[Favguy]

Just for fun whilst we're all sat at home bored...

How many have calculated their annual savings compared to previous ICE?

I'll start...

Previous ICE:

12k pa Petrol cost at 32 mpg (£1.24 litre) £ 2114
Road Tax £ 310
Servicing (Average p/a, 5 years) £ 350
Insurance £ 345
Total £ 3119

MG ZS EV:

12k pa Electricity @ 3.5 mpkWh (5p unit) £ 171
Road Tax £ Nil
Servicing (Average p/a, 5 years) £ 150
Insurance £ 297
Total £ 468

So I personally save £2651 pa. How do you fare?

 

[Neilew]

About the same, but my last ICE was a Mitsubishi Mirage at around 60/80 mpg. I reckon Zoe was good for 5p/mile.

 

[Sandy]

Excluding purchase price (loan etc).

10k pa Electricity @3.5mpkWh (12.5p unit) £357
10.5k Battery hire @£65 a month = £780
Road Tax £ 0
Servicing (Average p/a, 5 years) £ 120
Insurance £ 280
Total £ 1,429

10k pa Electricity @3.5mpkWh (12.5p unit) £357
Road Tax £ 0
Servicing (Average p/a, 5 years) £ 120
Insurance £ 320
Total £ 689


£740 saved

Not much of a saving, but better in my pocket than Renaults.

 

[ColA]

Savings depend very much on annual mileage. I average around 4000 miles per annum so fuel costs were never a big issue. I charge with cheap rate Octopus so the saving is around £600 plus zero tax and, hopefully, lower servicing costs but this would be offset if I extend the BMW warranty. Given that the upfront cost new for the i3 was probably substantially more than an ICE and given depreciation and loss of interest earned I am a lot worse off, even if keeping the car for, say, 8 years.

 

[Paul M]

**Old car was 2L turbo diesel Qashqai+2
Depreciation, I lost £1200 a year, it was doing quite well but the last 18 months it took a beating.
Tax, it would be £210 now.
Maintenance, I had it done independently, £2000 a year
Fuel, 44mpg and 8500 mi => £1170 at the old diesel price of £1.30/L

Total £2780/annum

**eZS
Depreciation, I am hoping will not be too bad, but lets say it's £2.5k/year assuming the worst (looking at the ICE version of the car)
Tax, £0
Maintenance, £150 (unless MG change their standard pricing)
Fuel, 8500mi at 3.5mi/kWh at 5p/kWh => £122

Total £2772

Overall then not really a saving but I get to drive round in a brand new car, rather than one designed 11 years ago, which is quiet and a pleasure to be in.

However, if it weren't for the lockdown, we'd be using the car even more than the old one because it's cheap to run, for example my wife would be using it once a week for a regular business trip which would add a further 72mi a week or 3200mi a year, saving £400 ish in fuel on top.

 

[Paul M]

@Sandy you really really need to get on the Octopus Go tariff and charge off their 5p/unit rate!

 

[Neilew]

@Sandy I'm saving between the cost of the Zoe at £214.06 car and £99 (£313.06) battery a month and the MG at £308.20 = £4.86. I've never considered the battery lease anything other than the cost of the car. It would only really matter if I kept it beyond 4 to 5 years.

 

[Neilew]

Depreciation, I am hoping will not be too bad, but lets say it's £2.5k/year assuming the worst

I predict that your (our) depreciation will be no where as bad as that. It won't be as good as my 2 previous Zoes of which the 22 kWh was worth considerably more than I bought it for and the 41 kWh had enough residual in it to give me the £3500 deposit for the MG. Both cars were 2 years old at sale. The secret is in the PCP purchasing.

Zoe 1 (2015 model) 24 months at £158.88 = £3813.12 + GFV £4450 = £8363.12
Similar model on Autotrader a couple of weeks ago £8500 (none of this model currently on Autotrader)

Zoe 2 (2018 model) 24 months at £313.06 £7513.44 + GFV at £4442 = £11955.44
Exact car on Autotrader £15591

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/202003037956001?postcode=tf119py&make=RENAULT&radius=20&advertising-location=at_cars&sort=relevance&model=ZOE&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&page=1

I reckon you could go for around £1k to £1.5k if you swap it out before MOT.

 

[Sandy]

@Sandy you really really need to get on the Octopus Go tariff and charge off their 5p/unit rate!

Unfortunately just looking at car charging in isolation doesn't automatically make savings. Currently I get a lot of free public charging but I appreciate that is changing.

As a family (when i'm at work) we consume a lot of power between 3pm and 7pm so cheap overnight rates don't suit us if we get hammered when the kids are home. In fact i'm probably saving a lot right now as both myself and my partner are working from home so increased consumption which of flexible tariffs would put our bills right up (especially as we pay rock bottom gas prices, but switching to an Octopus deal would see that increase by 1p/kWh which would put our yearly bill up £100s a year).

 

[Favguy]

I'm going to do this exercise on a like for like against a similar spec ICE new car.

Anyone like to suggest a suitable ICE equivalent to the ZS in spec and size?

 

[Sandy]

I'm going to do this exercise on a like for like against a similar spec ICE new car.

