Electric Vehicles Cheaper To Maintain Than Petrol
Friday, 15. March 2019
According to Cap HPI the maintenance costs for Electric Vehicles (EV’s) are 23% cheaper than for the equivalent petrol model. Calculations were based on 3 year, 60,000 mile running periods. The gap is greater for smaller vehicles.
An electric Renault Zoe was found to cost £1,100 to maintain compared to £1,497 for a similar petrol driven Vauxhall Corsa. Representing a 35.7% saving. While the best selling UK electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf cost £1,197 to maintain compared to £1,429 for a petrol VW Golf – 19% cheaper.
Cap HPI senior valuations expert, Chris Plumb commented: ‘An electric car motor has far fewer moving parts than a petrol or diesel engine. They also benefit from gentler driving styles that lead to lower wear and tear of brakes and tyres’.
He went on to say, ‘While the purchase price is often higher at the moment- but coming down all the time – drivers will find an EV much cheaper to run with significantly lower costs to charge than visiting a pump as well as the lower maintenance costs’.
I would add a caveat to that as I carried out an exercise last year and found that if you used a fast charger located in motorway service stations the cost per mile, based on the electric car’s true range, compared with petrol or diesel cars was significantly higher. Of course, this dropped heavily if slow charged from your domestic supply. By Graham Hill
