[Paul]

Yes I know it's not that simple and yes I know it's never black and white.

But the poll here is not about all the side issues and how we really make decisions. I'd be interested to know – if pushed – of these TWO possible motivations, which was your main one for purchasing an EV.

Sure it could be both, sure it could be others, sure it could be neither. But I'm just intrigued if you had to say one or the other, which one it would be.

 

[volt69]

As posted in the classified's i'm now in the market for a 2nd hand Volt purely for financial reasons as a replacement car is needed for the wife. Enviromental reasons are a bonus but having been a fan of the Volt since it was launched 3 years ago I would never ever consider buying one new as I knew the depreciation would be terrible in only 2 years.

I find most people who are very into the enviromental scene are also minted and happy to waste money on overpriced "enviromental" products. Depreciation alone is a killer for pretty much any curent EV, although with a 1 year waiting list the BMW i3 may change this?

Why does it make sense to jump on the EV wagon 2nd hand now? Maths. Pure and simple. Wifes current 55 mile daily commute in hr 2002 BMW 320iSE (LPG Conv) costs us arounf £250 p/m in Petrol and LPG. Plus the road tax is £285 p/a (£24 p/m). So those two combined are a monthly cost of around £274 p/m.

As the wife gets free EV charging at work (General Electric, 2 bays unused in 18 months!) we will have a daily overnight charge cost at home of about £1.50 (11p KWH cost). With a 95% EV 7 day use we are looking at a combined electricity/petrol cost on a Volt of £50 p/m. And with £0 road tax too that's a monthly saving of £224!

Spead over six years (to reach battery warrenty of 8 year / 100k). that is a saving of £16128!

As you can now buy a 2012 Volt with arounf 30k miles for £16k retail you can see why it makes perfect sense. I have never known it possible before to almost fully fund a 2 year old car purchase and all depreciation 100% out of fuel and road tax savings. This cant last, within 10 years if this trend continues they will Tax this into oblivion so the most obvious time to jump in is now 2nd hand.

Even taking out the full £16k on a 4% APR Personal loan over six years only gave us £250 monthly replayments and £18k in total to pay back to the bank.

I have never known a better time to jump onto 2nd hand car ownership only 2-3 years old, just for the econonmics.

M

 

[Brooktop]

I hear ya @volt69, but there is one factor you may not have considered. Prices have come down and if you only do 'average' mileage and tend to keep cars for many years, you have a lifetime warranty on a new one. There's a financial value attached to that.

When I was looking in June, I was only making a £2k saving on a 1 yr old model...so it made sense to go new.

 

[Robwiz]

I've clicked environmental but I wouldn't have bought the car if the numbers didn't work too.

I've been working on cutting our family's energy consumption – we've cut our home's annual energy usage, measured in kWh by 43% since September 2013, without compromising our comfort. And that includes the additional electricity used to charge the car (we've only used a public charger once!) – we saved a further £1200 on petrol).

It soon became clear from researching loads about environment and energy saving measures that there's a good synergy between solar PV and EVs and our journey profiles are a very good match with an EV's strengths.

 

[Olivier]

The financial fuel and other savings allowed me to do it for 2 reasons:

• I feel an electric drive train is 'better' than petrol ones and have long looked forward to make the switch.
  
• environmental aspects, although I am not sure getting a new car on the road does the environment that much good

If it'd been only for the cost saving, I would have waited another couple of years as the Outlander and Model S (for me the only larger viable EVs) are not really in the 'value' segment at the moment so would have had to wait 2/3 years before I could save money on running my 10 year old diesel Audi.

 

[John2]

Its really both of these, and how I would answer would depend on who I was talking to and the context which will vary, depending on my role.
The push to increase BIK rates on high emissions cars started about ten years ago. This started me researching alternatives which resulted in Gen2 and Gen3 Prius so I suppose the initial motivation was financial in response to the changing fiscal setup, though I am not sure Gen2 and Gen3 Prius would be classed as EVs (no plug).
As a business user I would say that the motivation is mainly financial as I influence decisions on what to buy and have to justify these decisions to colleagues. The EV drivetrains also help.
As a driver the motivation is now environmental, though initially it was financial considerations which provided the first motivation.
So, on balance, I will vote environmental as this is more representative of the current position.

 

[volt69]

I hear ya @volt69, but there is one factor you may not have considered. Prices have come down and if you only do 'average' mileage and tend to keep cars for many years, you have a lifetime warranty on a new one. There's a financial value attached to that.

When I was looking in June, I was only making a £2k saving on a 1 yr old model...so it made sense to go new.

I beleive reading on here some dealers are shifiting new Ampera's for around £23k? Still I look at it as is a lifetime (100k miles) warrenty worth £7k premium over buying a 2 year old car thats only done 30k?

Maybe. Have the secondary warrenty market like Warrenties Direct launched specific EV focused policies yet? As we have no clutch/gearbox/turbo/DPF/DMF/driveshaft/etc/etc to go wrong as in an ICE.

Apart from Battery what is the next few most likely thing to fail in a EV using direct drive for a warrenty to cover?

M

 

[Derekosb]

I beleive reading on here some dealers are shifiting new Ampera's for around £23k? Still I look at it as is a lifetime (100k miles) warrenty worth £7k premium over buying a 2 year old car thats only done 30k?

