The REAL Cost of Charging An EV | Project Leaf

[@nicholaskatsoulas3435]

Very good video indeed. Although these are bread and butter calculations for people who own an ev and charge at home already, this is massively informative for people considering buying an ev. I took the plunge regardless but can only wish Rory did this nearly 2 years ago. This is most obvious when you run a PHEV as you see the price difference for yourself when you mostly run it on electricity alone... either with a granny charger or for free at Sainsbury's or Tesco (while doing the shopping). One minor point to mention is that the Leaf battery is half shot already (as per your previous video), so I am sure you're only half filling it every time you charge Rory...so it probably costs you even less... In any case, full marks

[@alibro7512]

Good point. If the car had the original range of around 90 miles the maths would make more sense.

[@ChrisBigBad]

If the battery is half dead, then you need to charge it twice as many times for half the price. So no benefits there. Probably even worse, because if you go to town with the little boy, you might not be able to get back home to your cheap and cozy socket. You charge where you park to boost the battery a bit and is a bit more pricey. Depending on how long you stay (if you're lazy and just let it charge) or how much you really need to get home (and how many times you have to do that) you have to increase your yearly cost calculation by more or less. But here in Germany, chargers in the city-streets are reserved parking for EVs, which can give you a nice space when everyone else is looking for parking. So that can be a bonus for paying extra. Generally: in these kinds of calculations, only the cost per mile or cost per year (which is ultimately cost per mile times lots of miles) will make sense. Because a small battery takes less power = less money to charge, but it will drive you less miles. so... hm! :)

[@frankelf3151]

The Leaf has around 21KWh of useable capacity out of 24. There are a few KW used as a buffer to protect the battery ever being fully charged or discharged. Subtract the degradation that's on the Leaf and you're talking closer to 15KW of electricity. Even cheaper than what's calculated.

[@RoystonTumbles]

First thing I thought during the calculations. I was waiting for Rory to subtract the battery degradation. So yes, the Leaf is even cheaper than you’ve calculated it to be. Also….. it wasn’t the cheapest Leaf available on Autotrader at the time you bought it. Mine was! Yours is in better condition though.

[@antoniopalmero4063]

@@RoystonTumbles I sold my 63 plate acenta this year for £2500, 66%soh and 192000 miles. Ex taxi.

[@MrAlex6918]

It's true, but he's not taking into account the efficiency of the charger. So.. one mistake cancels the other

[@gelisob]

Yeah, 24kwh leaf is listed as 22kwh usable as new. 60% mean 22x0.6=13.2kwh, or around 14kwh.

[@gelisob]

@@tj2375 it means your "fuel tank" is smaller. So your math will just be wrong if you assume you still have 24kwh tank, but you dont. It does not keep taking in 24 and giving out less, it will "literally" be smaller, taking in less and thus you have less tank/energy to work with. Meaning you do not pay for 24kwh for full charge since you dont even have room for 24kwh anymore. He has room for 14kwh. Thats what he did his 60miles with too. (~14.5kwh/100km)

[@RussellFineArt]

I've owned an EV for the past 5-years and charge it, 95%+ of the time at home with my solar panels and pay $0 for fuel and $0 for my home electric bill. I've saved about $3600/yr., every year as we used to spend $150/mo. for gasoline and $150/mo. for our home power bill. I installed my own solar panels for super cheap and bought a slightly used EV, far lower than the price of a new one, and it's been a great decision!

[@Bobisuruncle54]

That sounds great, how many panels does it take to run your home and charge your car? Do you live in a very sunny location? I'd love to do this eventually.

[@leeneal6969]

and how much were your panels? nothing is free!

[@recumbentrocks2929]

@@leeneal6969 That is what I was thinking. You have to add at least some of the panel costs to the running cost of the car. But if you are using the panels to run your car as well as your home it would not take long to cover the cost and then your would have real "free" driving.

[@leeneal6969]

@@recumbentrocks2929 average solar panel is 400W, so you would need 20 to achieve the 8KW fast charge status, I never seen any residential property with that many panels. Lets also not forget that most cars will be plugged in overnight, not sure how clued up you are but solar panels dont work well at nighttime, so you would need some battery backup system installed too, and those are bloody expensive.

[@johnkeepin7527]

Well done. Gives me an idea of how large your roof is, given that EVs seem to have a minimum charge load of 1.4 kW. It can be a gamble with the weather as well, if on day/night rate to get the best price for import. Otherwise, on some utility supply accounts, if the cloud comes over one could be paying as much as the cost of fuel for an ICE car.

[@robertmandl9326]

Time for my Corsa E and me to add our two cents. A few disclaimers first: 1.) I can't charge my car at home; 2.) Power consumption went up quite a bit with the current cold weather and snow; 3.) I am completely dependant on public charging stations. Now, I average at about 1200 km per month. My most recent bill for charging my car came to 56 Euro for November. As I said, I can only charge at public points (42 - 48 cents per kwh) though this is partially balanced out by free charging options near my home. To compare costs: up until 2 months ago I was driving a 1.2 litre Corsa series e "Active" which came to about 170 Euros a month in fuel. So my electric Corsa only costs a third under current conditions in raw "fuel" price than what the ICE Corsa needed.

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

2 years of leaf ownership, it does 99% of my use! Love it! And the torque for city driving is awesome! I charge for free at work, love it.

[@jestronixhanderson9898]

Did a range test of 30% highway and 70% city , got 140km out of mine , 24kwh with 15% degradation. I was driving sensible to get those numbers though. Not bad for 6 years old leaf.

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

Great stuff Rory, helps people to see the real cost benefits of going electric. I doubt many people with an old Leaf will be using public rapid chargers though with only 100 km of range. Perfect for home charging and doing the school run though. Where we live in France the local electric company have slow chargers (7.2 kW) in most small towns and villages. If you pay €15 a month you can take as much power as you want. I worked out that if you do 20,000 km a year (12,000 miles) that would be cheaper than charging at home. Makes sense for people who can’t get their car off the road to charge.

[@pablodepeche]

Great stuff because charging is cheaper than petrol or diesel, no road tax, YOU JUST NEED TO PAY DOUBLE FOR THE CAR AT FIIRST. And be stressing al the way hoping to have enough charge get to work in time, because if you don’t have enough, you’ll waste over an hour most of the days, plus coffee or wherever you need to spend where you stop to charge.

[@kiae-nirodiariesencore4270]

@@pablodepeche Bullshit Pablo. You don’t pay double for the car, mine was 30% more expensive than the petrol hybrid version back in 2019. Since then the gap has narrowed. And you clearly know zip about the day to day running of an EV. I have never ‘stressed’ about getting anywhere in my EV as does anyone who owns one. You plug in overnight and wake up KNOWING you’re going to get to work on time and a lot less stressed than in a fossil car with all that engine noise and wasted fuel in traffic. EV owners are never waiting for our cars to charge, we are doing something else like sleeping, eating or shopping. So stop your nonsense postings.

