Ive been contemplating an EV recently.
I currently get a car allowance from work of £500 a month, so after tax, it pays about £300 a month.
1st car on this scheme was Alfa Giulia Veloce. Bought with no deposit, APR was about 1.something percent, cost me £500 a month. I was happy to pay the extra.
2nd (and current) car on the scheme is a BMW 128ti. I sold the alfa at the peak of the new car shortage thing, so i had a load of money left after all was settled. So i put 8K deposit in, and the BMW costs my just under £300 a month.
I have a year left roughly, then i'll be looking to change. ive been thinking about it for a while now, i'm not going to have a bunch of cash left over this time and i dont want to put any of my money in. Partly, because ive better things to spend it on, and partly because there is no new car that i fancy (thats not way too expensive).
Even a bog standard kia Picanto is over £300 a month on a PCP with minimal deposit once you tick the automatic box.
i barely do any company miles, though its a support role, so i might have to go somewhere with little notice, but the reality is, that i dont. Everyone else does lots of travelling so they are claiming back plenty of miles at 40p a mile, practically nothing for me.
With the increasing costs of cars, the company is considering the move to company cars instead. This only makes sense if its a plugin hybrid or a full EV. I could make an EV work, usage wise, but i cant really charge it at home without chucking a cable over my fence as i park in a carpark at the back of my house. there was mention of getting an EV charger or two put in at work. This would be ideal as i could charge at work, and that would solve my charging issue.
We then had a big and frustrating discussion the other day about potentially having some chargers put in at work. There was lots of "the employee will benefit more than the company" and "i dont know where we stand on employees charging at work as far as benefits are concerned" and "those that work in the office will effectively run their cars for free" like this is somehow a bad thing, and that those that arent based in the office, who have zero commute costs and earn back plenty in mileage claims are somehow losing out. So it was very clear that he doesnt want people charging at work. Which means he probably wont put a charger in, and if he does, it will be one, and he will park there every day.
So now, i still dont know what to do. I really dont like the way new cars are going, very little seem to appeal to me.
I could personal lease a boggo ID3 for £300 a month (works out cheaper than a PCP), or see what the company car options are available to me as they will likely calculate it based on little mileage used. the sales guys have the current milage claims they are making factored in as well, as there new EV milage claims will be lower anyway.
I could go for a plugin hybrid as a company car, the tax numbers are still ok (though ive heard rumours of change which i need to investigate), though i'd probably never charge it as its too much hassle, and if i have to charge it at a public charger, it would be cheaper to do those miles with petrol no?
An EV would be ok, but id have to charge at a public charger, which is a little bit of faff, but sat there watching a bit of TV while the car charges is no real problem, but its quite pricey.
I could ask them to increase the car allowance, but i dont really want another car on £500 a month. If i lose my job, i'd have to find that money.
When the time comes, i'm expecting it to be quite the frustrating experience. I can see me just telling them to poke it, and i'll sort myself out and just buy a piece a crap for a few years and not worry. The problem is, those piece of crap cars now cost four grand...
Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a rant
Anyone been in a similar situation?
How is EV ownership with no charging from home?