Obviously written with a pro-EV slant but it does tell the story well and dispels some of the common myths
www.electriccarscheme.com/blog/how-reliable-are-electric-cars
The most interesting comparison for me was "The typical petrol or diesel engine contains over 2,000 moving parts, all subject to intense heat, friction, and mechanical stress. These complex systems require regular maintenance - oil changes, timing belt replacements, spark plugs, and attention to the numerous components that can fail over time: fuel pumps, alternators, starters, exhaust systems, catalytic converters, and complicated transmissions.
"By contrast, an electric vehicle's powertrain might contain as few as 20 moving parts. The primary component - the electric motor - is remarkably simple, efficient, and robust. With no need for multi-gear transmissions (most EVs use a single-speed gearbox), no fuel system, and no exhaust system, electric cars eliminate numerous common failure points."
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Interesting once you allow for the inbuilt bias. I wonder how long it will take for the alleged plummeting battery cost to feed through to the new car market. Given how much of the rest of the car is not EV specific it’s perhaps hard to justify current list pricing of new EVs
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An EV doesn’t suit my lifestyle at the moment, but if you simply potter about locally for the majority of the time or have a car based commute with home charging, then I think owning an EV is a no brainer. Especially the BIK advantage for those with a company vehicle.
Subject to overall cost of ownership comparative to an ICE car which I haven’t studied…
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The elephants in the room are the availability of parts for chinese manufactured vehicles and the cost of insurance, with many insurance companies withdrawing from from the car market.
The premium for my Toyota Yaris X (1.5) hybrid was more than double the cost of the Berlingo (1.6HDi) it replaced. 10 year NCD Outside M25.
Can anybody share any real figures?
Last edited by: sherlock47 on Wed 27 Aug 25 at 10:28
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>> The premium for my Toyota Yaris X (1.5) hybrid was more than double the cost
>> of the Berlingo (1.6HDi) it replaced. 10 year NCD Outside M25.
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>> Can anybody share any real figures?
We have two Yari. The bog standard old petrol Yaris is £498 per year.
The 2018 Hybrid Yaris is £890.
Which I calculate to be 78.7% more. I am quite old, so that accounts for what may seem high figures.
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I insured my Nov 2024 MG5 in July for £405, 10k pa. I just changed the car to a Ford 2024 Kuga and re-ran the quotes on CompareTheMarket- same company came out at £413, so little difference for me.
SWMBOs 2016 hybrid Yaris cost £249 (edited - it went down by about £50 this year!)
EDIT: I didn't realise that Kuga is a hybrid so a slightly older, cheaper one (2022), petrol only, came out at £396.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 27 Aug 25 at 14:07
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>> We have two Yari. The bog standard old petrol Yaris is £498 per year.
>> The 2018 Hybrid Yaris is £890.
Holy Cow Batman…My GR Yaris was insured SD& Pleasure only, two named drivers, limited annual miles circa 6k, and combined excess of £350.
Kept in a locked & alarmed garage, IAM member of that makes any difference, which I doubt.
Although my postcode does
£222 pa when I insured it with Aviva earlier this year.
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LL, I think you are a decade or several younger than me and my principal UK residence is inside the M25, not the rolling Dales of Yarkshire.
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Good old North South divide. When I started work in the u80s I couldn't understand how northern colleagues in maybe their mid 20s were running new high end cars often with personalised plates.
Then I saw how much their housing cost... and how the cost of living was generally so much cheaper.
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But the wages so much lower
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No they weren't, not in many many thousands of cases. Like many, I was on a national pay scale for my grade with a modest "London Location Allowance" (£360 pa when I left) which didn't even cover the cost of my season ticket to work.
Banks, civil service, NHS - all were the same then. No idea if that's still the case now but I suspect it is, in government and public sector jobs at least.
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No they weren't, not in many many thousands of cases. Like many, I was on a national pay scale for my grade with a modest "London Location Allowance" (£360 pa when I left) which didn't even cover the cost of my season ticket to work.
Banks, civil service, NHS - all were the same then. No idea if that's still the case now but I suspect it is, in government and public sector jobs at least.