[@erebostd]

@@pablodepeche you never had an electric car, obviously…

[@pablodepeche]

@@erebostd My job is to deliver electric cars every day of the week in UK. I know what talking about.

[@erebostd]

@@pablodepecheSo you deliver cars…Do you think that the guy delivering food recognizes the delicacies of the cuisine he delivers? Or is he more the hot dog guy, complaining why the boeuf stroganoff costs so much more than his ordinary burger, which tastes the same to him? Right…

[@AutoTraderTV]

Would you consider an EV given the charging costs?

[@richardnoble2911]

Would love to have an EV. I don't know what it is about EV's but they have really captured my imagination as I've never been in to car's more motorbikes but addicted to EV's and researching them and reviews and love Rorys reviews as they are insightful and come over as genuine without any bias and I can't wait to see more episodes. Keep up the great work Rory

[@bigbullstony43]

Tesco/pod point is still free. BP pulse at £8 per month then free charging at 7kw and reduced rates at high power charging. Again if your staying in a hotel find one with free ev charging inclusive of your stay 10hrs over night upto 70kw. 70kw would cost a fortune at a high powered 50kw plus charging station

[@SDK2006b]

@Alaberti - Sounds like you need a track day car !

[@JackMott]

@Alaberti model 3 is very fun in a corner

[@D_HongKongVideos]

I have an EV. Thanks.

[@clivepierce1816]

So we drove 8000 miles in our Leaf over the past 12 months - 75% of those miles were delivered by our solar PV; the remainder cost us 5 pence per kWh using Octopus go overnight tariff. Total fuel cost for the year - £30.

[@fastfreddy19641]

Cheaper maintenance costs on the leaf as well. Mine is 4years old and still has its original break discs and pads. No oil or plugs or timing belt to change. No tail pipe or catalytic converter.

[@millimetreperfect]

Expensive battery though

[@Kimbrough87]

@@millimetreperfect by the time he needs a battery he'll be so rich he can buy three new cars lol 😅 while the person who has a gas car squeeze their life savings to maintain theirs

[@TL-xw6fh]

@@millimetreperfect The battery last the lifetime of the car, so long as it is not abused like always charging from empty to full using rapid chargers only. There are lots of Leaf taxis that have done in excess of 150,000 miles and still going strong on the original batteries.

[@fastfreddy19641]

@@millimetreperfect your right but after 4 years I still have all my battery health indicators. Ice cars deteriorate as well you know.

[@robinbennett5994]

I'll bet the insurance on the Leaf is a lot less than his Mustang too!

[@colinstamp9053]

You seem to have made a mistake on the Leaf figures. The car has lost quite a lot of its battery capacity, but you've used the *full-spec* capacity to calculate the charging cost. Then you divided by the *degraded* range to get the cost per mile. That makes the Leaf look a fair bit worse than it actually is.

[@timaustin2000]

Correct

[@CampGareth]

There's also usable vs total capacity. If it's a 24kwh battery with 22kwh usable you only put 22kwh in when charging. The extra capacity is left unused to extend the lifespan of the battery. I can't remember how degraded his battery is but I'd knock 1/3rd off the kwh input and change the price per mile accordingly.

[@dughuff8825]

Yep, you're right. Really he needed to look at how much charge he is actually putting IN overnight - it'll be more than the battery capacity also. In an earlier video I think Rory said that the battery had degraded by nearly a third over its life.

[@integralhighspeedusb]

You are right, but let’s not scare people with additional math. 😉

[@Belal-Khan]

The other thing is that the charging efficiency is not 100%. Some of the electricity will be lost to heat etc.

[@willienelsongonzalez4609]

Rory just keeps on delivering high quality content with Auto Trader! Loving it mate!

[@mahargrekab]

The £4.99 ESB monthly membership charge isn’t every fill up of electric though. You might use it 4 times a month adding only £1.25 per charge to the .28p per kWh

[@shuttayerface503]

Subscription members enjoy our best value tariffs to charge on the bp pulse network, starting from £0.28/kWh. You’ll also get access to free charging on selected bp pulse points as well as a physical access card, all for just £7.85 per month. Oh, and all new members get the first 3 months’ subscription free!

[@solentbum]

A thing I have noticed when talking to other drivers is that they drastically overestimate their real world driving. Before buying your next car write down a carefully remembered list of ALL of teh journeys you have done in the last year. You will be surprised to see how few journeys you do that even come near to the range of one of the newer EVs.

[@timsmith5339]

To be fair, you only need to do one journey over your cars range and you then have to consider the charging infrastructure and the time it will take. I was willing to jump in, first with a 22kWh Zoe in which I did several road trips and the charging was part of the adventure. Now I have a 30kWh Kia Soul. We still do and enjoy road trips but they are a little easier than in the Zoe. It might only do 30 miles more per charge, but that has a much bigger effect than the raw numbers would suggest. You don't leave one charger and immediately start looking for the next. I would say that the sweet spot would be a few miles more still (dependant on charger availability), say 150-180 miles. What is more crucial is charging rate!

[@solentbum]

@@timsmith5339 My first LEAF was an ex-demo version, with a best range of just short of 100 miles. I soon found that I only needed to know of a couple of chargers around 40-50 miles from home. My second LEAF had a slightly better range, I learnt to remember the charger points on the main roads. (Thank you Ecotricity). My current LEAF has a dependable range of 140 miles in winter, more in summer. It has been all around Wales, up and down the M/Ways in the Midlands and numerous days trips to the beaches in Dorset. It has just turned 51000 miles. A day out of around 200 miles , one rapid charge, or a couple of hours on a 7kwh charger is all I need. Of course I do not hold the charging lead as I fill up. I do life, Lunch, shopping, visit a NT house, etc. I am tempted by a 200miles+ EV but the budget ,and wife say not yet.

[@panzerveps]

Exactly. And how often would you drive 1000 km without a break to stretch your legs, relieve yourself and have a snack? If you absolutely need that 1200 km range that a modern diesel has for the holiday trips, you could use an EV as a daily, and rent a diesel wagon for the longer holiday hauls. If I could justify the purchase of a new car (I only use my car for holiday trips), I'd go electric. My only requirment is that I can get 300 km with a rapid charger, within reasonable time (30-45 minutes).

[@timsmith5339]

@@panzerveps You are exactly right. It's amazing how many ICE drivers either have bladders the size of basket balls or pee into a bottle rather than stop! If you do go electric, I believe the key is charge rate. I went with the Kia Soul because of the 100kW charging. It isn't paying off yet as there are few 100kW chargers out there yet (I will probably use it for the first time on holiday next summer when I travel on motorways in central UK), although it may be very slightly quicker on 50kW chargers than a car who's limit is 50kW.

