EVs Now 9 Times Cheaper To Drive in UK Than Petrol or Diesel Cars
The economics of driving an electric vehicle over traditional combustion engines has come sharply into focus as oil prices have rocketed in recent months.
Since February, when Trump first attacked Iran, the average price of diesel has increased by 40 percent to £2 a litre, according to Carbon Brief analysis of government figures. That's the equivalent of $10 per US gallon. Similarly, petrol prices have surged by a roughly the same percentage, to around £1.80 per litre.
Therefore, it now costs an estimated 22p per mile to drive a diesel car and 21p per mile for petrol, according to Carbon Brief analysis of the latest figures from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. In contrast, it is currently nearly ten times cheaper to drive an EV charged using an off-peak tariff, at 2.3p per mile.
Even if charging with electricity bought at the domestic price cap - the maximum amount a supplier can charge for a unit of energy and standing charge, set by the regulator Ofgem every three months - it still only costs around 7p per mile to drive an EV, three times cheaper than the price for petrol or diesel cars. Yet, currently, only 6 percent of the roughly 35m cars on UK roads are fully electric battery EVs, with a further 3 percent being plug-in hybrids that can run on fuel or electricity.
No wonder that sales of EVs are continuing to increase, with around one in three new cars now sold in Britain being battery EVs, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders. Maybe this has been further spurred by new analysis that revealed electric vehicles are more reliable than their petrol counterparts as they gain more miles on the clock.
