Company car drivers / electric cars

[Ska Junkie]

I'm after a bit of advice / opinions.

After finally taking redundancy a while ago, I've been lucky enough to get a new job very quickly and have now served my 'probationary' period so have been sent a long list of cars to peruse / choose from, very nice it is too.

As I took a lower level position, through choice (didn't want the stress of being a boss anymore), I'm trying to watch the pennies.

At present, I have a hire car, a new Skoda Octavia IV which is very nice and I'm a bit torn between one of them (VRS iV) costing £68 a month in tax and £40 for the fuel benefit and the new Kia Ev6 which costs £15 a month in tax and naff all in fuel benefit but I would need to charge it at home.

If I don't take the fuel benefit, my employer pays me 17p per business mile for the iV (I don't lose money at that payment level) but pay just 7p a mile for the fully electric EV.

I appreciate there are loads of free chargers popping up all over the place but I'm a bit concerned if the EV6 will end up costing me more that the Skoda, taking into account the higher fuel and electric charges we are currently seeing..

Can anyone shed any light on this dilemma or have an opinion?

I've plenty of time to choose but both are very nice cars although I quite fancy going electric.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Ska Junkie

[grifty]

How much driving will you plan to be doing for work? Is it a commute to the office type company car, or are you going to be driving up and down the country every day?

Electric car ranges aren't far enough currently if you are out and about everyday, unless you are happy with a 45-60min wait at a service station on most trips.

[Ska Junkie]

8 minutes ago, grifty said:

How much driving will you plan to be doing for work? Is it a commute to the office type company car, or are you going to be driving up and down the country every day?

Electric car ranges aren't far enough currently if you are out and about everyday, unless you are happy with a 45-60min wait at a service station on most trips.

The EV range is 320 miles Grifty, more than enough for daily use. The furthest I've been so far is Plymouth and London.

[Port Said Red]

8 hours ago, grifty said:

How much driving will you plan to be doing for work? Is it a commute to the office type company car, or are you going to be driving up and down the country every day?

Electric car ranges aren't far enough currently if you are out and about everyday, unless you are happy with a 45-60min wait at a service station on most trips.

Quite an out of date view of you don't mind me saying Grifty. I bought a Corsa e back in November and at that time it was one of the higher ranges at 210 miles, but it's already mid range at best.

Back to @Ska Junkie your original question. Personally I would go electric, it will pay in the long run. Be warned though that the number of free chargers is actually going down (not surprisingly), we are quite well served with them being available in Nailsea, Clevedon and Portishead, but I am squeezing out every drop until the inevitable.

Also you mention charging at home. The chargers are not as cheap as they appear on the face of it, the 3 providers I went to wanted an extra grand to run a dedicated line to my garage, on top of the charger itself.

I bought a cable that just plugs into a standard 13amp wicket and it easily charges my car (obviously smaller battery than yours) overnight, but I have only used it once since the April fuel price rises.

For me the cost of charging at home went from approximately 25p KWh to 43p KWh! The most expensive fast charger I have used was in a hotel in Birmingham at 48p a KWh so it's worth paying for that speed.

Finally . Doing some rough calculations, I worked out that for 200 miles, it would cost me about £19 at most if I actually pay, whereas the equivalent Corsa 1.4 petrol would cost around £38 at best, and I get the performance that's better than their sporty turbo model!

Sorry it's so long winded but I hope that helps.If you do go electric, make sure you download Zap Map for a list of all chargers in the UK and sign up for their email newsletter which is an excellent source of new innovations.

[Barrs Court Red]

8 hours ago, Ska Junkie said:

I'm after a bit of advice / opinions.

After finally taking redundancy a while ago, I've been lucky enough to get a new job very quickly and have now served my 'probationary' period so have been sent a long list of cars to peruse / choose from, very nice it is too.

As I took a lower level position, through choice (didn't want the stress of being a boss anymore), I'm trying to watch the pennies.

At present, I have a hire car, a new Skoda Octavia IV which is very nice and I'm a bit torn between one of them (VRS iV) costing £68 a month in tax and £40 for the fuel benefit and the new Kia Ev6 which costs £15 a month in tax and naff all in fuel benefit but I would need to charge it at home.

If I don't take the fuel benefit, my employer pays me 17p per business mile for the iV (I don't lose money at that payment level) but pay just 7p a mile for the fully electric EV.

I appreciate there are loads of free chargers popping up all over the place but I'm a bit concerned if the EV6 will end up costing me more that the Skoda, taking into account the higher fuel and electric charges we are currently seeing..

Can anyone shed any light on this dilemma or have an opinion?

I've plenty of time to choose but both are very nice cars although I quite fancy going electric.

Mines costing me about £30 a month to charge it from home roughly once a week according to the app from my charging point. 
 

No tax, no MOT required and a fraction of the cost of fuel. So from a cost perspective, it’s much cheaper to run than an ICE alternative.  That being said, it cost me 10k more than the ICE variant so in my scenario I’m not saving any cash, where as for a company car I assume your not having to factor that in.

 

In terms of range, depending on the distance you’re travelling I’d think long and hard if it’s viable.  The max range very much depends on how you drive, and I’ve found even trips along the motorway to Costco use more miles than I’d be comfortable with on a longer journey. 
 

If it’s driving around the Bristol area then it’s a no brainer however. 
 

 

[Port Said Red]

33 minutes ago, Barrs Court Red said:

Mines costing me about £30 a month to charge it from home roughly once a week according to the app from my charging point. 
 

No tax, no MOT required and a fraction of the cost of fuel. So from a cost perspective, it’s much cheaper to run than an ICE alternative.  That being said, it cost me 10k more than the ICE variant so in my scenario I’m not saving any cash, where as for a company car I assume your not having to factor that in.