[@panzerveps]

@@timsmith5339 The current Soul is a great car. My sister and her boyfriend has an e-Niro, and it's been quite reliable and well suited for their needs as a family of 3, now 4. Of all the cars on the market right now, I prefer the id3 for my actual needs, but Enyaq for comfort, styling, performance (the 80x is insanely good on snow and slippery mud) and value for money.

[@pmac6584]

Your leaf calc was wrong! 24kwh is the gross battery size when new. The usable size is about 22kwh when new and gets around 100 miles range. Your battery is at about 80% of the this , around 18kwh. So the leaf is way cheaper to run than your calc shows. Otherwise I agree with the rest of the vid. Nice one.

[@Ben02120]

Nah his battery is even worse. About 66% at best.

[@adamspencer95]

It's even worse than that because it's nowhere near 100% efficient from the charger to a charged battery.

[@gildardo]

Came to the comments for this. His cars range was 66 miles in city streets, at an optimistic 4.5kw per mile that's 14.6 kw used. So his cost is way cheaper than what he calculated.

[@AutoTraderTV]

It’s a tricky one to give accurate numbers for because I don’t know the true capacity of the battery. As I said it “had” 24kwh. You could also factor in 20% charging efficiency losses.

[@colinstamp9053]

@@AutoTraderTV An excellent test would be to charge it on the granny lead, plugged in via an energy meter. Then you'd get a proper real-world figure which takes into account both the real capacity of your battery and the grid-to-battery efficiency. Energy meters are cheap. Go-on, we *need* to know!

[@AStick3Pedals]

UK road tax is sooooooo cheap compared to most countries in the rest of Europe. In Belgium a V8 Mustang would cost you around 15 grand in road tax the first year and 3500 every year after that!!!!! You guys in the UK are lucky

[@radioactivet-rex286]

Good, i hope it increases so people have to go electric

[@AStick3Pedals]

@@radioactivet-rex286 are you the anti-christ of cars

[@raytrevor1]

@@radioactivet-rex286 As more people change to EVs governments will need to recover road tax AND fuel tax. Most likely by a mileage tax, but whatever it is - they will find a way. EVs will end up just as expensive to run as ICE cars.

[@radioactivet-rex286]

@@raytrevor1 and? Thats not the point of EVs, the point is to find a good replacement for the stupid amount of greenhouse gases we produce, just like many other sectors will have to change, automobiles will have to too

[@bolt5564]

In the US if a car gets poor enough fuel economy there's a gas guzzler tax when you buy it, but other than that vehicle registration cost is dependent on vehicle class not efficiency and is generally less than a couple hundred dollars.

[@bolt5564]

It is crazy how expensive things are for you guys in the UK and Europe. In America the cost to drive an electric car is similar (my volt costs about 3 cents per mile) but vehicle registration is generally less than $100 per year and it costs my parents about $0.18 per mile to run their V8 15 passenger van.

[@SDK2006b]

That will be why the US is Trillions of dollars in debt !

[@bolt5564]

@@SDK2006b in Europe the funds raised from drivers are used to help subsidize the rest of the government's budget. In the US the goal has been for drivers to cover the cost of maintaining the roads and no more. Granted it would be good if the US increased the gas tax slightly or implementation of a small vehicle mile tax (about $0.03 is enough), but even still it would be far less expensive to drive in America than in Europe and the UK.

[@bolt5564]

@@SDK2006b Both the UK and Germany are in trillions of dollars of debt, so I'm not quite sure what's your point is.

[@trixiepickle8779]

Thanks for this Rory, I'm just waiting for delivery of my first electric car - Dacia Spring (new version) This helps a lot. I live in France and currently drive a really old diesel Toyota Yaris. I'll miss her, but not the cost of the filling. Love your videos, a great help.

[@megapangolin1093]

Cracking video, Rory, very thought-provoking. I think that the £4.99/m is a one-off payment, not a per charge cost. But loved the principle of explaining to people the pros and cons. Well done, looking forward to the next. It is interesting, now with electric charging, almost all other factors are now ghosted,; handling, steering, comfort. We will all be driving white goods (like fridges) in the future and the only consideration apart from the badge is the range.

[@huggyuk]

You’re absolutely right… it’s a monthly subscription fee.

[@BenVost]

@@huggyuk @Megapangolin and even if it was every time you charged - it would still be cheaper than petrol or diesel at today's prices...

[@aaromnido]

I completely agree. Here in Spain, I pay 0.045€ per KWh from 12PM to 7AM, and with my e-Niro the cost is about 0.50€ / 100km (65 miles). To charge at home is cheaper and convenient. Thanks for your videos.

[@harveythorneycroft9443]

Hi Rory, we have 2 2016 leaf Tekna’s. Rather than buying new EV’s to replace them when the batteries inevitably degrade, we are looking at the option of replacing the 30Kw battery with nearly new 62Kw batteries with a 33Kw range extender. The benefit of this being sustainable resource and money saving option not having to buy new cars. The cost of a 62Kw battery approx £13,500 and 33Kw range extender not sure on the range extender price but I think less than £10,000. So you then have a car with a potential maximum range of 436 miles. The 95Kw cars I have appear to start around £45,000 at present and I think very few do the new possible range of this project.

[@bigbullstony43]

If u do 4 full charges per month the £4.99 is only £1.24 per charge. And obviously becomes less with every charge.

[@vannicrider7953]

Yes that was another inaccuracy. If you only charged once a month you would not use a subscription

[@simonhorsfield2436]

Also I have driven a Leaf up and down the UK for a year and never heard of ESB or used a provider with a subscription service. Average price for rapid charging is probably about 30ppkwh ATM. More expensive than home or public slow chargers but Way cheaper than petrol.

[@jimmacgregor4122]

Another good video from Rory - but what about the usual provisos? - you can't charge at home if you live in a flat (that's 60% of Scots) - charging of EV's is recommended only from 20 to 80% (not 0 to 100) - cold weather can reduce your range by 20 - 30%. Put all that together and a flat buyer is not going to be rushing out to buy a 10 year old Nissan Leaf with a (very theoretical) range of 66 miles. That 10 year old Focus looks a far better bet.....

[@HonestWatchReviewsHWR]

This doesn't just apply to those living in flats. It also applies to those who don't have off-road parking too.

[@bolt5564]

Agreed, while EVs are cheaper for those that they work for, the technology still needs to advance some more before they are a viable alternative for everyone. But for those whose lifestyle already accommodates EVs, EVs can be far cheaper to run than a comparable petrol car.

[@EVinstructor]

I live in a flat in a city where almost nobody has off street parking. I charge overnight in a residents charging bay plugged into a street lamp. Our council put them near our homes on request. Many more councils are waking up to the fact they have to make provision for residents charging.

[@HonestWatchReviewsHWR]

@@EVinstructor That's good to know. But just imagine what it'll be like when everyone has to go electric.

[@HonestWatchReviewsHWR]

@@garysmith5025 How does he charge for free?

