an M340i for a couple of weeks last month and drove it from Suffolk to Fort William.
Casual cruising to Glasgow then sport plus for the twisties and it finished off at 43pmg average and £200 in petrol for the trip overall. Given the current fuel prices I was pleasantly surprised how good it was all for the trip, with reasonable economy and a brilliant turn of speed and sound when I wanted it.

[Dr-EV]

My Enyaq has similar EXPECTED range to the i4 and that got me from Huddersfield to a charger in Portsmouth in 1 run. Doing full 70mph is the killer. Drop to 65 or 60 and the range increases massively (this applies to ICE cars as well).
Amazing how they never consider 95% of charging being done at home as sub 10p/kwh.

Also Has been the most expensive charger since they were first installed many years ago.

[geoffsmyth]

This is the first time I have watched the team here on What Car. This is a well-done film with good sound and clear results, and I did "like it". I personally can't afford an electric car yet, so I may be forced to buy secondhand when the moment arrives. I am always watching documentaries on the tv about the electric car, and how it is progressing. This was good. Are second-hand electric cars going to be as reliable as used petrol or diesel cars, I wonder. In my opinion, the whole planet-saving scenario is quite confusing if we look at it just in terms of money, whether it's cars, our energy, or tree-planting....and as I mentioned I won't be able to afford a new car so people like me will need to seek out a loan or go second hand. Am I in the majority? I was speaking to a local delivery driver last week, who had a nice new van. I did ask what was it like, going electric, and to my surprise, he said he'd gone diesel !!! Wow!! Apparently, it was about the costs involved with delivering in the City of Bath near me, with the new charging zones. Can that be true I wondered? One strange little thing I picked up on, why is Wills, who has an excellent deep voice, wearing an apricot t-shirt with "Deisel" on, surely it should say "Electric". But I am a bit daft !

[barneybarret]

It's not just the costs it's the time. I pulled off at three different services the other week on my journey for a holiday. Two were full with people only just starting and the third just errored when starting a charge. So by the time I got to my destination, I had lost 20 minutes pulling in and out of services and ended up spending two unplanned hours in a Morrisons carpark. These are the unaccounted costs. That and a week away is now a week spent thinking about the car and charge rather than enjoying my holiday.

[geoffreywallace]

In a small country like mine, Barbados, an ev car would be really economical as Barbados is 21 miles long and 14 miles wide.

[paulphillipson]

How long did it take to charge vs fill up and how much is your time worth?

[richkurtz]

Not sure in the UK but in the US, states are now charging additional fees for electric car annual registration since EV's do not pay motor fuel taxes. Some states are now considering a mileage charge as well. This has to be added to the cost of driving an EV.

[alol]

To complete the picture I would suggest also testing the hybrid cars, a plug-in hybrid versus a basic (not plug-in) hybrid on the same track. Would be nice to know the results.

[chronicfathead]

You leaned that if you wanted to go on a longer run and rely on fast chargers, it will be as expensive, if not more that petrol. If you charged up at home while doing most of your daily trips, you would be significantly better off. You compared the best situation for a petrol car (motorway cruising) with possibly the worst thing for EV. It would be nice to see you drive around London or on some back roads/stop start driving for a couple of hours to see what consumption on both would be.

[stephenclay]

I’m glad you mentioned the home charging at the end of the video because anybody who can charge at home would have left London with a full charge from home and as such in the case of the BMW you would only need that one rapid charge to get back. But for me I prefer the smooth quiet drive of the electric car. As for the Peugeot it’s not really a motorway motor it’s classed as a city car but yes it can do it but it’s not really designed to be belting up and down a motorway. Me for my motoring it’s the electric car. I own a Kia EV6 GT line and love it.