EVs are now 9 times cheaper than petrol or diesel to drive in the UK

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1429718/evs-are-now-9-times-cheaper-than-petrol-or-diesel-to-drive-in-the-uk

www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-evs-are-now-nine-times-cheaper-than-petrol-or-diesel-to-drive-in-the-uk

By “nine times cheaper,” they mean the fuel for the EV can cost as little as 1/9th as much as the fuel for a gasoline / petrol car.

That’s great, as far as it goes, but depreciation per mile is usually a bigger cost than fuel. Other costs like registration taxes, insurance, and maintenance shouldn’t be expected to follow this 1/9th pattern either, of course. You’re not going to switch to an EV and find your total expense drops to 1/9th.

It feels to me like they’re telling an incomplete story on purpose.

It says “cheaper to drive” not “cheaper to own.”

Regardless, taxes and insurance are roughly the same. Maintenance on an EV is FAR less than an ICE car (no oil changes, fewer brake changes, fewer moving parts to replace over time). So if “fuel” is 1/9, and maintenance is just replacing the tires and putting in new wiper fluid, then driving is going to be much cheaper.

Tire changes would be more expensive and more frequent since EV heavier

At the same time, EVs tend to use harder tires (for better efficiency) that don’t wear out as often as softer tires that ICE cars use.

Don’t teslas ship with perelli’s? Those are super soft tires…they grip really well but with the torque those things throw I think they’d last half as long…