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Analysis: EVs are now nine times cheaper than petrol or diesel to drive in UK

66 points · 107 comments · xbmcuser

  1. Zadak · · focus · HN ↗
    What about the infrastructure? It always comes to this for any country, sadly.
    1. neilalexander · · focus · HN ↗
      There are over 120,000 public charging points across the UK, with over 25,000 of them being 50kW+ DC. That's averaging more than one charger per square mile of the mainland UK (density distribution of course varies).
      1. ErroneousBosh · · focus · HN ↗
        These are very, very expensive to charge at.
        1. piltdownman · · focus · HN ↗
          Mainly due to the standard 20% VAT rate applied to public electricity (compared to 5% for home charging) which could be rectified overnight if there was political will.

          Breakdown of UK Public/Private and EV/ICE Per Mile Costs:

          * Home (Off-Peak EV Tariff): ~3p per mile

          * Home (Standard Standard Variable Tariff): ~8p per mile

          * Standard Public EV: ~15p per mile

          * Petrol Car: ~17p per mile

          * Diesel Car: ~17.5p per mile

          * 50kW+ DC Public EV: ~22p to 23p per mile

          1. ErroneousBosh · · focus · HN ↗
            17.5p per mile is wildly optimistic with diesel at nearly two quid a litre.

            I'm currently paying around 95p/litre for gas, which works out at around 23p per mile, in something with a 4.6 litre V8 that's registered as a low-emission vehicle (so cheaper tax) that mostly gets used to drag heavy trailers about the place.

            If I need to use a car it's because I'm unlikely to be doing less than double-digit miles to somewhere with no public transport.

            If I pop out to the supermarket for groceries, I wouldn't even think of cycling. It's quicker to walk...

            1. piltdownman · · focus · HN ↗
              Yeah those were the pre-Hormutz debacle benchmarks.

              At the moment for an ICE @ 40 MPG it's ~22.6p per mile for diesel in the UK

              1. ErroneousBosh · · focus · HN ↗
                The neat thing about gas is it's essentially a waste product from plastics manufacture, and that's ramping up so it's just getting cheaper.

                Imagine how clean our cities could have been if 20 years ago the government had gone down the route of getting people to convert cars to gas, instead of giving them a couple of quid to scrap them and buy a "cleaner greener" diesel.

                1. [deleted] · · focus · HN ↗

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