[@hass8339]

Great video Roy, unfortunately I think lots of people might be moving towards new tariffs where the price of electric doubled. I am currently paying 23p per kilowatt for my electricity with British gas

[@Brian-om2hh]

Both Octopus and EDF are still charging 5p per kw on their EV tariffs I believe.... you do only get around 4 hours at that through the night, but there are 7 nights per week!

[@suzycrow6954]

Same here 23p

[@hass8339]

@@Brian-om2hh thank you but unfortunately don't think you can get that any more :(

[@dwinterx]

Yeah, I know this is from December, so about 2-3 months ago, but Rory must be on the best electric deal ever as his tarrifs seem very low. I'm on a fixed deal that lasts two years, taken out in April 2021 and my rate is 17.38p kWh. I know from chatting to other people, that's very low compared to what some people are paying. Oh and with all this stuff going on with Russia and Ukraine, prices are likely to go even higher for anyone not on a fixed price deal of some kind. Rory should also be factoring in the standing charge for electricty, as that can be as high as 40-50p a day. In short, he seems to have prices from about 5-6 years ago!

[@MrAshman3000]

Brilliantly explained for those of us who do not have an electric car but are looking at the costs of ownership compared to our current ICE cars.

[@DarrenWhittington]

Thing is that a quarter of uk drivers don’t have off street parking, and are generally prohibited from charging at home, and excluded from charger grants. This needs fixing as it’s a disincentive to upgrade.

[@Brian-om2hh]

But grants are available to most Local Authorities to fit grids in pavements Darren. The work allegedly takes about 40 minutes and allows a charge lead to pass under rather than over the pavement. The grants are there, your Local Council just has to apply for them. The same grants are there for the installation of street light EV chargers and free standing bollard types, but you would need to request one from your Council, then they should apply for the grant. The problem seems to be that many councils just don't seem to realise this!

[@rogerstephens9032]

I was very interested to see your videos series on the Leaf, I'm enjoining it very much, I've had a 2013 one for two years, but your efficiency comparison with the Skoda was way off, its all about Kilowatt's per mile not battery size, over a year I get 4.1miles per kw what does your Skoda do? That's what you compare.

[@javiTests]

7p and 14p/kWh in December 2021? Which company is that one?? I have one of the cheapest tariffs and it's more like 13 and 23p/kWh!

[@nonyanks2510]

Being a 2014 Leaf owner your numbers line up, with mine, I also found the best range sweet spot in moderately hilly roads is between 48 to 52 m.p.h. due to its tall gear ratio. Wish we had off peak rates, but again this is the US....still living in the 1970's.

[@Pique147]

When you mentioned the ESB charging, you implied you would only be charging once per month and that's why the price per mile was so high. If you charged 10 times, the price per mile drops dramatically to about 11p/mile.

[@AutoTraderTV]

Per mile cost goes down, total cost goes up.

[@bolt5564]

That is true, so long as you use that public charging station 10 times per month and not one in a different network.

[@Pique147]

@@AutoTraderTV Using it 10 times instead of once means total costs go up? My mind is blown!

[@davidsworld5837]

if you pay sub of £4.99 a month you will be charging over the time so £4.99 x 12 = £60. but your year mileage of 8000, / 65 miles is a 123 charges per a year. or 10 a month, which on this company charger being used is a 50p cost. So meaning if you are using that company charger only, a few times a week so dividing the £5 between the number of times you charge. it may be better to just use Aldi at 25p kWh. or a charger that is 30p even the higher priced instavolt 40p there is no point paying a subscription if you can not use year round and do enough charges to cover this additional cost.

[@kadetsx]

Great explanation. I'm newbie and planing to buy nissan leave but was struggling to understand cost. Your video explained all enquiries I had. Much appreciated. God bless 🙏

[@brybish]

I like the fuel consumption comparison but also the petrol has weight so filling your tank is like carrying a mate unnecessarily battery packs are heavy but part of the car amps don't add more weight.

[@recumbentrocks2929]

That was by far the best fuel price comparison and explanation I have every seen, Thanks Rory.

[@Jaw0lf]

Great video to show benefits of EV driving. Over past 6 months my Kia E-Niro with 64kWh battery has done 5000 miles most charges at home but some paid for at 50kWh chargers. Also some supermarkets and shopping centers offer free charging, so I have also benefitted from that. Total cost per mile has been 2.4 pence per mile.

[@ScottRods]

We are in Canada, and managed to grab a Mini SE just before everyone wanted one (6 month waiting list now). We love it, and daily top up charge at home (off peak) is just over ONE dollar. I've done some reviews, but we are heading into deepest whitest winter very soon, so we'll find out how the range changes. Great video as always!

[@TML34]

How much of a rebate did you get? I’m in Ontario and we don’t get any EV rebates, just the FED.

[@ScottRods]

@@TML34 We got the 5K off the price, but I think Mr Ford stopped the incentive claiming we were all millionaires. It might be re-introduced.

[@TML34]

@@ScottRods 5k is pretty good, so that brings the Mini under $40k before tax. Not great, but you get the fuel savings! I’ve always liked the Mini, but knew it was horrifically unreliable. Hopefully the EV version corrects that. 😀

[@lorrainehinchliffe5371]

Great series! Just for comparison I live in Canada and recently traded in my PHEV for a 64kwh Kona EV. I charge at home and average 450-475 kilometres per charge in the summer so far about 400-425 in the winter. My car takes 7-8 hours to charge on level 2 in my garage and I charge about 4 times a month. So far I seem to be averaging $30-40 per month in hydro, what we call electrical rates here. As a topper my insurance went down. I couldn’t be happier. Gas just jumped here to around $1.35 per litre.

[@smarte.r.1450]

The best ever explanation of running cost ev v ice… superb!

[@NeutronStream]

This was super helpful. Getting an EV and figured out I will save about 75% on fuel charging from my local public chargers. If I had a home charger (I can't as I live in a block of flats), I'd save ~95%. 🤯

[@GospelOfTimothy]

What you should do is live in Michigan or Alaska without a garage and plug the leaf in. They have heaters in the battery to keep them from freezing and they have to be plugged in 24/7 they use electricity in the winter, even when you're not driving, to heat the batteries. If you don't keep them plugged in the battery will freeze and die.

[@richardmayberry5905]

I drove a 2014 Honda Fit EV for three years under lease. I never did any deep calculations, but this was my average result: driving a 40 mile commute 5 days a week (200 miles per week), with about 20 miles per week incidental driving for shopping and the like, my electric utility bill increased by about $12 USD per month (using a home 220V charger), going up slightly to $13 during the cold winter months. I confirmed that difference at the end of the lease, when my bill dropped by those amounts! I do live in Oregon, where our electric rates are rather low, since the large majority of our electric power is generated by hydroelectric and wind turbines. Even if the rate was double or triple that, it is still far below what my gasoline cost is for my Jetta! My next car will certainly be another EV. 😁

[@rylucia]

Really clear video and real world examples. Thanks

[@andrewallen4014]

It would have been better to calculate the cost on the basis of the kWh actually used by the EV, not the total range claimed - which is rarely achieved. Other factors to consider are that home electricity is charged at a 5% VAT rate and public chargers at 20% VAT. To complicate it further, if you go to an economy 7 tariff, you also need to calculate the higher cost of electricity usage in the daytime for everything else in your home.

