A new study by automotive data experts Cap HPI has revealed the average servicing and maintenance costs for electric cars. It shows that EVs cost, on average, 23 percent less to run than petrol vehicles over a three-year/60,000-mile period.
For smaller cars, the gap gets wider still. An electric Renault Zoe will set you back £1,100 in servicing and maintenance over three years, but a Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 90 Design costs nearly £1,500. That’s more than 35 percent extra.
The Nissan Leaf, currently the best-selling EV in the UK, costs just under £1,200 over three years. Compare that to the VW Golf 1.0 TSI at £1,429 and you’re staring at a saving of nearly 20 percent.
The number of electric vehicles on the road has jumped by 128 percent over the past three years, with more than 21,000 drivers taking the leap between April 2015 and April 2018. Purchasing costs are still notably higher than a comparable petrol-powered car, but servicing is where you can potentially claw that back.
As for the most popular EVs, the Nissan Leaf leads the BMW i3, Volkswagen e-Golf and Renault Zoe in the sales charts.
“An electric car motor has far fewer moving parts than a petrol or diesel engine” said Chris Plumb, senior valuations editor at Cap HPI.
“While the purchase price is often higher at the moment, but coming down all the time, drivers will find an EV much cheaper to run, with significantly lower costs to charge rather than visiting the pumps – plus lower maintenance costs.”