Diesel, EV, or stick with petrol?

Funky-Melon

Funky-Melon

Funky-Melon

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Hi all,

I've been looking to move jobs for a while and it's looking like I'll receive an offer from a company I interviewed at yesterday, great company, great people, interesting work etc, the issue being that it's a 104 mile round trip. I've been full time working from home (electronics engineer) with the odd commute into the office that's ~5 miles away for the last 4 years, so this'll be bit of a change for me. I'm currently driving a 2011 Volvo C30 T5 (2.5, 5 cyl, turbo) which did roughly 34mpg (calculated) yesterday on what would be my new commute but the cars on 90k now and will be clocking up the miles, so I'm not sure if I should be looking to swap it for a diesel or even lease an EV, or just pay the £200+ a month in petrol.

I'll be in the office 3 days a week, so a bit under 15k miles a year.

What do fellow Overclockers with long commutes drive?
 
Do you have a driveway? I would say, if you have then it makes an EV a much more viable offering. Being able to charge at home means your 104 mile round trip will cost in the region of £1.87 per day or £22.50 a month(on the right tariff) depending on type of EV.

Assume octopus intelligent at 7.5p/kwh, 104 miles, using a worse case 2 miles/Kwh(average is 3.5, best case is 4+miles/kwh) with a real world range of 208 miles(easy to do) mean you'll use 50Kwh every 2 days.

If you cant charge at home, it'll make an EV more expensive than the above and more hassle as you'll have to use public chargers are more expensive and more hassle
 
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If you were to consider an EV Tesla are still offering a 0% PCP deal on long range RWD cars from inventory (not new face lift cars delivered in January). They are current gen so will run out of stock sometime soon. Great long distance cars with the advantage of low running costs. Never scrape ice off your car again in winter with pre-heating :)
 
I have a drive big enough for both mine and the wifes car, so an EV could be an option, not sure if I'd save any money buy owning/leasing one though, guess it depends how much I need to spend in maintenance on my current car/any future car.

She drives a 2016 Swift Sport, I have suggested we swap cars but she's not having it :D
 
Just drive the Volvo until death, nothing will be cheaper. Once settled in new job after a year or two maybe re-evaluate options, or if Volvo starts to be troublesome, assuming the commute motorway driving this is the best type of low stress driving for an ICE, you could get another couple of 100k on your old beater with minimal maintenance beyond consumables that even the new car would need.

EV will likely save around 200/month in fuel/tax cost but if you have to finance and expensive replacement car are you saving anything, unless of course you want a new motor then fair enough do it? A diesel will likely only save you a 100quid a month.
 
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As above, it's not really cheaper to run an EVs with current electricity and public charging prices, which are about to be pumped up even more.

Plus anything you save will be more than wiped out by depreciation on a new EV. Used prices are bad and dealers don't want them.

An EV is only the no brainer if it's free, or almost free. Or the electricity is free :p
 
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Bint Box said:
Go for petrol, no brainer, much faster to top up the tank, never mind the cost, feel the power.
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if you have off road parking the car charges itself over night.

i would not buy a new ev out right (i wouldnt buy any new car outright) but if you can get the tax breaks for leases on EVs are pretty compelling, and if not, well some nice evs with usable range are now the right side of 20k.. and as for power..............

many EVs will embarrass some pretty expensive petrol cars, at least until you get beyond our legal speed limit.

people who bang on about public charge point costs when they know the would be car buyer have their own driveway are imo missing the point.... those who have off road parking, if they get the right car, most will have to use public charging so rarely that paying over the odds once in a blue moon doesnt even make a dent.

i have had our ipace now since June and only needed to use public charging twice (and did a few others when testing out)

now if you dont have the ability to charge at home then it changes the equation significantly.
 
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Uther said:
Spending 20k to save £200 a month in petrol isn't ideal either.
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true ..... in general if you have a reliable car then the cheapest option is always going to be stick with what you have.................. BUT if the OP has decided that for what ever reason its time to upgrade then imo 20k on an EV makes a lot of sense over say 16k on a similarly specced ICE
 
Do work offer a salary sacrifice scheme for an EV.

208 mile round trip for a Tesla model 3 whould be easy as pie.

Edit. To be clear these only make sense if need a new car. Your current one could be fine. But how long will it be viabl for? How comfortable is it on long journeys? As someone who is a high(ish) mile user having a car that can eat up miles is actually an important thing.
 
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crazyDAJT said:
Do work offer a salary sacrifice scheme for an EV.

208 mile round trip for a Tesla model 3 whould be easy as pie.

Edit. To be clear these only make sense if need a new car. Your current one could be fine. But how long will it be viabl for? How comfortable is it on long journeys? As someone who is a high(ish) mile user having a car that can eat up miles is actually an important thing.
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They do but I haven't seen how it works yet/if it's worth doing.

Well it's a Volvo, they're pretty much the masters of making a comfy seat and as it's a pretty big engine, it'll happily plod along on motorways all day long. The T5 engines are good for hundreds of thousands of miles if looked after but most don't buy a T5 with 15k miles a year in mind.

As much as I like it, prices have been going up quite a bit on them so I'm kinda looking to see if it's worth selling up and seeing if the man maths makes sense on something else that's more economical longer term.

I'm guessing diesels are mostly dead now, or will be in the next 5 years or so as more cities jump on the ULEZ bandwagon?
 
Funky-Melon said:
They do but I haven't seen how it works yet/if it's worth doing.
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You pay for the car pre tax so if you are higher rate payer (or additional rate) then they are quite tax efficient. Especially around the child benefit claw back.

