Together in Electric Dreams – Making the Switch

For many environmentally-conscious drivers, switching away from fossil fuels can’t happen soon enough. Ethical Financial Adviser Rupert Lovesy has long been an admirer of electric vehicles (EVs) but was previously put off ‘fully-electric’ ownership by many of the myths surrounding EVs coupled with his remote rural location.

Here he shares his experience, offering a counter argument to some of the negative opinions of owning an electric car, following his recent conversion to fully-electric.

As a tech enthusiast and someone who regularly helps clients to use their money for environmental good, I have wanted to change to a fully electric vehicle before now, however I’ve only recently managed to find one to suit my needs - I need room for 2 dogs, the ability to survive driving in a rural area prone to flooding, and the capability to drive 220 miles to the office without drama.

I opted for a Plug-In Hybrid last time around which served me well. I already knew about the wonderfully smooth, silent and brisk driving experience, appreciated the ability to heat or cool the car from an app ready for my journey and, having split my time between city and countryside over many years, appreciate the need to cut tailpipe emissions to improve air quality in built up areas. I’d got used to finding charging points near my destinations but had the reassurance of being able to use the engine when I ran out of charge, but that has changed now!

Common myths around electric cars

Opinions on electric vehicles are very readily available – they will catch fire, they will break down, there’s nowhere to charge, they’re worse for the environment than an old diesel, the battery will be no good after a few years, they are dangerous in the rain! These are all essentially untrue (there’s plenty of hard evidence to back this up – such as  here and here) but they still pop up with alarming regularity on social media and even from friends and family – there are a lot of misunderstandings hampering more widespread adoption of EVs in the UK.

Range anxiety

Undoubtedly the biggest day-to-day concern people have is “range anxiety”, but mainly because we assume electric range means the same thing as the range on a tank of fuel. While the range of a fully-charged EV has become a significant metric, there has never been such a focus on the range of a petrol or diesel car on a full tank (and most people have absolutely no idea how weather conditions and use of equipment affect this), as we tend just to talk about miles per gallon.

Although most people accept they won’t usually get the quoted fuel economy figure in real life, the focus is on per gallon of fuel not per tank, which would be rather more alarming! When I used a petrol car, if I was doing my long journey to the office, starting in the early hours of the morning, I would get petrol the night before – that’s a journey with the sole purpose of buying fuel. And to make things worse, I would use some of it on the way back, so I wouldn’t then have a full tank!

In comparison, the ability to charge at home, precondition the car whilst still plugged in and leave with a full charge seems pretty good. As with a conventional vehicle, you will never have the nerve to use that last bit of range, but if you are returning home to a charger, you can cut it rather finer!

As a regular 220-mile traveller, occasionally without a break, I have to wonder who really wants to go any further than that without stopping. The Highway Code recommends you stop every 2 hours, which would be a maximum of 140 miles in the UK. The bigger the battery, the heavier and less efficient an electric vehicle will be, so having a 400-mile range, when you are really not going to use it is rather pointless.

Impractical for longer journeys

Admittedly, it is early days yet, but my experiences so far have been entirely positive. I can usually get a genuine 250 miles on a full battery – this does drop with temperature - but I still have a range of over 200 miles in single digit temperatures and at motorway speeds, which is plenty to get me most places, and, more often than not, is enough to get me back home too. One of our first trips was a fully loaded university journey – a round trip of more than the range of the car, but a 15 minute stop at the motorway services for a charge and coffee and the same on the way back we very easily managed the trip, despite the most torrential rain I have seen for some years! Similarly, I do a short stop on my way up to the office in very cold weather – it takes me longer to eat breakfast than the 7 minutes that my car says it needs to charge!

Nowhere to charge them

As of the end of December 2024, there are 108,410 charging connectors in the UK across 37,011 locations, according to Zapmap. I had already noticed a huge difference in availability over the 4 years I used a plug-in hybrid. I’m fortunate that my car’s sat-nav plans where to charge and for how long to give the required range, and factors charging time into the estimated arrival time. Other car brands do similar and for those with earlier models, there are apps that can help guide you to the nearest and most suitable charging point. These will typically be able to tell you which chargers are fastest and unoccupied. I’ve not had any problems with charger availability whatsoever, and the only time I’ve inadvertently cut things finer that I would have liked, I ignored the sat-nav, thinking I knew better!

It costs more to run than a petrol car

As a financial adviser, you’d expect me to comment on the economics. 240 miles in a car that does 40 mpg would use 6 gallons of petrol (£35.41 at today’s price locally) but 67 kWh of electricity (assuming 20p per kWh night rate, although much lower is usually possible, and the 3.6 mpkWh I have averaged over my first 4700 miles) would get me the same distance for £13.40 – that would be a saving of £1,100 over 12,000 miles.

Servicing costs are about half the price of an equivalent petrol or diesel car and there are far less moving parts to wear out and need replacing. For people with a company car or on a salary sacrifice scheme, the Benefit in Kind value for income tax for an EV is a fraction of the amount (currently 2%). Road tax is free for the moment (this is due to change in April to £165), insurance is supposed to be slightly more expensive, but this was not my experience as my new car was cheaper to insure than the previous one (I think due to having additional safety features). You need to bear in mind all the costs when making comparisons, so increased cost for the car itself may well be more than offset by cost savings in other areas, depending on your circumstances.

Electricity costs have risen

I’m on a renewable electricity tariff where prices vary every half hour, according to anticipated supply and demand, and are published the afternoon before – it’s quite possible to set the car to charge when prices are particularly low (sometimes even negative, so they pay me to charge it), and certainly avoiding the expensive 4pm – 7pm slot. A full charge would take nearly 10 hours but in practice that is never needed as I wouldn’t run it down completely and only need to charge fully if I am going on a long journey. Charging costs away from home vary a lot – it’s only 34p per kWh at Piccadilly Station, Manchester, but can be up to about 90p other places, although as this is only occasional, so it doesn’t really make much of a difference to the average.

Overall, it’s important to see this as a different experience to running a petrol or diesel car. I will never visit a petrol station again, so some of my journeys will be quicker, and others will be a bit slower as I will need to charge during the journey, although arguably, I would have stopped anyway. Based on my experiences so far, it certainly seems like it will be at least as convenient, and no more expensive overall, than running a petrol car but without tailpipe emissions, and I’m very happy with that!

Written by Rupert Lovesy