£3750

Must be coincidence, but remarkably the same as the Government EV grant.

 

They have always been competitive if you look around. Both my Leafs 2016 and 2020 were purchased for less money than a similar spec Ford Focus, and the deals nowadays are crazy.

 

is it a comparable vehicle? In size maybe but in other areas?
what’s the range?

 

It's 7.7% in the past year, which is impressive. And it's not just that smaller cheaper cars have brought the average down, they are lower across all segments.

 

the median price of an EV has fallen by 7.7% or £3750

The most shocking thing is £3750 is l 7.7%. So that's a £49k car. Bargain I'll have three! 😂

 

The UK's average new car price ticked over £40k a couple of years ago... So £49k average for a new EV isn't entirely surprising or outrageous (in the context of all car inflation - which Is outrageous!).

 

Definitely seen a ramping up of good deals. Also EVs in each size class are just better than they were a few years ago. Range is creeping up, and rapid charging has come on quite a lot.

The high median car price is driven by the big fraction of people buying big and/or prestige stuff. i.e. if you just want the "family car" that would have been standard 20 years ago, an EV averages £33k.

Not really a 'car thing' so much as a society has increasingly polarised levels of wealth and many have convinced themselves they need ginormous urban assault vehicles. Ordinary people now buy hand-me-down used cars from the wealthy rather than buying new.

Also, company car tax exemptions mean that it is really the highest income earners buying the most expensive cars that are handed the biggest subsidy, so it isn't surprising EVs are weighted more to the high end. You pretty much need to be a homeowner given the charging situation, and have a driveway, which also weights things towards the wealthy.

 

I still can't understand how an EV costs more than an ICE? Well of course it is the battery stupid.. but it is also the specification of batteries that are bigger than they need to be. Everything else in the car is either simpler or the same as an ICE?
I was reflecting yesterday after a day out to the NT property Nyman's near Crawley. We set off with about 80% battery because of a cock up on setting the clock on my charger but the round trip was to be about 130 miles so there was adequate range in the battery. And it really would never be an issue now that there are so many chargers including a bank of 7 kW chargers at Nyman's itself. The massive increase in the public charging has removed the need for ranges over 200 miles unless you are really doing 250 miles a day every day. Does anyone still do that sort of mileage? It was possibly the last day of summer and I returned home via the A272 to avoid traffic jams on the M25 with the car doing about 5 miles per kWh at the steady speed of about 50 mph.

 

I still can't understand how an EV costs more than an ICE? Well of course it is the battery stupid.. but it is also the specification of batteries that are bigger than they need to be. Everything else in the car is either simpler or the same as an ICE?

A 50-ish kWh battery costs about £10k all in.
An electric motor and power electronics inverter likely £2-4k depending on power output.
Then you need an electric AC compressor, a DC-DC converter and onboard charger, plus all the HV gubbins like contactors, switch boxes, connectors, armoured cables (so the fireman doesn't kill himself cutting you out of a wreck). Budget £5k for all of those.

Yes, you save money on:

• gearbox
• exhaust & treatment
• engine & electronics for such
• fuel tank & pump

But in the net those cost very little. An 1.0L engine for instance could cost Ford as little as £600 to make, it's essentially a single piece of cast aluminium with premade components fitted.

EVs will cost more for some time, but their longer lifespans, lower TCO and overall better performance will win over customers regardless.

 

At least in terms of purchase price parity EVs vs. ICE, I think we are already there; e.g. the Golf vs. ID.3 leasing deals definitely favour the ID.3. That's the big-battery version.

Via salary sacrifice, it is a total no-brainer.

Essentially, cost of EVs have been creeping down while ICE have been going up.

 

I am surprised the electric motor costs so much, given that it has fewer parts. And the drive train is so much simpler. So whilst the power electronics might add a £1k I would have thought the EV would be cheaper. Of course the scale of production has not yet fully ramped up nor has the commonality of components across different marques given that they are still developing the product. But we must be reaching a point where the makers are content to run with the same build for 4-5 years so that all the development costs can be covered by millions of cars. That is the point when prices will reach their proper price and buyers will be happy to keep the cars for 10 years or more.

 

Exactly, it’s mostly about economies of scale. There are lots of development costs, probably more than fossil engines need as they’ve been continuously developed for a century or so. The costs are then amortised to fewer vehicles, so the unit cost is higher.

Let’s say it costs one million dollars! [\dr evil] to design a new fossil car or a new EV. EVs are about 20% of the market at present, so if you sell 800,000 fossils, and 200,000 EVs, the development costs for each fossil are just over a dollar, while each EV costs $5. I don’t know the actual costs, but the difference is real.

 

Seems to me that the ‘free market’ is to blame here, inasmuch as governments that espouse it aren’t actually doing it: in a desperate attempt to protect inefficient domestic car manufacturers, they’re either imposing tariffs (paid for by the consumer), or making hidden subsidies to local suppliers (paid for by the taxpayer, one way or another). We keep hearing about incredibly cheap EVs in China that either don’t make it here or cost multiples of the Chinese domestic price. Shipping can’t cost more than what, £1K-£3K per car? So why the price hike?

Note that I’m not talking here about tariffs that protect domestic manufacturers temporarily against foreign dumping that would otherwise crush a nascent domestic industry. I’m talking about tariffs and subsidies that feed a dying domestic industry with taxpayers money just for a peaceful political life. And in the end, still don’t help the domestic economy to adapt.

 

We keep hearing about incredibly cheap EVs in China that either don’t make it here or cost multiples of the Chinese domestic price. Shipping can’t cost more than what, £1K-£3K per car? So why the price hike?

Well there's VAT, duty, any increase in function to cater for local safety requirements, local support, dealers and their profit margin.

But anyway, it seems manufacturers do not simply go with cost price + margin = selling price. Instead they've decided to go with what the market pays, minus an amount that will get them sales over other brands.

 

This is an interesting 2022 document breaking down the cost of EV manufacture (ICCT ASSESSMENT OF LIGHT-DUTY ELECTRIC VEHICLE COSTS AND CONSUMER BENEFITS IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE 2022–2035 TIME FRAME)

https://share.google/yOhmvNWzasiAXRuss

For their reference EV (250mile EPA range, 72kWh pack), the EV-specific bits are USD 9000 for battery, 1430 for inverter+motor, 1940 for all the other power components (including a charging cable!). Total direct vehicle manufactured cost, USD25000.

Costs have come down since then...

 

Well if costs have come down can I expect to pay less for a new GLC EQ over the EQE given the GLC is also a class below in the Mercedes pecking order……shall we say I am not holding my breath😆

 

Mmm, a 3 year old EV has taken a huge hit with depreciation though, but I guess a Ford would too?
I do have a preference in manufacturer, I’d like a Renault 4 or 5, having driven one (a used 5) for 20 miles think they are absolutely great.

 

There’s a huge swath of folk who replace their cars every 2 to 3 years right now, think it'll need a generational attitude change to keep a car for 10.
considering how fast tech evolves, it’s not surprising people want to update more often, look at phones, how many of your friends simply ‘have’ to buy a new phone every year? My son did did until he settled down and realised just what it cost!