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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

Business Car magazine has identified the top 5 causes of road accidents attributed to vehicle defects. Their investigation revealed the following:

Brakes                                     37%

Tyres                                       30%

Steering or Suspension            17%

Lights or Indicators                  9%

Vehicle Or Trailer Overload     7%

So there you have it, make sure that you take care of the above or risk an accident. By Graham Hill

The cars on our roads that cover highest mileage have always tended to be company cars. They are nearly always new and are subject to some very stringent controls, imposed upon the drivers by the employers. As a result our roads tend to be much safer as the cars are properly maintained.

However, since the real world (WLTP) emissions tests that were carried out last year we have seen an increase in declared CO2 emissions across most makes and models of cars. This meant that drivers suddenly saw increases in BIK tax whilst driving identical replacement cars. The Government promised to address the problem and make adjustments to bandings so that drivers didn’t suffer.

Sadly that hasn’t happened so we are seeing a move by drivers away from company cars towards car allowance with many of these drivers preferring to drive higher powered 2^nd hand prestige cars than say 1.0L Mondeos. This has meant that companies no longer have the tight controls over the service and maintenance of cars used by their drivers.

The employers are still responsible but as they no longer have the same level of control, servicing may not be in line with manufacturers recommendations and when employees realise the cost of maintaining prestige used cars maintenance may drop off making cars less safe.

The Government has replied to complaints by the industry that they have broken a promise by saying that the increase in BIK tax will encourage drivers and companies to run lower emission cars. But as we are seeing the drivers are pushing employers to move to car allowances which can lead to less safe roads and by taking used prestige cars the environment will also suffer.

According to Fleet News the rate of employees opting out of company cars for cash is ‘at the highest we’ve seen’. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. By Graham Hill

Auto Express has managed to find out that police and council ANPR cameras take 10 billion images each year generating 203 million hits on ‘vehicles of interest’. Police cameras are used to detect and track criminals whilst the council cameras are used to detect parking and road infractions.

This means that the local councils in England, Scotland and Wales have used their cameras to generate £472 million in local authority fines over the last 5 years using motorists to boost their struggling bank accounts. Given the continued strain on budgets, local councils will no doubt use this cash cow opportunity so you should be very wary that even though you may not see a policeman or traffic warden big brother will know if you break the law.

When ANPR cameras were introduced their intention was to assist the police in law enforcement but they have since been extended for the use of councils to generate income. Action group, Big Brother Watch explain, this is ‘constant monitoring of innocent motorists’, with no clear legal basis. Tony Porter, the Government’s surveillance camera commissioner warned that the UK’s ANPR network operates with ‘limited democratic oversite’. He also feels that the network ‘must surely be one of the largest data gatherers of its citizens in the world’.

That doesn’t create a problem if the cameras are used to fight crime but concerns exist over the number of images retained and the use they are put to beyond crime fighting. The most active police cameras are in the West Midlands with nearly 900 million scans each year with 24 million hits on vehicles of interest. Bottom of the top 10 is Dyfed-Powys with 414 million scans with 10.5 million hits on vehicles of interest.

The London Borough of Barnet collected around £38.3 million in fines by issuing 347,000 tickets as a result of ANPR imaging. Glasgow was next with 567,000 tickets raising £33.9 million in fines. London seems to be most popular with 6 of the top 10 ANPR-generated council fines over the last 5 years being in London boroughs.

And things will potentially get worse as the cost of the cameras has dropped dramatically. You can even buy them on eBay for around £200. I would suggest that the current figure of 8,768 cameras installed nationally will grow substantially over the next few years.

It is also my belief that as the Government starts to lose revenue as a result of drivers moving across to hybrid and electric, resulting in a drop in petrol and diesel tax income, they will then charge for road use which will make ANPR essential for charging and proof that cars have entered a charge zone. Time will tell. By Graham Hill

One of the fears when taking out either a Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) or Personal Contract Hire (PCH) is the fear of end of lease charges. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued its report on finance offered by car dealers last week.

The report was frankly poor and certainly lacking in content. It concentrated upon the commission taken out by dealers through inflated APR’s but the real problems that consumers face are far wider than overstated APR’s which you can always walk away from.

End of lease charges can be unexpected and excessive when you take out a PCP compared to a PCH agreement. Many have taken out a PCP with expectations of buying the car at the end of the agreement only to find that the final balloon payment is much greater than the car is worth.

According to themoneysavingexpert.com 80% of cars on PCP are handed back at the end of the agreement. It is only then that they realise the implications. Believing that you will own the car at the end of the agreement you may have the first service at a main dealer but knowing that having the car serviced at any service centre or garage would ensure that the warranty is unaffected you could look to save money and have the car serviced at your local garage. After all you will own the car.

However, it’s only when you hand the car back that you realise that there are charges and penalties because you weren’t expecting to do so. And as consumers find out far too late the PCP agreement is very complex with a huge number of vague terms and conditions. For example it will say, ‘the car must be maintained in line with manufacturer’s recommendations’.

You may believe this to mean that the car must be serviced every 10,000 miles using either manufacturer’s parts or parts equivalent to manufacturer’s parts. However, the manufacturer’s recommendations will always include: ‘Have the car serviced at a main dealer’. So if you don’t you could end up with a charge. And I’ve seen charges of up to £1,800. I’ve also seen excess mileage charges of 6 pence per mile on PCH but 15 pence per mile on a PCP on the same car.

The FCA had a great opportunity to make PCP much more transparent but concentrated on the commission taken by car dealers – sad. By Graham Hill