One selling point for electric vehicles is that they cost considerably less to 'fuel' than those equipped with an internal combustion engine.
One internet source that I checked this morning yielded the following informaton:
Average domestic electricity rate in the whole of the UK is about 28p per kWh**. Fully charging a 60kWh electric car will cost around £15 (depending on where you live) and give you about 200 miles of range.18 Feb 2022
That is equivalent to 7.5 pence per mile.
If we assume that an equivalent petrol engined car would require 5 gallons of fuel at £7 per gallon to travel the same distance, the cost would be £35, equivalent to 17.5 pence per mile - an attractive saving, yes?
Given that today sees the largest increase in the cost of electricity in living memory, one which all the pundits say will continue to escalate, that differential can only decrease - making EVs less attractive compared to their IC engined cousins.
That also assumes that we have the necessary infrastructure in place in order to produce the increasing amounts of electricity required to 'fuel' the growing number of EVs projected over the next decade or so, which I doubt.
I, for one, am not convinced that this is the best way forward. It is redolent of the push a few years back to get us all into Diesel cars, which are now seen by many as being the Pariahs of the automotive world.
Seen by others as
'the best thing since sliced bread', will EVs suffer a similar fate in a few years, and we will all go rushing headlong down anther path.
I will not be buying an EV produced by Volvo or any other manufacturer any time soon. Instead, I will continue to run my 22 year old V70 for as long as possible. I've had it for nearly 6 years now, which is one third of the time that I owned my last 745, so it has a ways to go yet! My (rolling average) fuel cost may be approaching 20 pence per mile, but in all other respects it owes me nothing.
Are E.V.s the present day equivalent of the Emperor's new clothes?
Regards, John.