So you're thinking of buying an EV
You'll have heard the headlines..........
- They're expensive
- They can't go very far especially in cold weather
- It takes a long time to charge them
- Their ugly
- The Chargepoints are expensive & ugly
Dare I go on. Well as someone who's had numerous petrol & diesel cars, hybrid cars, motorbikes and an EV, I must say that not everything you hear is true - but I'm sure you knew that already 😉
To start with, have a look at what's out there
If you're looking for an EV I'd recommend looking at a few to work out what you might suit your needs and what you might want. I was pleasantly surprised when I started looking around at the various models from micro's to family cars, to SUV's, 4x4's and Coupes. There's such a variety I'd challenge you to have a look and conclude you don't like any.
Start with the EV Database. This is exactly as the name says - a database of EV makes and models that you can search and filter. It's as good a place to start to get an idea of what might interest you. Then there are some sales centres like the Arnold Clark technology innovation centre that will have in stock a cross section of all makes and model so you can go in and have a look at a good array of EV's. Do remember your just sizing up at the moment, don't let a good salesperson get you on the hook 🙈
Beyond the standard things which you would look for on any vehicle, EV or otherwise (ie manufacturers warranty, safety rating, navigation & media system, cruise control, heated seats, cabin ore-heating, driver hazard warning, reversing sensors etc), there are some things specific to an EV you might want to consider
- Battery size or more importantly the range
- Speed of charging - Some EVs have faster internal chargers
- Does it have Vehicle to Load - this will allow you to plug in 240v appliances (good for camping)
- Driving aids like auto pilot, lane assist being a couple
Once you've got a short list, it's time to shop around to see what kind of pricing you can get. Trust me, you'll be blown away at the range of prices across the country for the exact same make and model. I've seen prices vary by 30% or more - for the exact same car. To get an idea of prices, start with Auto traders new car search. Make sure you set it to nationwide so you can get a wide view of pricing. Be as specific on the make and model as you can and watch out for similar models with smaller/bigger batteries or special features being bundled in with others. Remember you're still window shopping, trying to get enough info to narrow down the one you want. By way of an example at the time of writing this (September 25) - the new Standard Range MG S5 can be had for £21k, the Long Range for £22k and the Long Range Trophy for £23.5k
Ok, by now you may have come down to a short list of makes & models. It's time for some test driving. The absolute key here is to book a test drive with the specific model you're looking for, make this clear with any dealership you get in touch with and if you can't get a test drive in the actual make and model, then get a breakdown of the specific differences as they can make a huge difference.
Now you should have chosen your EV (my choice was a 2020 MG ZS EV - now known as a MK1) and you'll have some pricing, so you're ready to start shopping around. Be willing to travel to get a deal as it can make a huge difference to your outlay. I ended up buying my EV from a dealership 200 miles away from where I live. I found a deal that was £3k cheaper than anywhere local to me (My ZS EV was £20k), and even though I tried to get local dealers to price match they wouldn't. Once I had the car, I registered with the service department of my local/preferred garage. Again this might need some shopping around as not all Service departments are the same.
Keep in mind that there is (or at least there was at the time if writing) funding available to help with the actual purchase. I was lucky enough to get a government funded 0% new EV loan from Home Energy Scotland. Unfortunately that's no longer available, but there is funding for 2nd hand EV's. Do make sure to check as there are schemes that come and go from time to time.
Chargepoints
Most Chargepoints have the same basic features - timed or smart charging for example. The main physical difference is you have to choose if you want it to come with a fixed cable if not. Having a fixed cable makes the whole charging at home experience easier than not having a cable - basically you just unravel the cable and plug in. If you get a charge point without a cable, you'll have to use the one you carry in your car - which is a faff.
Getting a chargepoint installed is like any other electrical work - it requires a qualified electrician, work on the main consumer unit and paperwork for the grid. The rough price for a chargepoint is around £1k, but again shop around as there's a lot of variance in the pricing.
To fund the Chargepoint there are still some grants available and you may find there a dealer options through manufacturer funding - so make sure you ask at the time of negotiating your price. There are also some deals on Chargepoints supplied by the energy companies themselves and these can include an amount of free charging at home or on the road, so do have a look and see what's available.
Charging takes time. The average home charger runs at 7kw - so if you're charging a 50kwh EV it will take about 7 hours to charge from 0% to 100%. However you'll almost never go for a full charge, you'll generally top up each night, in my case around 3 nights a week I top up with 20kwh in about 3 hours. Out on the road you'll have access to rapid chargers that can do 100kw+ that can take a car from 10% to 80% in around 20 minutes. Do keep in mind, these chargers are much more expensive than charging from home (see Running Costs below)
Running Costs
The running costs of an EV are a fraction of a petrol or diesel car. Not only is the charging cost per mile miniscule, as they don't have a physical engine (and all the other gubbins that goes with it) the servicing costs are much, much lower.
In terms of say cost per mile - the average petrol or diesel car might get around 50mpg. Given a gallon of petrol costs around £6 (September 2025), that's around 12p per mile. The average EV by comparison does around 3 miles per kWh. If you charge at home on an off-peak tariff, that kWh will cost you about 9p - that works out at 3p per mile. That's a quarter of the cost of a non-EV.
Again for most people, home charging will be the majority of the time, and generally that will be done overnight. To get the best value out of this, you'll need to sign up to an appropriate Off-peak tariff. With an EV there are a good array of choices across a all electricity companies. They start with the simplest being an overnight off-peak window (eg Octopus Gowhich is 00:30 to 5:30 am) and you schedule your EV to charge during that window (either in the car or on the Chargepoint App itself). There are smart Chargepoints and smart EV's that can be used with a flexible smart tariff's. These allow the utility company to control when your EV is to charge. I prefer the simple fixed window of the likes of Octopus Go.