[@christhompson4630]

It would have made more sense to calculate based on consumption (mi/kWh) but that is dependent on driver ability which varies. The same as how ICE consumption (mpg) varies and this video is meant to be simplified, so Rory has used simple calculations. Why would you need to calculate the cost of general electricity usage at home? Do you add your fuel bill to your shopping bill? The video is purely about the cost of running the car so that calculation is irrelevant. All you'd have to do anyway is add the cost of charging the car onto your average daily electricity usage. It's still going to cost less than an ICE car. I don't know about home electricity charges but with VAT and public chargers (at least with InstaVolt, PodPoint and Osprey) the VAT is already included in the price per kWh

[@richie6921]

Yes, it did help. This is the perfect video if you want an electric car. Cost per mile is what it all comes down to

[@ianwynne5483]

Your calculation used 24kWh x 7p night tariff divided by 66mls, but your Leaf is at 66% capacity, which is 16kWh usable. 16 x £0.07/kw is the cost of charging from zero to full, which is £1.12. Divided by 66 miles range is 1.69p per mile.

[@markwellington1254]

Another good video by Rory. We charge our two Nissan LEAFs at home 90% of the time. We are not going back to a petrol car as there are so many hidden advantages to owning and operating an EV.

[@blobstrom]

More and more supermarkets and multi-storey car parks now have free 7kW chargepoints (My local Tesco does). So plugging in there is the same as home but is free unless you have to pay for parking or course.

[@abdulkhayem3460]

Can I ask what is the best value all round EV car for a small family man on a tight budget. Thank you for all the uploads. Keep doing what you do.

[@andrewroberts1787]

I've been pretty critical in the comments of a number of your EV videos but this one was excellent because it was very clear and showed no bias. I suspect your Leaf costs less to charge than you calculated due to battery degradation but you don't take into account in your calculations. It's also not clear how frequently you have to pay that 4.99, is it monthly? If so the calculation is a bit unfair as it suggests its per fill-up... Probably better to compare to a higher kWh rate pay as you use system, vs a membership price. It's also worth noting that level 1 charging efficiency is in the low 80% range, level 2 charging (as most ppl should and will have at home) is about 90% efficient, and DC fast chargers are about 98% efficient. So you will pay for more energy than gets put into the battery. I switched to a free nightly tariff (8pm to 5am), but pay double during the day, and before we got our pair of EV's that actually reduced our electricity bill by 30% (use the dryer after 8pm etc) and then we added the two cars (Mini and Tesla) effectively for free. But even if we paid to charge them it's so much cheaper than petrol, even here in Texas where it is relatively cheap...

[@CptSpears007]

Great stuff. Any chance you could do a video on what you need to do and the cost of getting a home charger installed.

[@alittlebitmoore]

Problem is each house is different, is there enough space in the consumer unit, how far from outside wall to consumer unit, what sort of walls etc. Chargers are roughly 4-500 quid, installs from couple of hundred to a couple of thousand.

[@robinbennett5994]

You'll need an electrician to connect into your fuse box, and a basic charger is around £500. Smart chargers are a little more but there's a £350 grant for them, so they can work out cheaper. If you go that route, the installing company needs to be accredited. A long cable run can add hundreds more, especially if it needs to run underground. OTOH if you have a garage with power or an outside socket, you might not need anything.

[@manneedstuff9762]

Looking at this fantastic video 9 months later and the new 34p/pkwh uk energy cap, repeating Rorys calculations takes the leaf to 12.36p per mile(if you ignore charging loses and inefficiency etc) for my sins I drive a 2014 focus 1.6tdci (worth a similar value to the leaf £4kish) for my 41mile commute, the same era/shape as the petrol (ecoboost) model Rory compared against which does 58mpg. Based on the huge fuel increase diesel is currently £1.789 per litre in the UK (a couple of months ago this was £1.99 per litre) making this 14p per mile hence the leaf at 12.36p with the diesel focus only costing £20 per year for road tax , the currently energy "crisis" is literally going to stop any world progress on going green , with zero range anxiety of the diesel it doesn't make sense, without spending £35-£40k on a newer more efficient EV of which the depreciation or lease cost would far exceed the extra 2p per mile it's just ridiculous

[@EVinstructor]

To make the calculation of EV fuel costs easier you can use the miles per kW figure for the car. Much like the miles per gallon for fossil cars. I’ve owned a MK1 Leaf and now a MK2. Their average consumption is a little more than 4 miles per kW. At this figure your 7p kW electricity will be 1.75p per mile. I have managed to get to well over 5 miles per kW but I do train Eco driving techniques. From what I know of the Skoda it’s less efficient than a Leaf so would be lower than 4 miles per kW. A Leaf has buffers in the battery so never uses its full capacity, I think the 24kW was 21kW useable. Also yours has lost a few battery bars so is not charging to that capacity. It might only be holding 16 to 18 kW. If this is factored into the calculations your cost per mile will be less. For most EV owners rapid charging is rare. To bundle a monthly subscription into the charge cost for a single charge is slightly misleading. If you regularly used that charger then you’d pay a subscription and spread the cost over multiple charges, however, you’d avoid it for a single charge. A much more representative cost is 30p/kW, which you find at the Gridserve chargers at motorway services, or the excellent Instavolt network which is quite high at 45p/kW. 7.5p and 11.25p per mile respectively for a Leaf. My car is my driving school and personal car so all the costs of running it are in my accounts. The Leaf saves £2,000 a year on fuel and servicing compared to my last fossil car, a Toyota hybrid, when petrol was about £1.25 a litre. My regular electricity is 13p kW and I do 20,000 miles a year.

[@davek5839]

Yes thought that if his leaf only has about a 60 mile range then it's not getting the full charge it did when it was new. Better to use a public charger and charge the car from flat, this will show how many Kwh it's taken to charge.

[@dirtjumper23]

presumably your students end up with an automatic only licence? given the transition to EVs (and certainly away from manual cars) over the next decade or so, I'm guessing this doesn't put them off?

[@EVinstructor]

@@dirtjumper23 I’ve been teaching automatic for 16 years. It used to be difficult to make a living in auto. However in recent years demand for automatic lessons has become very, very high. The demographic of pupils has shifted and most of my pupils are now younger and can’t be bothered with gears.

[@leftyamazed]

I was recently trying to work out purely the fuel costs. I have a 12 year old diesel Qashqai. It does 10 miles for each litre of fuel, so it costs 15p a mile. I am thinking about a MG ZS, which does about 3-4 miles per KWh. I can't charge at home, so I would be relying on public chargers, my local being a 45p KWh Instavolt. This would mean the difference in fuel costs would be not be that great at 12p a mile. I know it isn't truly representative and varies according to a number of factors. For the record, I will be going EV when I can afford to do so, but it is worth stating that like the stats for anything, there are so many variables, it is always possible to find results to support any agenda.