 

In terms of range, depending on the distance you’re travelling I’d think long and hard if it’s viable.  The max range very much depends on how you drive, and I’ve found even trips along the motorway to Costco use more miles than I’d be comfortable with on a longer journey. 
 

If it’s driving around the Bristol area then it’s a no brainer however. 

I think there is an issue with the way the cars calculate the range. Like you, popping down to my father in law in WSM seems to use a lot of miles up, but on longer journeys the consumption seems to even out, we did a trip to Solihull (95 miles) the range went down by about 120, so I was reasonably happy with that.

[grifty]

1 hour ago, Port Said Red said:

Quite an out of date view of you don't mind me saying Grifty. I bought a Corsa e back in November and at that time it was one of the higher ranges at 210 miles, but it's already mid range at best.

Back to @Ska Junkie your original question. Personally I would go electric, it will pay in the long run. Be warned though that the number of free chargers is actually going down (not surprisingly), we are quite well served with them being available in Nailsea, Clevedon and Portishead, but I am squeezing out every drop until the inevitable.

Also you mention charging at home. The chargers are not as cheap as they appear on the face of it, the 3 providers I went to wanted an extra grand to run a dedicated line to my garage, on top of the charger itself.

I bought a cable that just plugs into a standard 13amp wicket and it easily charges my car (obviously smaller battery than yours) overnight, but I have only used it once since the April fuel price rises.

For me the cost of charging at home went from approximately 25p KWh to 43p KWh! The most expensive fast charger I have used was in a hotel in Birmingham at 48p a KWh so it's worth paying for that speed.

Finally . Doing some rough calculations, I worked out that for 200 miles, it would cost me about £19 at most if I actually pay, whereas the equivalent Corsa 1.4 petrol would cost around £38 at best, and I get the performance that's better than their sporty turbo model!

Sorry it's so long winded but I hope that helps.If you do go electric, make sure you download Zap Map for a list of all chargers in the UK and sign up for their email newsletter which is an excellent source of new innovations.

I work in the technical department of one of the worlds largest car manufacturers, so I'm afraid I do know what I'm talking about. In 3-4. years that 210 miles will be 50% of that if you are lucky.

Max ranges as mentioned above are in perfect driving conditions and often in scientific conditions so are pretty much wrong for people who use them as daily drivers.

You can certainly use electric cars now and if you aim to swap it on finance, etc then the capacity loss is not something you have to worry about, hence my question as to how far the vehicle would be used.

[Port Said Red]

19 minutes ago, grifty said:

I work in the technical department of one of the worlds largest car manufacturers, so I'm afraid I do know what I'm talking about. In 3-4. years that 210 miles will be 50% of that if you are lucky.

Max ranges as mentioned above are in perfect driving conditions and often in scientific conditions so are pretty much wrong for people who use them as daily drivers.

You can certainly use electric cars now and if you aim to swap it on finance, etc then the capacity loss is not something you have to worry about, hence my question as to how far the vehicle would be used.

You will also know that battery tech is moving on very quickly, lithium batteries will seem quaint relics in the next 10 years. I bought my car with about 4000 miles on the clock so the price was competitive and it's the first time I have bought a car that has actually appreciated in value. Things are from perfect for sure, but I take the same attitude as I did to my first hybrid back in 2005, if we buy them it shows the companies that there is a market for them and they will invest more. 
 

[And Its Smith]

11 hours ago, Ska Junkie said:

I'm after a bit of advice / opinions.

After finally taking redundancy a while ago, I've been lucky enough to get a new job very quickly and have now served my 'probationary' period so have been sent a long list of cars to peruse / choose from, very nice it is too.

As I took a lower level position, through choice (didn't want the stress of being a boss anymore), I'm trying to watch the pennies.

At present, I have a hire car, a new Skoda Octavia IV which is very nice and I'm a bit torn between one of them (VRS iV) costing £68 a month in tax and £40 for the fuel benefit and the new Kia Ev6 which costs £15 a month in tax and naff all in fuel benefit but I would need to charge it at home.

If I don't take the fuel benefit, my employer pays me 17p per business mile for the iV (I don't lose money at that payment level) but pay just 7p a mile for the fully electric EV.

I appreciate there are loads of free chargers popping up all over the place but I'm a bit concerned if the EV6 will end up costing me more that the Skoda, taking into account the higher fuel and electric charges we are currently seeing..

Can anyone shed any light on this dilemma or have an opinion?

I've plenty of time to choose but both are very nice cars although I quite fancy going electric.

I switched to electric 2 years ago. It is so much cheaper because of the savings in tax.  Fluctuating costs of electricity and petrol will mean that side of it is always up and down but that consistent saving every month will always be there.  

In terms of charging at home, I pointed out to my employer that they couldn’t give me a car but not the means to drive it so they happily paid the £600 ish to instal a podpoint charger at my house.  Maybe yours would do the same.  7p a mile is good as well. I get 4p !  

The one thing to say about electric cars is that it really does make a difference how you drive.  For about 6 months I didn’t realise this and was driving on the worst setting (ie the fastest acceleration) and driving everywhere at 77mph.  I now put it on the most sluggish setting (certainly not sluggish at all) and drive everywhere at 70mph. The difference in consumption is vast.  My head office is 185 miles away and I can get there with 20% left on the battery now whereas I used to have to charge with 30 miles left. 

[TonyTonyTony]

There is no correct answer, as everyone has a different way of life. The fuel card will come in really handy if you do a lot of private mileage, particularly right now, but only you can determine that. For me, i opted out of a company car and now take a car allowance. I reclaim mileage from the company (and HMRC), Again - its just a calculation based on personal circumstance. If it is a company car, i wouldnt worry too much about the battery performance drop off, as you will be handing it back in 3 years to get a new one.