With new electric models due to be launched in 2023, the number of EVs on UK roads is set to grow significantly over the next few years. Plus, as a result of reducing battery production costs and growing competition between manufacturers, the price of EVs is also falling. Buying an electric car, brand new or second hand, is now a real option for a large number of UK car buyers.
Who should buy an electric car?
The average range of an electric car is now between 180 and 250 miles, while some vehicles can go for over 350 miles on a single charge.
With this in mind, plus the growing number of public charging devices installed across the UK – find the latest EV charging statistics on Zapmap – EVs are suitable for almost everyone. If you regularly drive more than 250 miles, you’ll need to plan your journey using Zapmap’s route planner.
Access to charging points
The majority of EV charging is conducted overnight, when electricity is cheapest. It also means that your vehicle is fully charged each morning and ready to drive. While you’ll ideally have off-street parking that allows you to charge your EV at home, this is not essential for running an electric car.
Recent years have seen strong and continued growth in the provision of low-powered chargers on residential streets, which are ideal for overnight charging. Also known as ‘base’ charging, these slow on-street chargers act as a replacement for home chargers.
There are other alternatives too. For instance, you might find it helpful to look into peer-to-peer charging networks, such as Zap-Home, where other EV owners share their home charger – some for free, others for a small fee.
What’s more, if you are able to charge your car at your workplace, you may find that’s sufficient for your needs, alongside the occasional top-up on the public charging network.
Although slow charging at home can be carried out using a standard 3-pin socket, because of the higher current demands of EVs and the longer amount of time spent charging, it is strongly recommended that those who need to charge regularly at home or the workplace get a dedicated EV charging unit installed by an accredited installer.
Note that, for any type of EV charging, it is not advisable under any circumstances to trail an electric cable across pavements or other public areas to connect a car parked on-street with your household electricity supply. Doing so will be a safety hazard and will possibly invalidate your house, car, and public liability insurances.
Explore our guide to charging at home
Daily mileage
Regular commuting trips are especially well suited to electric cars, with around two-thirds of these less than 10 miles. They also tend to be routine journeys for which the driver knows what to expect in regards to distance, route, congestion, road conditions, parking, and local charging locations. However, if you regularly drive more than 250 miles, you’ll need to plan your journey using our route planner.
Whatever your situation, if you are thinking of buying an electric car, it’s important to understand what you’re using it for. Is it a vehicle to pootle around town in, for example, or is it the new family workhorse?
Once you have an idea of how you’ll use your EV, you can start to look into the logistics in more detail. Can you charge at home or at your workplace? Perhaps you can charge while at the gym, or there might be a charger within walking distance from your home. It is certainly worth downloading Zapmap to see how many charge points are in your area, or on your regular journeys. You may well be pleasantly surprised.
What’s more, research has also made useful observations regarding the way in which electric cars are used within multi-car owning households. While manufacturers initially thought that electric vehicles would be bought to replace a second or third car, research shows that once an electric car is purchased by a household, it tends to be preferred for all short local trips, with the other car only being used for longer journeys. Of course, even this is now changing, with some households now exclusively driving electric vehicles.
Electric car buying budget
Overall, EVs of all types tend to be more expensive to buy than their conventional equivalents, although this is changing. In part, this has been because most EVs are bought as new models rather than second-hand vehicles, and also because manufacturers look to recoup their investment in developing electric powertrains. That said, a few car makers have set prices at the similar levels to some conventional models – and the gap in pricing is undoubtedly coming down.
What’s more, getting hold of an affordable electric car that meets your needs is becoming a lot easier than you might expect. Many people rent, lease or even subscribe to an EV, with a growing number of dedicated electric providers now operating. Your company might also offer an electric car salary sacrifice scheme, which can be a particularly cost-effective way to drive an EV. There are of course EV-specific car clubs and other car-sharing initiatives popping up across the country too.
Given that EVs have been available since 2011, increasing numbers of used electric vehicles are coming on to the market, making them more affordable for drivers not in the new car market. Despite this, prices are still not as low as used petrol and diesel cars. Since there is plenty of demand, EVs tend to keep their value, and the vehicles coming on to the used car market are not particularly old.
As the EV market develops, battery costs – and vehicle prices – continue to drop. The last five years alone has seen battery production costs fall by almost 80%. The battery is one of the largest and most expensive elements of an EV, and with production costs dropping, the time when an EV costs the same as a comparable conventional model (or even less) is predicted by some in the industry to be only a few years away.
Another potential cost for EV buyers is the installation of a home or workplace charge point. Typically a dedicated slow (3 kW) or fast (7 kW) unit costs under £1,000 to install by a qualified electrician.
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