EDIT: AI tells me that a Band 6 nurse (as an e.g.) - Base salary is the same ($46500), high cost area supplement is £6000 - £7000 (gross). Cost of season wicket Wokingham to Waterloo - £5648. Or live in Wokingham and get a supplement between £1258 and £2197. Average house cost Wokingham is £503,000 (£394,000 for 1st time buyer) v. £229,999 (£207,000)
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I am not sure that any EV is being sold below the cost of development and manufacturing - the economics require the various subsidies to be in place, especially the reduction in fleet average CO2 penalties.
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It's difficult to get hold of precise figure but broadly the cost per kwh of EV battery capacity in 2015 was ~$350 (£250). It is now ~$100 (£75).
In context - the cost of an average 50kwh EV battery would have been £12500 in 2015, and in 2025 is £3750. No surprise that substantial subsidies were needed to get EV sales started.
These are cost not selling price figures. I would guess that in 2025 £3750 is in the ball park cost to a car manufacturer of an ICE + gearbox + other ancilliaries. No surprise EV new prices are becoming closer to ICE.
Market opinion is that the cost of batteries is set to fall further. Estimates vary - 10-30% seems likely over the next couple of years.
That there is concern over spares and service back up for Chinese makers with no track record in the UK is probably justified. Issues of charging network and charging speed are increasingly irrelevant, although there is justifiable concern over price (home vs public charging) and future taxation (road pricing etc)
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Last edited by: Terry on Thu 2 Oct 25 at 17:01
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I've just bought a self charging hybrid Subaru XV e-Boxer which can 'do' up to 25 mph via electrickery, so I'm getting there :)
My next car (if I'm still alive) will be an EV, in fact I nearly bought a Honda e:Ny1 but got a, um, shock at the price.
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Bearing in mind the fewer moving parts, and "servicing" on most cars now is little more than an oil and filter change, I think it's hilarious how some manufacturers and their dealers have trumped up complicated service schedules in an effort to continue to screw customers over.
On our Gen2 Kona EV, with 2yr / 20K service schedules, both local dealers were adamant it needs a 10K/1y interim service. I got a service sheet - it doesn't even have 10K/1y columns on it!
Even on the 2yr service they've bumped the value up by including things like brake fluid change and wheel rotation. Some manufacturers are including wheel alignment.
VW are including a brake fluid change in their EV service plans. It's always been outrageously charged extra on their ICE plans, and it still is. However they've changed the first cahnge interval from 3yrs to 2yrs to match the EVs! So you get a service plan on a new ICE car and then the dealer wants another £90 to change the brake fluid and £150 to service the a/c!
It's the one thing I like about Tesla - the cars have no mandatory servicing.
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>> It's the one thing I like about Tesla - the cars have no mandatory servicing.
No just a bits that break service. Thats regular enough.
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I can only add my lived experience. Owned two EVs for four years.
Fiat 500e totally reliable off the line like a greased ferret cost pennies to run. 42kwh version with 199m range. But that's in Sherpa mode which I never use so a reliable 160m.
Vauxhall Mokka-e the early 50kwh version . The later 54kwh version which I drove last week. Is quicker more powerful whist being about 20% more efficient. It gets a believable 250m range. Mine was sold as 201m and initially it could do that with some effort but 180m is easy to achieve even now. That said it shares much with mine. Its quick comfy lavishly equipped.
Until June it was totally reliable. I had the a/c compressor go bad. Its now repaired and was going to be over 2k. Here's where I wish I said I took the extended wty. I didn't. Anyway I complained to Vx and they kindly paid 75% of the parts cost. Four hour job.
Four years in I still love the car. The App not so much but after three years you have to pay to keep the car talking to the App. I'm not paying it this year.
Now you may be thinking well I dont use the a/c so I wouldn't bother having it fixed. You would it cools the battery, otherwise you'd cook it and that would be bad. Its the heat pump system. Other than that it's still a great car. Highly recommend as a first EV. Very non threatening.
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I'm not overly impressed with the app that goes with the MG. It restricted charging at one point with no reason and without telling me, making me think I had a technical issue, so I've now unbound it from the car. Managed for 3 years without an app with the 1st MG...