[@Youtubedotcomma]

I know you factored in road tax as a cost but also very strongly to consider servicing costs on a EV compare to ice

[@donaldespeut2042]

Don't even go there as there will be many heart attacks.

[@EVinstructor]

Nissan Leaf service is £159 minor or £229 major at a Nissan dealer. Every 18,000 miles or annually. Apart from the fact they throw in a year of breakdown cover it amounts to an expensive pollen filter change to maintain the warranty. The major also includes brake fluid change. They seem to be trying to preserve their service revenues.

[@NickFoster]

@@EVinstructor And the Tesla Model 3 doesn't have a fixed service interval but they suggest you get the pollen filter changed and the brake fluid checked every two years. Even if you do annual brake lubrication it's going to be way less than a full service on my old Prius.

[@jeffzekas]

Here in America, where you live makes a big difference as to the cost of electricity, for instance, here in Oregon, we had cheap hydroelectric power, whereas in Arizona they use coal power which is much more expensive

[@MrPWalden]

Your calculations are well off. Your battery on that leaf will absolutely not take 24kwh anymore, I’d guess 18 at best. My leaf does 4miles/kWh in winter and 4.8 - 5 miles/kWh in summer. So on your night rate that’s 1.75p per mile in the winter and around 1.4p per mile in summer.

[@jarthurs]

The 24kWh never took 24kWh, a factory fresh one had a maximum capacity of 21.7kWh. The gross battery size is not the same as the useable capacity.

[@GadgetFrank71]

His leaf has a range of 66 miles left so the battery is degraded down to 7 or 8 bars. So the capacity goes down to about 14 kWh I think. I also don't understand why a monthly fee is added to every charge session. That assumes you will only charge 1 time per month away from home. Is that realistic???

[@MrPWalden]

@@GadgetFrank71 not at all. You don’t have to pay that fee to use the chargers. It’s just the cost per unit it slightly higher if you are not a member. Unless you are a very high mileage user it is unlikely to be worth paying the membership fee.

[@sherrjo]

Excellent video. I know you kept it simple to avoid topics like battery loss during charging and heating the car in winter or cooling in summer. But its still cheaper. As soon as EV cars cost the same as petrol I'll by one.

[@Brian-om2hh]

so what's stopping you? There are already new EV's priced around the same as similarly sized petrol cars........

[@mjosmoo]

Why would you a full month’s membership cost to a single charging session? If you signed up for membership you would like be using the services several times a month. This calculation is right off

[@AutoTraderTV]

********UPDATE********: We used the original 24kWh battery capacity as the basis for these calculations to keep the calculations simple, as we currently do not know the exact remaining capacity of the battery. As some of you have expressed an interest in the exact capacity (which will affect the calculations slightly) we're going to try to get this number for you and update it in a pinned comment. We'll also edit the video to remove an error in the ESB cost per mile calculation (pending). Thanks for watching! -Rory

[@tomgoodall1609]

Love you video Rory. Battery capacity should not matter in you calculations only miles per kwh. If an ev does an average of 4 miles per kwh at 5p per kwh its 1.2p per mile. I think your leaf has about 16kwh of usable battery.

[@ConstantGeekery]

Can you tell me which UK provider is giving you electric at £0.14 per kWh???

[@pulith5220]

When u zero out and charge again u can see how much was charged back in. Also if you used leafspy you would be able to know the exact SOH then it's a matter of calculating the battery capacity.

[@MarkSmith-km2fw]

For some context, Rory bought the Leaf for £4695. The cheapest 2012 1.0 ecoboost Ford Focus on Autotrader right now is £3695. So you'd break even in under a year of ownership, assuming charging at home. That's actually better than I was expecting, assuming of course that you can live with the downsides of an EV for now.

[@ewadge]

We run two cars in my family, one being an EV. In a two car household it makes a ton of sense. Also this year alone I’ve spent €2,000 replacing a clutch and diesel pump plus labour on my diesel Ford Focus. Honestly I can’t wait to get rid of it and get another EV.

[@kristoffer3000]

If you get a econetic diesel Focus they do a real world 60mpg and you can actually use them unlike the Leaf.

[@bytemark6508]

A great video as always. I only need to comment on the idea that EVs are only for people who can charge at home. Ideally, as you also pointed out, they should be charged at home. That makes a world of difference. But for those people who have no way of doing that, there should be an improvement in infrastructure. In Canada we have huge shopping malls and in those big parking lots there are starting to install EV chargers. I see different rates of charging, but there is an interest from the private companies to add more of them, powered by solar pannels. This will potentially reduce the rate, or even make them free (maybe L2). I know a few of the L2 public chargers to be around $1/hour, at 11kw. Also, before I forget, don't forget that there are losses on charging. Not significant at lower current, but at DC (fast chargers) you will actually spend more energy to fill up the battery than the capacity, I believe the test showed that around 90% efficiency is what should one expect. Still, your point about EVs vs ICE cars stands.

[@tavirosu25]

What the video ignores is in certain cities when you charge your car, you are also parked, for free. In certain cities, like Paris for example, you save A LOT in parking fee from that as well! For example: 2-5 euro per hour is common price...

[@leeneal6969]

Remember we live in a country where we have homes that are older than your civilisation. So the infrastructure just cannot be upgraded there, we have something called terraced housing (and alot of it) and if you live there it will be impossible to charge an EV. Not to mention the tower blocks we have all over the world. How are they meant to charge?

[@christhompson4630]

It's not impossible to charge an EV at terraced housing. Some terraced houses have driveways. Infrastructure can be upgraded it's just a matter of whether central government, local government and property corporations are willing to put in the work (and money) to do so. Charging stations can be installed into car parks whether that be in the towers car park or a workplace car park. Some shopping centre car parks have retrofitted chargers in them so it is possible. With current battery technology and charging infrastructure it would be impractical for those who live in towers or don't have access to off street parking to buy an EV but as technology improves (eg solid state batteries) and battery power density and charging rates increase EVs will be little different in terms of range to an ICE car and if your car is sitting outside with 300mi+ range in it there won't be any necessity for people to charge at home as you can just go to a charging station as and when you need it exactly the same way you go to a petrol station. Obviously it would be better to have at home charging but that's just going to be another way where it's expensive to be poor in this country.

[@leeneal6969]

@@christhompson4630 how many Victorian terrace houses have driveways? . Who will pay for all this infrastructure to be fitted, what about the carbon footprint of that works being done. This isn't an easy thing, the media would have you think if we all go to EV the world would be better...