Anyone like to suggest a suitable ICE equivalent to the ZS in spec and size?

How about a ZS Exclusive 1.0 turbo.

 

[Boatgeek]

I am going to weigh in on this but only in relation to ongoing running costs, not going to include the knackered clutch on my Golf.

2019:
20k miles @50mpg. Average diesel cost = £1.30. approx 4.55 litres to gallon, therefore, £5.92 per gallon.
20,000 / 50 = 400 gallons. 440 x 5.92 = £2,368

Due to being able to charge for free at work and for free when I arrive to see my kids I have spent £61.04 on rapid charging in 3000 miles of motoring. If this is extrapolated upwards, and we assume that my use of rapid chargers remains the same and I continue to be able to charge for free at work and my destination then if I do 20k miles this year I estimate a spend of £407 on electricity.

Saving = £1961

Golf Tax = £20
Savings = £20

Golf Service = £250
Golf MOT = £50

Estimated MG servicing (as above) £120

Savings = £180

Total Savings Estimate = £2161

 

[Favguy]

How about a ZS Exclusive 1.0 turbo.

Spec and performance on the ICE ZS is way lower than the EV, need something more equivalent I think.

 

[MikeProcter]

I’m worse off now than my last car....

My last car was a Leaf 40 Tekna. It was cheaper to run, but cost slightly more per month to buy than my MG.
I was driving around 15,000 miles a year last year.

The car before that was a Leaf 24 and that was cheaper still, but I was only driving it around 12.000 miles a year.

The last ice car I owned was a Freelander 1 Td4 auto which I sold in 2015, that did around 20-25mpg most of the time. My annual mileage was around 12,000 miles.
VED was best part of £500 (registered after April ‘06)
Insurance was around £500.
Servicing/repairs was around £2,500 per year!

The MG ZS EV is similar in size to the Freelander 1.
Insurance is more, but it’s insured for 20,000 miles. Not going to make that now this year!!!
As mentioned above it costs more to run as it isn’t as economical as either Leaf, but I prefer it.... but way, way cheaper to run the the diesel guzzling Freelander.

 

[Carty]

EVM has recently produced a great video displaying the TOTAL running costs of the previous Nissan Leaf that he owned, before now buying a new Tesla model 3.
He cover ALL aspects of every cost from cradle to grave.
Very Interesting !.

 

[Boatgeek]

My car choices were the ZS EV or a VW Arteon R Line. There is little doubt that day to day running costs an EV in that context will be much lower. As I have little interest in owning the vehcile outright PCP will always be involved. PCP residuals always have to be considered in context. They tend to favour a new car from the same manufacturer of a similar spec and model. I would never get a more expensive car on PCP thinking about the possible residual in 3 years time, it is a pointless exercise .

 

[Favguy]

My car choices were the ZS EV or a VW Arteon R Line. There is little doubt that day to day running costs an EV in that context will be much lower. As I have little interest in owning the vehcile outright PCP will always be involved. PCP residuals always have to be considered in context. They tend to favour a new car from the same manufacturer of a similar spec and model. I would never get a more expensive car on PCP thinking about the possible residual in 3 years time, it is a pointless exercise .

Would be very interested how your decision came to be between two such entirely different types/classes of car? Was it down to the limited choice of EV for a given budget?

 

[Sandy]

Would be very interested how your decision came to be between two such entirely different types/classes of car? Was it down to the limited choice of EV for a given budget?

What he wanted..... what he could afford!

 

[Boatgeek]

I could afford both, I have a magic PCP figure and both were in the zone. TBH when I got separated from my wife I had to sell my Passat R Line and settle with the Golf that we owned outright as the divorce wagon. I wanted something that was entirely mine and I have coveted an Arteon for a while. My kids live a 500 mile round trip away and I started going to see them every other weekend. As you can imagine the cost of diesel started to be a significant issue. Paying a mortgage, child support and renting meant that some months I would decide whether to eat or buy diesel to see my kids. This was all doubly frustrating as I have a good job as Senior Fellow at a Russel Group Uni. In the end there were a few factors that swayed me.

• The cost of diesel - charging free at work and at my destinations meant that I could significantly reduce the cost of fuel
• Servicing - VW servicing is expensive and I was having to pay for 2 per year!
• Warranty - a 7 year warranty gave me much greater peace of mind compared to the 3 year warranty on VW
• Spec - Even an R-Line Arteon has fewer bells and whistles than the MG e.g. Android Auto is not standard on a top spec VW
• Peer pressure - my eldest brother owns a renewable energy company and my other brother drives electric as well
• VW themselves - the final straw was falling out with VW about many things

All in all I am happy with the choice I made and as I have always been an early adopter I am comfortable with the vehicle iterating over time. In fact I think it is incredible how they can iterate, from a software perspective.

 

[Favguy]

What he wanted..... what he could afford!

Well, of course!, but I've noticed in general with regard to EV's, you tend to find people moving across Marques and car types/classes far more than you ever do with ICE.

I suppose I'm a case in point, I would never usually consider an SUV type car, I don't like them. But I wanted a new EV for a sensible price and that just doesn't exist yet in the class of car I'd usually buy. So I'm loving driving around in my ZS EV even though it's really in entirely the wrong body!