Mythbuster: Electric Vehicles vs Petrol Vehicles

What’s Your Excuse?

In this blog, we take a look at the most common myths behind electric vehicles vs plain old dinosaur juice – and if they hold up in 2021.

“Not many charging ports”

According to Zap-map.com, the total number of locations installed with public charging points are currently at 16,725 – with 764 of those being added in the last 30 days (data correct as of 26th October 2021). Additionally, the total number of connectors is 42,943 across 24,983 devices.

Between 2016 and 2020 there was an increase of 220% in the number of public chargers.

30.4% of all public chargers are based in the greater London area with the lowest percentage in the UK being Northern Ireland at 1.3%. (data from Zap-map.com)

With the charging infrastructure getting larger each day and local councils trialling new on street technology, the viability of electric vehicles for business use is now a reality.

“Too expensive or inefficient to switch”

BloombergNEF has forecast that by 2026, larger electric vehicles such as SUV’s will be as cheap to produce as comparable petrol and diesel models – UBS has forecast the same but by 2024. Both have based their predictions on battery technology getting cheaper and more efficient in the next few years.

Rivian R1T | Image Source: REC Anything

The UK government plans to ban the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles from 2030 and the EU has set this target at 2035.

“Once you are well over 200 miles per range and you’ve got a really good charging infrastructure, it becomes a no-brainer. We’ve seen that in Norway,” said David Bailey, a professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham.

“Cost of charging vs fuel”

On average, it costs around £6 to charge a Nissan Leaf to full on your home network (based on 3kw charger and 17p unit rate) for a total mileage of 160 miles.

A comparable Nissan Micra which is roughly the same size and spec will do 44 MPG with current fuel prices set at £1.24 per litre petrol to do 160 miles, would cost £20.47

Using the same calculations based on the Tesla Model 3 and Audi A4 petrol. The Tesla Model 3 standard range 241 miles would cost around £10 on your home network (based on 3kw charger and 17p unit rate). The Audi A4 saloon Technik 35 TFSI 45-46MPG for 241 miles at 45.5mpg would cost today, £29.81.

“The range of EV’s aren’t great”

The range of EV’s is one of the first things people think about when deciding whether to switch or not. With battery technology getting better each month, many full electric cars can now do in excess of 250 miles between charges.

These are the top 10 longest range electric cars in 2021 according to carmagazine.co.uk using the WLTP test cycle:

1. Tesla Model S Long Range 379 miles £77,980
2. Tesla Model 3 Long Range 348 miles £46,990
3. Tesla Model X Long Range 314 miles £82,980
4. Jaguar i-Pace 292 miles £64,495
5. Kia e-Niro 282 miles £36,495
6. Hyundai Kona Electric 278 miles £38,900
7. Mercedes-Benz EQC 259 miles £65,720
8. Audi e-tron 239 miles £59,900
9. Nissan Leaf e+ 239 miles £35,895
10. BMW i3 193 miles £37,480

Using the Tesla charging map route planner, we have compared how many times you may need to stop on a journey from Edinburgh Zoo to London Bridge using a Tesla Model 3 Long Range to a Audi A4 saloon Technik 35 TFSI 45-46MPG.

This is a journey of 421 miles with 2 suggested stops, one at Scotch Corner for 15 minutes and one at Grantham for 20 minutes – both sites have a large number of superchargers 16 and 32 respectively.

Tesla duration is around 8 hours 20 mins driving time (including charging stop times) with the current traffic conditions as of 11am 29th july 2021. With superchargers costing on average £0.28 per kilowatt hour and 500 miles of range would be around £35.

In the Audi, Google Maps has the journey time at 7hrs 42min correct at 11am 29th July 2021. The cost of the same journey in the Audi A4 is £52.18 based on £1.24 fuel costs and an average MPG of 45.5.

The Audi should be able to reach London Bridge with no fuel stops assuming that you wouldn’t need a toilet break or stop for food. On average, you would have 2-3 stops on this route which would put you right around the time of the Tesla.

“EV Batteries only last a few years”

This is the easiest myth to debunk. Everyone knows consumer batteries in mobile phones and tablets degrade after a few years but these are charged constantly. EV’s charge in a much smarter fashion, distributing the load across thousands of cells that make up the whole battery pack. Data from Tesla owners has shown a 10% average battery degradation after over 160,000 miles. Most dinosaur juice cars are on the scrap pile long before that kind of mileage.

How we can help

Total BGS Energy can provide your workplace or home with a full service from inception to installation of EV charging solutions. We are approved to offer OLEV grants where applicable and we work with many different providers giving you a wide choice and range of charging solutions.

We offer a non biased consultation service, if you are looking to change your fleet we can advise based on real world testing and usage what could be the right fit for you and your business. We can work with you from single vehicles to large fleets providing a bespoke presentation of data based on real world costs and more importantly savings.

Total BGS Energy works with some of the best energy providers in the UK offering both Green and Non-Green electric and gas contracts, some of these suppliers offer car charging specific tariffs to further reduce the costs of ownership.

Author

Graham Davison

Head of Energy & Siteworks