Welcome to Electric cars – A beginners guide – focusing on the UK situation

If you’ve just starting to find out about electric cars this is the page for you. Don’t make the mistakes that the Government’s spokesperson for COP26 Allegra Stratten made about Diesel being better than Electric because of the occasional long-distance journey, which was quickly corrected by the AA!

Or Which! Magazine reporting that it would take 10 years to recover the high price of a new Electric car when they failed to research the actual cost of the electricity!

Although this is a comprehensive beginners guide to Electric cars, more detailed information on all the subjects below can be found across our website.

This information has been collated from a wide selection of material from many sources, with attributions. Videos from many new and experienced EV drivers are presented. See our About page.

If you’re Considering Buying an Electric car this page may be more relevent to your needs

Don’t Buy an Electric car before you’ve read this page!

No new Petrol or Diesel cars will be sold from 2030

The UK Government has legislated that no new Petrol or Diesel cars will be sold from 2030 with just a further 5 years for Hybrids.

Long journeys

Most Electric cars have a range of 200 miles or greater, so long-distance journeys are now practical with 30-minute, or quicker, charging stops. You should be taking regular breaks from driving every couple of hours anyway for safety reasons.

Given that Electric cars look pretty similar to Petrol or Diesel cars you might reasonably assume that the same criteria should be used when buying one, however this is not the case.

Choice of models

In a recent survey, 22% (2) felt that the current choice of electric vehicles would prevent them from buying.

The choice of Electric car models is increasing rapidly. There are at least 84 currently on the market, and there are expected to be 150 by the end of 2021.

Upfront Price

Yes, the price to buy an Electric car is much higher than a Petrol or Diesel car however the costs of ownership are much lower for a number of reasons, the main one being the cost of charging is dramatically lower than the cost of petrol or diesel fuel.

It’s currently expected that the cost of ownership of an EV will be on a par with its Internal Combustion Engine vehicle counterparts in about 2024. Prices will reduce as more Electric cars are manufactured.

Range

Electric vehicles are very different to Petrol and diesel ones. Hence very different thinking is required, you’ll need to leave your ‘Petrol Thinking’ behind to successfully enter this new world.

For example, comparing the range of a battery with that of a petrol tank will lead you down the wrong road and unnecessarily cost you money.

Range is primarily determined by the capacity of the battery, batteries are expensive so an extra hundred miles range can increase the price by several tens of thousands of pounds! Why pay for a more expensive car than you actually need? The manufactures can charge much more to those who want a high range!

An extra hundred miles range can increase the price by several tens of thousands of pounds!

Most people understandably assume they need one with the same range as they are used to, however this is rarely the case.

Consider your usage profile, how often do you do more than 150 miles in a day?

Charging vs. Fuelling

Living with an Electric car is very different to a petrol or diesel one.

Instead of focusing on minimising the number of trips to petrol stations and the time taken to fill-up, you would aim to top-up when you are doing something else, sleeping for example!

Reduced taxation, Grants and Exemptions

The Government offers reduced taxation, e.g. Car tax (VED) and Benefit in Kind (BiK) and several grants when buying an Electric vehicle.

If you live in Scotland, an interest-free electric vehicle loan and used electric vehicle loan are available.

For example, the Plug-in Car Grant is available for vehicles costing up to £35,000.

There is a Home charging grant to contribute towards the cost of an off-road charger at home.

Electric cars are exempt from the London Congestion Charge and will attract lower charges from the many clean air zones being implemented around the UK and London’s ultra low emission zone (ULEZ).

There is free parking for electric vehicles in some towns and cities.

Battery life

An OFGEM survey noted that Short Battery life is a major concern, it should be noted that most manufacturers give a Battery warranty of 8 years or 100,000 miles, some even more.

In practice, batteries are lasting longer than that, with minimal degradation due to improving Battery Management Systems (BMS).

Batteries can generally be replaced with a Refurbished one or upgraded. Electric Vehicle batteries – This is what you need to know

Range and Charging time

Charging an Electric car is very different compare to Petrol or Diesel, where the objective is to make the minimum number of visits to petrol stations. As the driver must attend the fuelling, the time to fill-up must also be minimised.

This difference is most visible where the driver has access to Home charging, which enables charging whilst being at home and sleeping. In which case the duration of the charge is of minimal consequence.

There are many other situations where the driver, and passengers, can be doing something else whilst charging. This could include working in an office or warehouse; stopping for coffee or visiting a tourist attraction.

Charging locations

There are already more charging points than Petrol stations and they are appearing in a very wide array of places, from Home to Supermarkets, Coffee shops, at work, in Streets and National Trust properties.

The number of chargers is increasing every day.

Charging at or near Home

A further third (32 per cent) said they liked the idea of charging at home because they ‘find going to the petrol station a chore’ – an issue that was more prominent with women (40 per cent) than men – and more than half (62 per cent) like the idea of waking up to a full battery. 

50% have never heard of the Home charge point grant, which is worth £300 if the vehicle, installer and various other limitations are complied with.

Many are worried about having nowhere to charge up their EV close to home. Not everyone has their own Driveway, so there are subsidies for Apartments / Flats.

Local councils are being encouraged to provide Charging points in Car parks and streets with grants from the Government.

There are now booking services available for using chargers made available by other drivers.

How do I charge an electric car at home

Charging on longer journeys

An occasional ‘expensive’ charge, becomes insignificant when the total charging costs across months are considered, and even more so when you compare with the cost of Petrol or Diesel. There are so many cheap or even free places to charge, even better if you can charge at home.

Some charging networks have a poor reputation for lack of reliability and/or the need to use their cards of Apps. Fortunately, this situation is now improving.

Free public charging is available at a number of destinations including Supermarkets and destinations including visitor attractions and hotels.

New Electric forecourts are being developed with large numbers of chargers, supplied with Renewable electricity, and a selection of retail services and a lounge.

Flat Battery

When considering their first purchase of an Electric car many people are concerned about the possibility of the battery running out of charge on their journey in the same way as if they were running out of Petrol. The breakdown companies are preparing themselves for such scenarios.

Grid management

Some people wonder if the Electricity Grid will be able to cope with vast numbers of Electric vehicles charging. Demand currently varies dramatically during a day and so does the supply from Renewable energy so the National Grid is using Time management to level out these imbalances. See Can the National Grid cope with Electric cars?.

Hence electricity can now be purchase with a cheap overnight rate or in half-hourly blocks. On some nights it may even be free.

Electric cars have the ability to select which times to charge, many can controlled be controlled from an App on a Smart phone.

Environmental concerns

Understandably there are concerns about the environmental impact in production of EV batteries, however the environmental impact of importing the oil to produce Petrol and Diesel are rarely reported alongside them. See our Environment page for more information

Surveys:

(1)Survey carried out for the AA during March 2021

(2) Regit Survey

(3) OFGEM Survey