[@zaphodsbluecar9518]

Hey Rory, you need to factor in the heat/inefficiency losses when charging - you only get around 90% of the power that leaves the wall and ends up in you Leaf - so that 2.5p is more like 2.8p. Shocking, I know! 😎 I've owned an EV for a couple of years now, and can't see myself going back... Great video BTW!

[@ryan3730]

I got a 2017 30Kw leaf and almost always charge at home. Yeah about £200 / year in fuel (electric). My brother has the the same car and solar panels and he rides around for free from April until September. There are plenty of outside chargers that don’t need a subscription and I have occasionally used them… Normally £5 to max out the battery (give me 115 miles). One of the negatives is motorway driving. Driving twice as fast is 4 times aerodynamic drag (4 times the energy). I was going somewhere 100 miles away and had 115 mile range. Somehow I had to charge halfway. I looked it up later and realised what happened. It seems fine around 40-60mph but as soon as you are going 70mph half you range to be safe. My car was older and cheaper and the newer car have 240 miles plus as standard. Watch out for the motorway driving. Peace.

[@FirstDan2000]

Great exposition. Although my favourite bit of the video is seeing the Skoda flashing its lights at the camera operator.

[@neo017431]

24kWh battery doesn't translate to 24kWh of electricty to charge as there is a loss while charging, I thought you were going to tell us the real world cost of charging which needs to include the extra lost kW/W. Seen it on Bjorn Nyland once when he charged from battery to battery and lost almost 50%, would be interesting to know from home electricity supply to battery.

[@SDK2006b]

Charging losses from a home charger is probably 2 kWh worst case scenario for this leaf - that's 14 pence !!!

[@JackMott]

Level 2 charging at home the efficiency is not 100% but close enough for this kind of napkin math.

[@graemethorne677]

Nice one Rory, explaining EVs for the lay man. Keep up the good work 👍

[@clairehiggins7120]

The government needs to look at ways to achieve charging cost polarity, it shouldn’t cost someone more money to charge the car because they can’t afford to have a driveway. So many people live in flats, terrier houses and other properties that don’t have the luxury of a driveway. Maybe the government could force the car companies to pay for improvements to the charging network and allowing electricity companies to sell the power at charging stations at the same price per unit as residential power. Something needs to be done to improve access and cost.

[@TsLeng]

Never gonna happen. People who can't charge at home are doubly screwed.

[@veedubgeezer]

Kinda over simplified, but a good way to compare like for like. How often will you be using the rapid chargers to charge from empty to full? If you're paying the standing fee for a provider, I'd assume you'd tend to hunt them out to spread the cost of the subscription across the month/a number of charges. I am on-board with EVs, but the cost to change is currently too high for someone of my means.

[@nurburg924s]

Great video Rory, really enjoying following your journey in EV Land. Perhaps a video showing the leaf spy app paired with an OBD dongle would be interesting to people? Explaining further how traction battery’s work, charge and degrade. We now own 2 leafs (24 and 40kwh) and although I have had many emotional connections to my cars over the years, BMW, Porsche, Renault, Land Rover etc, I love my leaf x

[@youtubed9695]

Wow excellent content!! Before your information on EV cars I'd completely discounted ever buying one but now I MIGHT consider one 🤷‍♂️

[@MrFatknacker]

Great video Rory - there are “free” public charging points especially at shopping centres, but these tend to be slower AC units and also you are normally limited as to how many hours you can park up + they tend to be in heavy demand (or ICE’d) during busier times. Also “free” is a bit mythical if you are stuck at a shopping centre for several hours on an AC charger 🤔

[@solentbum]

You are not stuck for several hours, you only plug in for the time that you are shopping as normal, you simply 'Top Up' . I normally 'top up' when I go for a meal in a town near to me, I'm there for about two hours, which adds over 40 miles to my 'tank' of fuel. The charging time involved is around 40 seconds (30 seconds to plug in and start the charge, 10 seconds to unplug)

[@ChrisBigBad]

@@solentbum Yes. and: The leaf will only charge at 3.7KW (1 phase x 16A, typically for a Japanese car) while the rates on your car suggests the more European 3-phase 16A = 11kw. So sadly, the Leaf with the shot battery will benefit less from AC-charging, while it also relies more on it. However, DC charging - when available (on the socket - dying Chademo - and the car - yes some Leafs came without the Chademo plug) - is quite fast (45kw on lower percents, 10kw on the last percents to full)

[@Ashley-cr4ow]

Idk in Canada where I live all the public chargers are free and charge fast. I thought they were doing that in most places as an incentive to drive electric

[@whocares264]

Great video charge at home at 5p per kwh off peak ,,,avoid public charging get a long range EV the savings on fuel petrol/diesel could pay your lease...

[@lucasbryszewski5056]

Great video. I have just one issue. Energy price you mentioned is outdated. It is nearly impossible to find 14p per kWh. My energy cost is 35p per kWh which giving £8.40 per 24 kWh. This is equal to 0.12 p per mile. It is still cheaper then petrol car but not as much as you calculation

[@newtagwhodis4535]

This was a huge help! You make absolutely incredible content, my friend. Keep up the great work!

[@athollmcnicoll1028]

Up here in Scotland there is a charge service that states, it costs £20 per year subscription and for that charging is FREE. Now that is unconfirmed but if true then I need to consider what my next car should be. Maybe a Fiat 500 e?

[@jtubeist]

Worked out that my car costs about 1.25p per mile to charge. (5p per kWh between 12:30am and 4:30am and I get about 4 miles per kWh). Even cheaper when the sun is out and I get to charge for free.

[@mattt198654321]

In my part of the USA the electric grid is deregulated and you can purchase very very cheap power by the hour overnight. When I charge my LEAF at home, I pay between 2-5 cents/KWH and sometimes even less. Public charging stations are another story however...highway robbery.

[@dingikhumalo8666]

This has become my favourite channel is 👌🏿 quality content

[@knoxieman]

I've had Leaf's since 2013, 5p per kWh to charge on octopus night time tarrif, I've a 6kw charger in the car, takes 3 hours to charge the car on my drive, it charges at a time set by me in the car, so it's 85p call it a pound and for that I can drive a comfortable 70 miles so less than 1p per mile, I don't know of any petrol car that can do that and if I charge using my solar panels in the summer you can half that again.

[@Twinguin]

Bottom line, an EV is a good 2nd car to the Stang: the Stang for the joy rides and the EV for the daily run.

[@antiseth3964]

Yup. Couldn’t imagine owning an EV right now unless I had a gas car right next to it.

[@solentbum]

@@antiseth3964 The only reason I have a gas car is I cannot put a tow bar on my LEAF.

[@gavinderbyshire5535]

I think its worth noting that the electric recharge costs are the same for nearly all electric models i.e. A Tesla model 3 performance with a 0-60 of 3.2 seconds if driven normally costs the same to run as the leaf if not a little better, your Mustang would have cost a lot more to run than your focus but the performance was as different. The point being you can still take advantage of 2.5p a mile driving cost if you drive a Leaf or Porsche Taycan you cannot with fossil fuels...