These tariffs are around 7p to 9p and depending on the size of your car battery and how empty it is, it could cost about £5 (based on a 50kwh battery) to fully charge the car.
Charging out and about is a little more expensive. Public chargepoints can range from 60p per kWh and upwards, so the same charge of a 50kwh battery on the road could cost £30 or more. You can see why charging at home is so attractive - both price wise and convenience wise. To charge on the road you can generally pay by card, but there are benefits to signing up with one of the larger charging companies. I use two - Charge place Scotland and Electroverse. The benefit of these schemes is that they generally offer discounted rates for charging and in the case of Electroverse, if you're an Octopus customer, the cost of the charge will come off your Octopus Electricity account. If you want to sign up to Electroverse please consider using my Electroverse Referral you'll get £5 credit on your account as will I.
I've tracked my annual EV charging and it cost me £200 to charge from home and I got over 8,000 miles from those charges. The same mileage in a petrol car would have cost around £1k. That's a saving of over £800 per year for me.
I've mentioned lower servicing costs, but there are still some services which have a relatively large cost. The 5th year service on my MG for example is the major service as it replaces the EV cooling fluid. Price wise this service alone can be £500. As such it's worth looking at a service plan. When I bought my MG there was a 5 year service plan on offer based on a monthly payment that worked out overall to be better than the individual 5 year service costs. I also found out that there were two types of service plan - a standard mileage (over 10K miles per year) and a low mileage (under 10K per year) - the low mileage being £200 cheaper standard mileage. I had a good idea of the mileage that I did and the low mileage service plan suited me - needless to say I took this option.
Lastly as it was a monthly payment I wanted to know if there what's the benefit in playing it all upfront, and I found out there was an admin charge on every monthly payment. If I paid monthly over the Five-Year period there would be 60 monthly admin charges included. By paying for the service plan in full it's saved me over £50
It's not all a bed of roses
Ok, I should declare that it's not all a bed of roses. There are some issues in having an EV, but with a little bit of thought and planning these can be overcome.
Firstly and most importantly you need to keep in mind that whilst driving the EV is pretty much the same as any other car, "filling up the car" is completely different.
If you charge at home you'll generally start with an EV fully charged. If you do standard journeys you'll get home, plug in and charge overnight, and be fully charged ready to go the next morning. However if you end up needing to charge whilst away from the house (typically on a journey that is near or longer than the range of your car), you will need to charge whilst out and about. Unlike your normal petrol or diesel car, you can't just drive into the garage plug-in in and two minutes later the car's full and you can drive off again. You will need to plug in wait the 30 to 50 minutes it takes to charge. This isn't a bad thing - usually when you're driving on longer journeys you'll need to take breaks anyway, so you factor in the charging alongside those breaks.
Also when you're out and about, finding charge points isn't as simple as looking for the local petrol station, driving in and filling up. EV charge points are not necessarily well signed posted and so you will use the Satnav on your car to find them. Given the number and availability of charge points you may find that your Satnav will pick one, not knowing if it is available for free, so you could have to wait until somebody else who's charging finishes. This can be particularly challenging when you're doing a very long journeys that require multiple charges - my first very long journey required four charges and increase my journey time 4 hours to 9 hours. This was in part due to my lack of understanding and experience in planning and charging my EV on a long journey. Since that first journey 5 years ago I have become more experienced and I use Satnavs which include information on availability and in use charge points, along with route planning. So this is now less of a problem.
Secondly, you will hear a lot about how an EV's range drops in colder weather. This is true - you could lose up to 25% of your vehicles range in the coldest days of winter. However as 95% of the average households journeys are 30 miles or less, this just isn't a problem. My cars rated range is 160 miles. In winter I can do a 30 mile journey do some shopping and 30 mile journey home and still have charge in the car to do another 30 mile journey if needed.
Some hints
So now we get to the good stuff. The hints and tips but that will make your EV experience less of a chore and more if a joy.
- Be cautios of the advertised mileage range figures (known as WLTP). These can give a false sense of the distance your vehicle can travel and they are as variable as MPG is on a petrol vehicle. If you drive with a heavy foot or at high speed your range will drop significantly. I tend to drive on the motorway no faster than 65 mph.
- Charge when you can, not when you need too. It may sound obvious, but it's all so easy to go for a journey and come home and forget to charge, I need to find out the next morning you have a longer journey that requires a charge. So get into the habit of charging whenever you can - that way the car will always be fully charged when you need it
- Drive economically - again this may seem obvious, but it's worth stating. Gentle driving is much more economical and will give better range, particularly in the colder months
- If you have solar, don't charge your EV from it. Whilst it might sound sensible as the solar is free, you generally get paid more for exporting your excess (around 15p per kWh) than you do for charging during off-peak periods (around 7-9p per kWh). So if you charge from solar you're actually losing money
- Look at the voice controls on your sat nav. Mine is Android auto and one of the benefits I have found is using voice control to find and navigate to Chargepoints. For example using voice commands like "navigate to the nearest rapid chargepoint on my route"
- As you're on an EV off-peak tariffs, keep in mind this will generally apply to all electricity used in the household. This can reduce the cost of household electricity through the likes of load shifting (ie using appliances during the off-peak window). You might also want to investigate solar and battery to get even more benefit & reduced household running costs.
- I mentioned Octopus Electroverse and how this can help with charging on the go at public charge points, it is worth noting that if you do a lot of charging at public charge points rather than at home, there are a number of other loyalty and membership programs which can can give significant discounts on the mainstream prices.
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