Then you pay company car benefits in kind for the car at 2% * your top tax rate. So basically very little.

As an example for me it’s about £540 for Tesla model 3 15K miles 3 year lease. Maintenance, insurance and tires.

(for me to insure a model 3 myself whould be £900-1000)

For me, most of that is paid for by a car allowance so for me the real cost is about £150 per month.

You will also save £200 per month on fuel if you don’t need to use the supercharger network. So total cost of ownership around £350 / month, but it varies on who the provider is. Ours is octopus which I believe is the more expensive.

Again, only make sense if you need a new car. For me it’s a no brainier as I get an allowance that whould become taxable if jus took it and my work PHEV cost about £100 per month in tax anyway.

Edit: there are other cheaper options but I have found that if you want comfortable do 200 mile round trips without charging, when you say you want to do 15-20k miles a year they are around the same cost as a model 3

With the exception of an MG4 but I personally think I may struggle to do that many miles per year in one. But this is a super cheep option.
 
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The original post said 105 miles round trip. The standard range model 3 would be better value. It's a very strong offering imho, even compared to the mg4 long range.
 
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Nasher said:
As above, it's not really cheaper to run an EVs with current electricity and public charging prices, which are about to be pumped up even more.
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No.

They are considerably cheaper to run if you can charge at home. You are talking 2p/mile vs 15p+/mile.

Sure public charging can be as little as to be 9p/mile (Tesla) to 18p/mile (oil company charge network). As you are well aware, if you can charge at home per the OPs, you seldom use it and the price is almost irrelevant.

Someone has to say it… literally everything you post regarding electric cars has zero bearing in reality.
 
Funky-Melon said:
I'll be in the office 3 days a week, so a bit under 15k miles a year.

What do fellow Overclockers with long commutes drive?
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The cheapest option will be to use your existing car.

If you want to buy a new (or a new to you) car, which I guess you do as you are posting this thread, I would buy an electric car.

If you have salary sacrifice available then go for that. If you don’t, buy a lightly used one which still has a warranty.

104 mile round trip is not actually that long for a decent EV and it’s only really those with tiny batteries like the original Leaf/Zoe/Mini/i3 will have problems.

As for which car, there are plenty of good used cars on the market for a fraction of their new cost. If you like the Volvo the obvious recommendation are:

Polestar 2 (long range, with pilot and plus back if available). I’d avoid the short range and the performance pack. The single motor is fine but a used one will be FWD, AWD is also available. If I was buying new, the I’d get the long range single motor which is now RWD.

Volvo XC40 or C40. Basically the same as the Polestar 2 but in Volvo guise.

Tesla Model 3, plenty available for a decent price on the used market. I’d buy a 2021 refresh that came with the heat pump if buying used. Long range is AWD, standard range is RWD, both are fine. The standard range got a bigger 60kwh battery from December 2021. If buying new, the facelift model is available from March and is a big update to the car currently on sale.

As for model 3 vs Polestar/Volvo it’s personal preference so test both, they both have a very different take on the interior. The tesla does the electric stuff better, Polestar/Volvo is a better put together car but it costs more. If your feeling flush, the Model 3 Performance is just mental. The Model Y is a slightly better put together, slightly bigger, Model 3.

Both are made in China if that matters to you.

I’ve got a Model 3 and do similar milage to you, happy to pick up any questions.
 
get a petrol or diesel that can do 60 - 70 MPG

EV`s are crazily overpriced, 30K for car models that used to be regarded as low tier. No thanks
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
No.

They are considerably cheaper to run if you can charge at home. You are talking 2p/mile vs 15p+/mile.

Sure public charging can be as little as to be 9p/mile (Tesla) to 18p/mile (oil company charge network). As you are well aware, if you can charge at home per the OPs, you seldom use it and the price is almost irrelevant.

Someone has to say it… literally everything you post regarding electric cars has zero bearing in reality.
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But you lose all those savings and more on the cost of the car then depreciation.

crazyDAJT said:
Do work offer a salary sacrifice scheme for an EV.

208 mile round trip for a Tesla model 3 whould be easy as pie.

Edit. To be clear these only make sense if need a new car. Your current one could be fine. But how long will it be viabl for? How comfortable is it on long journeys? As someone who is a high(ish) mile user having a car that can eat up miles is actually an important thing.
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Old Volvo is probably more comfortable than a Tesla tbh. The ride quality in a Tesla is quite poor.
 
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Looking just beyond the car element I'd be tempted to settle in to the job for a bit first as there are many factors when starting a new job. Every job sounds great at interview but the realities kick in a few months down the line, it may be as good or better than it sounds or it may be completely different. Is the 3 days per week set in stone or is it going to be a case of 'we need you in all week this week... and next' or 'No need to do three days in the office this week, maybe pop in on Tuesday for a catch up'? Also, that is a fairly hefty commute. Will an hours drive turn into two once you try it on a Monday morning?

All this will become clear after a few months and then you'd be in a better position to know what you want / need.
 
Nasher said:
But you lose all those savings and more on the cost of the car then depreciation.
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Who said anything about buying new? Lease via salary sacrifice yes, buy outright with your own money? No, not in this market.

I literally smashed out a load of words about the thousands of reasonably priced used models in the market. A used EV isn’t going to depreciate to a lower value than it’s equivalent ICE car.

New buyers are taking the hit at the moment which means there are thousands of very good used vehicles available for not a lot of money and roughly the same price as their ICE equivalent…
 
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