Petrol still cheaper overall than electric and diesel on average…
Low servicing costs and no road-tax making electric cars more viable for drivers…
Running costs of electric car 20% less than petrol and diesel…
New research from leading price comparison website MoneySuperMarket (www.moneysupermarket.com) reveals the price of driving electric versus driving a petrol or diesel vehicle. This is based on the average costs of each fuel type over six years, accounting for aspects such as insurance premiums and fuel costs, to determine the best option for drivers in the UK.
After the recent government announcement of plans to prohibit all petrol and diesel vehicles by the year 2040, people are weighing up the idea of switching to ‘green’ driving more than ever before. It appears that environmental concerns are being offset by supposedly high prices, with 45% of people stating they wouldn’t buy an electric/hybrid car because of the cost.
Some of the key findings from the research include:
While the upfront costs of petrol vehicles were the lowest, the average running costs of an electric car are 20% cheaper than diesel and petrol engines, with an average saving of £2,109 across six years.
Filling up your petrol or diesel car is five times more expensive than electric
Petrol cars boast the lowest average insurance premium (£697.19) compared with £923 for electric and £813.56 for diesel
If drivers switch in 2018, they’ll save almost £8,000 on running costs by the time the ban is enforced.
Data was also collected for the number of electric car charging points available to drivers in UK cities. The results were heavily weighted in favour of the capital with 210 points in Central London followed by 62 in Birmingham. Cities like Liverpool and Cardiff had fewer than 10, showing that Britain as a whole may not be fully prepared for an electric revolution.
To find out the best way for you to save money on your driving costs, click here to see the full research.
Methodology
To create an average for each fuel type, an average was taken of three of the top-selling cars covering petrol, diesel and electric models respectively. Data for the upfront costs of each of the nine vehicles were taken from their brand’s site as well as costs of servicing, road tax and MOT prices. The ‘lifetime’ was measured as six years with the average mileage of 7,900 miles a year entered onto the site nextgreencar.com to determine the fuel costs. The overall costs for each model were made into three separate averages for electric, petrol and diesel fuel types. The models used included:
Ford Fiesta Style – Petrol
Volkswagen Golf – Petrol
Ford Focus – Petrol
Skoda Superb Estate – Diesel
Vauxhall Astra Hatchback – Diesel
BMW 3 Series Saloon – Diesel
Renault Zoe Signature – Electric
Nissan Leaf Acenta – Electric
BMW i3 – Electric
