What's the problem with electric cars?

[GMcL]

Originally Posted by Existential Crisis

These ridiculous pick ups were £60-£100 per month before Christmas!!! For a brand new car, only 1 month payment deposit. Must have had to get them registered in '23 or something

Was that one dealer looking to hit a target or an importer dumping old stock?
In the Harry Metcalf video I posted he quotes £20k deposit plus approx. £1,400/month over 3 years to lease a PHEV petrol Range Rover. That's a big chunk of change for three years motoring with nothing to show at the end.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by GMcL

Was that one dealer looking to hit a target or an importer dumping old stock?
In the Harry Metcalf video I posted he quotes £20k deposit plus approx. £1,400/month over 3 years to lease a PHEV petrol Range Rover. That's a big chunk of change for three years motoring with nothing to show at the end.

I imagine so. There must have been a big deposit to get a new vehicle for £100 per month...

Originally Posted by GMcL

Leasing is great if you want a new car every few years and have a guaranteed income. Also, gets some people into cars they could not otherwise afford.

The downside is it locks you in to the most expensive part of a cars depreciation curve and main dealer servicing if you want the hassle free life. Servicing can be offset by some of the servicing deals (are they still available ?).

...And not forgetting the hefty charges when you return the vehicle for potential repairs to scratched paint, kerbed wheels, dents etc etc. They also charge you if you exceed the agreed miles per annum in your agreement.

Leasing companies make their money one way or another. Its not all as rosey as it may seem.

[Forg]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

Leasing companies make their money one way or another. Its not all as rosey as it may seem.

Sometimes they make their money from everyone else's taxes ...

Unsure what the tax system looks like there, but in Straya if you get Something as part of your remuneration package before tax is paid, you need to pay a "fringe benefit" tax on the Something.
So say you were being paid $150k/yr, without this fringe benefit tax there'd be nothing stopping you from getting your employer to lease you a car & rent you a house & buy all your clothes/food/school-fees/etc, and only get paid $30k/yr in "actual money" ... which would be under the tax-free threshold, and you'd pay no tax at all. Just a bit of background on what this tax is, UK probably has something the same with a different name (eg. we have a "GST" instead of a "VAT" ... NFI why).
Anyhoo, to encourage EV uptake, the Strayan gumbyment made EV's leased under a (fairly wide) set of circumstances fringe-benefit-tax free.
It means that if you're on that ~$AU150k/yr, you can lease an AU$80k EV and the total cost is about the same as using savings to buy an AU$24k Yaris-or-similar, with all the potential safety concerns & comfort trade-offs that represents.

Another example ... that's not an EV'ey one ... because Belgium has so much car manufacturing their gumbyment really strongly supports company cars. To the point that you'd be looking at buying a 15yo munter for the same total-cost-of-ownership as including something such as a 1-series BMW in with your remuneration.

Overall though, in most countries leasing is just the "subscription model" which everything is moving to, even car "ownership". People just started paying for it before they got used to the idea of paying $10/month to access all available music BUT losing all that access if they stopped the subscription (as opposed to paying $20 once for each CD that you then owned forever).

Actually a workmate found it really helpful for budgeting while saving for a deposit on a home. He didn't need to put down money on the car upfront, meaning any money he DID have could go towards the deposit on the home, plus he knew how much his life was going to cost him every month to within tens of dollars.

[Existential Crisis]

In answer to a few questions above, this was a one off deal for the big Maxus pick up. Zero or minimal deposit and between 60 and 100 a month for a year. Must have been the dealer desperately trying to meet quota or some other story behind it but it is verifiable. Some people over on PH got one! Here is the link, they started at 145 and ended up at £60!!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...=247&t=2058143

The price for things like a Range Rover is no surprise is it? That's what people pay for premium cars. New top of the tree Range rovers are well over 100k now aren't they. Isn't a well specced xc90 @100k now? Proces are bonkers, crazy...but it can be argued they have always been....