Maybe. Have the secondary warrenty market like Warrenties Direct launched specific EV focused policies yet? As we have no clutch/gearbox/turbo/DPF/DMF/driveshaft/etc/etc to go wrong as in an ICE.

Apart from Battery what is the next few most likely thing to fail in a EV using direct drive for a warrenty to cover?

M

Scottish Vauxhall in Inverness are still doing a new Positiv for £20,995. Drive in Leicester and Pentagon in Sheffield are just under £23k.

The Volt/Ampera comes with an 8 year 100,000 mile drivetrain warranty so even a secondhand Volt (as @volt69 is looking for) will still have a drivetrain warranty.

The downside is that the Volt/Ampera does still have an ICE, albeit one that might have only done a 1/4 of the mileage the car has.

HTH

Derek

 

[Brooktop]

I voted financial...cos you forced me to choose @Paul but it remains to be seen whether the sums add up.

Don't know what it is...but there feels something dirty about putting fuel into a vehicle now. I want 50/50 choice

 

[jdsx]

I voted 'environmental', but it was a pretty close-run thing... I had vaguely looked at the Ampera (not enough seats), the Prius Plus (enough seats but not really much space) and the Plug-in Prius (not enough EV range), but rejected them all for one reason or another. I had hankered after a Volvo V60 plug-in hybrid, but I wasn't prepared to pay the premium over the standard diesel. Then the Outlander PHEV came along and I couldn't see a reason not to get it . Obviously there are cheaper ways of transporting 5 people and a fair amount of luggage from A to B, and I could have kept my S-max and run it into the ground for much less money. But let's face it, if the environment isn't a good enough reason to spend a little bit more than one would otherwise (if one can, obviously)....what is?? Do we want to leave a decent world for our kids or not?

 

[harrisop]

Absolutely neither. It was the technology 100%

 

[Paul]

Absolutely neither. It was the technology 100%

Not an option here.

 

[Wowbagger]

I voted "environmental" because that has always been a major factor in my travel planning: never use planes, drive as little as possible when it's just one person in the car, use trains and cycle as much as is practicable.

Having said that, our old Prius was dying a death and I looked into the possibility of buying an EV. I felt that this was a good time to make the "leap of faith" as to buy another petrol/diesel car was to tie us into ICE until getting on for my 70th birthday. I seriously considered a VW Passat diesel estate as a great way to transport bikes around the country reasonably economically, but the deciding factor was Mrs. Wow inheriting from her late mother and our other savings earning buggerall interest. We chucked £16k at a Leaf and have decided to "invest" the fuel savings every month, at a rate of 10p per mile. After 6 months we have £1000 towards our next car - and we can fit the tandem in the back!

 

[Kevin Sharpe]

I voted 'environmental' because the Tesla is an expensive car to run (even with 'free' solar fuel).

 

[Derekosb]

I voted financial. I am buying and running my Ampera for less per month than my previous car cost me in Diesel.

That was the justification for buying it.

The fact I love the drive is a massive bonus.

 

[Paul_Moxhay]

I voted financial because that is why we first got interested but since getting the Leaf we have got solar and become much more interested in the environment.

 

[cjm_2013]

Another financial vote here. But I was also feeling guilt over the amount of CO2 my golf TDI was spewing out, so it's a bit of both.

Since I got my Leaf I've been saving an average of 350 quid / month (so almost 4k saved so far). And since my own LTD company is paying for it (and the deposit), the outlay makes a nice dent in my corporation tax liabilities. It would seem that my usage profile - 80-90 miles a day with charging at work - delivers the optimum cost benefit.

I am utterly convinced that EVs are the future of motoring.

 

[volt69]

I am utterly convinced that EVs are the future of motoring.

I am too, however, I think the huge savings to be made in avoiding fuel taxes buy using electricity in place of Petrol or diesel has at most a 10 year window before it closes, and if EV's take off in the next five years I also expect EV taxes (such as special EV VED) to increase each year to offset lost tax revenues unaviodable when buying fossil fuels.

The same way LPG conversions started @ 1/5th the cost of a petrol car but LPG duties were increased to make it less 45% once the lost MPG using LPG was factored in.

M

 

[Brooktop]

But I was also feeling guilt over the amount of CO2 my golf TDI was spewing out, so it's a bit of both.

Not to mention particulates! I was behind a Passat TDI yesterday and he was one of these drivers that only knows one pedal position. At every set of lights he took the right hand lane and leathered it. Each time there was a thick black fug from the exhaust. Whose vents does that get sucked into???

So wish I'd been in the Ampera and next to him at a set of lights.

 

[cjm_2013]

Not to mention particulates! I was behind a Passat TDI yesterday and he was one of these drivers that only knows one pedal position. At every set of lights he took the right hand lane and leathered it. Each time there was a thick black fug from the exhaust. Whose vents does that get sucked into???

So wish I'd been in the Ampera and next to him at a set of lights.

Yeah. I tickle the throttle in my transit camper nowadays, it's only done 74k in 11 years, has been serviced regularly, and recently had a full service including the filters... and yet, if I plant my right foot at night the amount of soot produced is horrifying. Luckily I only use it for long distance runs and it barely does 2k /year.