[@paul_null]

I think the leaf is probably closer in efficiency to the Skoda than you think. You are not taking into account that you probably only have 15kwh of battery left in that leaf due to degradation.

[@FrayAdjacentTX]

Factor in inefficiencies. When I had a Chevy Volt and an L2 charger, it would consume 12kWh to put about 10.5kWh into the battery.

[@DjDolHaus86]

One thing that is probably worth noting is that as more people start charging overnight the concept of 'off peak' will disappear and energy prices in general will climb rapidly as the energy grid is put under greater strain. Obviously this isn't something that should really affect your decision as it will almost certainly always be cheaper than fossil fuels are currently (relative to inflation) but this honeymoon period of it being super cheap won't last forever.

[@loading418]

Good point actually. It is hard to charge at house if u are renting a house or live inside an apartment.

[@ewadge]

That is very true. I’ve run an EV without access to home charging for two years. It is possible but it can be a pain sometimes.

[@Kimbrough87]

I own a Hyundai ioniq electric and I love it Nissan has installed level 3 chargers and they are completely free so I don't pay to drive my vehicle at all 🤑 and I'm a Uber driver and also my car has a lifetime warranty on the battery pack which is only for the first owner

[@crystallsex]

Just wanted to point out that you also save money for oil change that is supposed to be done two times a year. EV doesn’t need oil change.

[@francistaylor5097]

Brilliant explanation, Rory. Thanks. An EV is still beyond my budget but hopefully not for too much longer.

[@himanshuagrawal6767]

really good video. This clear so many doubts and gave us the perfect math while we consider to buy an EV

[@seanhomar5945]

So all those people who don't have off road parking and can't charge from home will see higher charging costs. And as soon as majority of cars on road are EV the cost of electric per kwh will increase and government will likely create a tax per mile to recover lost revenue from tax on fuel.

[@TsLeng]

Yes. Very curious to see how this plays out. Basically it's a golden time for wealthier people to save some money now. But if you can't charge at home, you fucked basically. Not quite but all these savings are not so applicable.

[@Brian-om2hh]

A system of road tolls is to replace lost fuel duty once the EV tipping point is reached. They cannot realistically just bang it onto the cost of electricity, because it would wreck the economy. Just think what it would do to manufacturing industry alone. A wrecked economy benefits nobody..... And remember, if the cost of electricity is hugely increased, then the cost of petrol and diesel goes up as well. Oil refineries use *lots* of electricity!

[@johnkeepin7527]

@@Brian-om2hh Or they might have a go at variable VAT rates depending on the meter used, if it’s equipped with “smart meter” kit, so they could charge more on that compared with domestic demand; the faster you charge, the more tax you pay, perhaps. And if you’re rich and have a large roof with solar PV, it could be tax free! After all, at the moment the charge prices at well known petrol chain places charge about the same price as petrol/diesel fuel taking account of engine efficiency per unit thermal (petrol’s about 9.7 kWh thermal, divide by 3 for most modern engines etc). The other thing they might do is to put road tax back on EVs, like they did recently on other cars when the zero rate for less than 100 g/km CO2 emission was abolished.

[@Brian-om2hh]

@@johnkeepin7527 If they go down the route of legislating to fit meters to people's home chargers John, many EV owners, me included, would simply charge their cars using a normal 3 pin domestic socket. Sure, that might only add around 20 miles of range overnight, but that would be enough to get me - and probably lots of others - to work and back the following day. Plus there are 7 nights in a week. How on earth could they know you hadn't sat up all night watching TV, or spent the night roasting a load of chickens. Neither is illegal. And if they did go down this road, I'm sure more people would go the solar panel route. They can't easily tax electricity produced by solar unless they can offer an assurance the sun would shine on X number of days a year....

[@kurtgainz]

Start buying solar panels now

[@RWoody1995]

The battery is 22kWh Rory! 24kWh is including the buffer that you cannot access! Also, surprised you got 38mpg out of your 1.0L ecoboost, I have to drive quite spiritedly to get mine under 40 lol, usually 45 even with the occasional 0-60 fun :P (mixed driving not fully motorway but not fully urban either, short journeys though...) ...ok mines a fiesta with the 125ps ecoboost so slightly lighter car but wow that little bit of extra weight makes you lose almost 10mpg?

[@4hunnid584]

Been watching your channel for a while now. Great work. I know I’m not alone in this but is constructive criticism/feedback: - Please consider adding metric units (eg: on screen, at the bottom, in parêntesis). Keep up the good work.

[@sgabyss]

thank you for the info... it was great..... and WHERE IS OUR VIDEO ABOUT LEAF UPGRADES ? :)

[@gelisob]

Maybe something to mention in future. Degradation for EV means that the fuel tank "shrinks". And thats why you have less range. You dont keep butting in 24kwh and having less and less range, your "tank" shrinks and you have, in this case, around 14kwh of "tank" size left :)

[@gelisob]

I think this video needs to be remade because due to this 24kwh expected vs 14kwh real error he also made the other error of comparing to skoda and thinking that it is even cheaper mileage to run :) I suggest getting the wattmeter you can put in the socket and seeing for yourself, how many kwh goes into the car actually ;) Would make a good video too.

[@billgreen576]

Where are you getting leccy at 7 / 14 p/kwhr? And fuel is interesting but what about the biggest car owning costs, depreciation.

[@GaryJohnWalker1]

Nice 'n clear. How has the Leaf been - reliability and quirks wise? Problems because it's electric or just because it's a Nissan? For an oldish 2nd hand car, good/bad against a 2nd hand ICE car of similar vintage & class?

[@paulomesquitela9563]

Rory you used the wrong capacity on the Leaf calculations. Your Leaf does not have 24kwh., in fact it never had even when new. The 24kw is the total capacity and not the usable. The usable would only have been 21-22kwh when brand new. You need to use LeafSpy pro and a OBD2 dongle to know how much battery you actually have, but if you only managed to get 66miles of range you may only have 16kwh of usable battery. Now run the same cost numbers again with 16kwh to see if still costs as much as the Focus ;) This is the reason why the beasty Skoda Enyaq seemed more "efficient". It is important to get these numbers right as people trust you and what you say shapes people's opinions.

[@kurtgerster6864]

You're lucky in GB. Here in Germany the price for a kw/h is about 29 pence. So to fill a diesel car is cheaper than an EV.

[@widam]

Well here in Canada, public cost 1$ level 2 per hour, around 5-7 Cads for full charge, with gas.. in my other car I can spend 40Cads in gas for a week at least..

[@TomislavKoren]

I haven't seen ANY comment about forgetting to mention energy losses during charging. I know here is just simple math but you CANNOT charge 24kh of electricity to battery with 24kWh that passed the meter. You will have losses everywhere you look at, resistance is around every corner. In long term calculation you may want to include that.

[@alantaylor9331]

Well done, clear, precise & informative.