Please note, I'm not advocating either leasing or EV for everyone. Just trying to point out that like so many things, it's not necessarily a binary choice and it can be much more nuanced than many think. I
IF I could get some kind of home charging to my on street parking, my next car would probably be and electric f56 mini because I love the mini and the range etc would be absolutely fine for my use patern. If I was driving all across the country every day as I used to, I'd likely look for a big Lexus v8 saloon because THAT would fit my use patern. As it is, my next car will depend on how long my current one hangs in because its not going anywhere anytime soon....hopefully.

[Thekilt]

You woul dbe surprised about servicing costs for EVs. a lot of the mainstream manufacutrers are still advising yearly service intervals. Jaguar wanted £220 pe ryear for a check of everything, i wsa shocked! and then at 60,000 miles the cost of the service was around £500-600 where they change some sort of hoses (either coolant or brake) but to be honest i think they were looking at something to do for a service. Most manufacutrers rely on the service costs post sale to bring in more cash. My tesla doesnt have a service interval, just recommendations on things like brake servicing if in salty climates, and changing the pollen filter yearly and they povide instructions for you to do it yourself if you want to.

The Tesla charging network is also expanding to include all other EVs but at a higher cost.

With regards to price, when you factor in the monthly price for fuel we used to spend (£200) adding that to the monthly loan price of any petrol or diesel similar aged cars like a V90 or 5 series estate, it was a lot more monthly. so far this month i have spent £8 for charging, whereas it would be closer to £150 for fuel.

[Kev0607]

Sounds very expensive, considering there isn't really anything to service in an EV! I understand brakes and tyres need an inspection/replacement as required, coolant, suspension check, washer fluid top up (which anyone can do, but they do it anyway). There's not much else to check in an EV really, no oil, cam belt intervals etc etc. They can do a battery condition report, but my understanding is that's just done via diagnostics.

If EV's get more popular, garages (dealerships and external repairs shops) are going to take a big hit. There's less to go wrong with an EV comparatively to an ICE car. Taking into account that ICE cars aren't completely going, garages will still have repairs to do on them... Although, if there's less and less ICE vehicles on the road, the need for repairs will soon dwindle and dwindle right down. I can see a lot of garages closing or reduced staff at a minimum in years to come. That's if EV's do take off.

EV drivers will have to pay road tax next year too. I'm not sure how much it will be, but they're no longer going to be free.

[GMcL]

You might see quite a few 'good deals' on double cab pickups over the next couple of months as HMRC plan to change their classification to cars from 1st July meaning the BIK on them will rocket after that date.

Some leading companies will be looking to offload stock before that date.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by GMcL

You might see quite a few 'good deals' on double cab pickups over the next couple of months as HMRC plan to change their classification to cars from 1st July meaning the BIK on them will rocket after that date.

Some leading companies will be looking to offload stock before that date.

So they won't be classed as commercial...? That's what they are classed as currently I think?

I wonder why the change? Is it because people are driving them for non-commercial purposes?

[Whippy]

Totally non polluting, it's safe they said,

https://www.france24.com/en/france/2...hium-batteries

I've bought things from IKEA that lasted longer than the argument for EV's.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

So they won't be classed as commercial...? That's what they are classed as currently I think?

I wonder why the change? Is it because people are driving them for non-commercial purposes?

Double cab pickups with a payload capacity of over 1 ton are classed by the HMRC as a commercial vehicle. This means that anyone running one as a company car (i.e. including private mileage) pays tax on a fixed amount of £3,600, rather than under the same rules as normal cars.

Hence someone with a Ford Ranger Wildtrack earing in the 40% tax bracket would pay £120 a month in tax for it as it is a commercial vehicle. If it was classed as a private car, they'd be paying i.r.o. £ 480 a month. If they have a private mileage fuel benefit, they'd see similar savings. So as you can imagine, there are a fair few Rangers, Amaroks and Merc X-Class taking kids to school and occasionally being loaded with a couple of bags of shopping.

But I see in the press the HMRC have already U-turned on it....