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I hope they've fixed the App by now.
I've got a MG4 Trophy LR coming in Dec when the Fiat goes back. 64kwh and wltp of 280m
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After initial doubts, I’ve become a big EV fan. Had a Nissan Leaf 40kwh for two trouble free years until a local (visually impaired) taxi driver ran a red light and wiped it out, and now a VW ID3 58kwh. Both have proved to date to be efficient, smooth, cheap to run and utterly reliable.
The small fleet of three Renault Zoe’s my work use as pool cars are showing the same level of durability. The oldest one (a 2018 40kwh) is rapidly closing in on 100,000 miles and it’s only ever needed a repair to a fan motor beyond basic wear and tear stuff like suspension bushes. So far they’re needing far less downtime than the previous petrol superminis we used to run.
EV’s have far fewer moving parts to go wrong, they’re much lighter on brakes thanks to regenerative braking and they don’t need oil changes (beyond a reduction box change maybe once in its life) so they’re helpful in keeping you away from greedy service departments attempts to fleece you.
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Been rolling in EVs since 2017.
Merc B250e, then Mk1 & Mk2 MG ZS EVs, last year got an Ioniq 5, and 2 weeks ago got a new Ioniq 6 Ultimate for £29k from new-car-discount.com.
No issues of note with any of them (though there are rare failures noted for Ioniq 5/6 with their ICCU unit) over about 100k miles between them.
Current sweet spot for EV saloons is probably MG IM5.
In 75kWh guise comes in under the luxury tax, and available for £31.5k online.
www.new-car-discount.com/car/mg-motor-uk/im5-electric-hatchback/hatchback/electric/automatic/217kw-standard-range-75kwh-5dr-auto/25/
The 100kWh AWD performance job has 750bhp, 0-60 in 3.2s and under £41k.
www.new-car-discount.com/car/mg-motor-uk/im5-electric-hatchback/hatchback/electric/automatic/553kw-performance-100kwh-5dr-auto/25/
MG's own affinity prices are sharp too - if you work in the Public sector (or are retired from same) or have been a member of the MG owners' club - similar to those above.
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My wife has access to the NHS fleet scheme, which has some great EV leasing deals. It’s probably the way we’ll go once up decide to upgrade, and the plan is to keep the ID3 to replace my Old Ford Focus… if it proves reliable longterm. So far, it’s been great. I do like the latest BYD and some MG offerings, but I do try to stick to British built if possible so we’ll look at the new Leaf if it’s priced decently. I liked our Mk II, it was straightforward and comfy, like an old pair of jeans you wear to everything.
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Cheers SLO
I'm a GP partner in central Scotland, so am self-employed which means I get some tax advantage to buying new EVs (and no access to NHS leases!).
I do like LEAF - no nonsense EV, although the battery can degrade with time and use more than average.
The 62kWh flavour is rare as rocking horse s*** in most areas but seems very resistant to degrading and overheating however, so a decent long-term prospect if you don't mind Chademo ;-)
Getting swarmed by Chinese EV brands - at least it keeps the prices of other manufacturers down!
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The Leaf suffers greater degradation largely because it has no thermal management, plus the 40kwh cars really need a full 100% charge to offer worthwhile range, which isn’t in the best interests of the battery pack longterm. But in general they’re very reliable things, and degradation levels off dramatically after year 3/4. They’re no use for long journeys though. We tried a trip from Ayr to Lincoln in it and it just doesn’t like repeated fast charging. It was left at home next time. The ID3 is no trouble here.
But as a reliable cheap to run second car the 40kwh Leaf is fantastic, it’s effortless to drive and such great value to buy. The 62kwh examples take the price up too close to more modern CCS equipped cars like the ID3 and Kia Niro/Hyundai Kona 64kwh to make them worth considering in my opinion.
Happy to see the Chinese brands here, as you say it’s pushing prices down new and used. I do like a bargain.
Last edited by: SLO76 on Thu 2 Oct 25 at 19:55
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EVs - some facts - martin aston
