Is buying an electric car for commuting realistic at the moment?

My daily commute is a 180-mile round trip on a variety of motorway sections, roundabout filled dual carriage ways and B roads. I currently drive a 2009 Citroen C5 diesel automatic. Tax is a whacking £350 and fuel is costing me an average of 15p a mile with 30k miles p/a. I am 6'4'' with a grumpy back and have found the C5 very comfortable to drive. Plus, the automatic is much less tiring than my previous manual car. I would like to get running costs down. Is it worth buying a modern car and is an electric car even realistic? I live on a terrace street with no charging points but do have the potential to charge an electric car at work. I also travel abroad regularly so an electric option would need to be happy sitting in the airport car park for several weeks at a time. I am not in a position to spend tens of thousands on a new car. I have investigated lease deals on various new/nearly new modern diesels as well as some hybrids. However excess millage costs that I would incur make this an unrealistic option. Also if I were to buy a newer car, in the back of my mind is its actual value with 2035 not too far off.

Asked on 16 March 2020 by Stephen Trapmore

Answered by Andrew Brady

Electric cars make sense for a lot of people. However, with no home charging available and regular trips abroad, you'd have to be really dedicated to running an electric car for 30k a year. We'd recommend sticking with a modern diesel for your mileage. No matter which route you go down, any car's going to depreciate rapidly if you add 30k a year (hence high lease costs). The only way to avoid this is to run an older model like your C5 but, as you're probably finding, that'll result in higher maintenance costs. I'd look for a frugal diesel like a modern Skoda Octavia, Kia Ceed or Ford Focus. You could consider a hybrid but fuel costs will be expensive - hybrids are at their best around town.

Tags: running costs commuting hybrid or diesel? electric cars maintenance costs evs diesel or electric?

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