What are the pros and cons of electric cars?

If you haven’t bought one already, you may be considering an electric car. Recent advances in battery technology and greater choice mean EVs have become a realistic proposition for many people.

At Motoring Electric, we think the pros are starting to outweigh the cons when it comes to buying or leasing an electric car. However, these vehicles won’t suit everyone, as the following guide explains.

We have compiled a list of the advantages and disadvantages of owning an electric car. Read on to decide if the time is right to leave petrol or diesel behind.

The advantages of an electric car

No tailpipe emissions

All electric cars offer zero tailpipe emissions. In fact, they don’t have a tailpipe). This is great for local air quality, particularly in cities.

While a considerable amount of energy is required to build a car, and electricity is used to recharge the batteries (which may also create emissions, depending on the source), research shows EVs are less polluting overall than traditional combustion-engined cars.

Lower running costs

An electric car should be cheaper to run than a petrol or diesel equivalent. Energy prices are quite volatile, so making comparisons isn’t easy. Some energy companies offered cost calculators, but many have removed them from their websites.

However, a typical family EV should cost less than half as much per mile to drive as a combustion car – provided you charge at home and take advantage of off-peak rates.

If you rely solely on public charging points, the relative costs will be much closer. Indeed, some public rapid chargers are no cheaper than filling up with petrol.

No road tax… for now

Drivers of electric cars are also exempt from paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, also known as annual road tax) until 2025.

All zero-emission electric cars are VED-exempt, regardless of how much they cost to buy. This is in marked contrast to combustion cars, which may attract the hefty ‘Expensive Car Supplement’ in the first year, plus an additional £355 a year for the following five years, if their list price is above £40,000.

More technology

Manufacturers are investing heavily in electric cars, so you could have access to technology that is missing from other vehicles. For example, it might be possible to pre-heat the car’s cabin from your smartphone before you set off, which will be handy on a cold morning.

Buy a Tesla and you’ll be able to play video games and make rude parping noises via the touchscreen, too. Whatever floats your boat… 

Government incentives

At one time, the UK goverment was offering £3,500 towards the cost of buying an EV through the Plug-in Car Grant. This incentive decreased steadily over the years and has now been withdrawn altogether. However, you can still get help towards the cost of installing a home charger.

Under the EV chargepoint grant, people who live in flats or rented properties can claim back up to 75 percent of the cost of a fitted home charging point – up to a maximum of £350. You also need a private, off-street parking space outside your property.

Live in a house or have a mortgage on your property? Unfortunately, you are not eligible. Electric car incentives aren’t what they used to be…

Instant performance

All EVs offer smooth and immediate acceleration thanks to the ever-ready torque of electric motors. As a result, they feel particularly rapid in towns and cities, often providing a dizzying level of off-the-line pace. Take the Tesla Model S, which can potentially sprint to 60mph in just 2.4 seconds – quick enough to leave many of the best supercars behind.

Even the more affordable electric cars feel rapid. The Vauxhall Corsa Electric can dash to 60mph in a brisk 7.6 seconds, for example.

Quieter than a conventional car

Once you’ve experienced the serenity of an electric car, you’ll find it hard to return to the noise of a petrol or diesel engine. It’s not totally silent – you still hear some wind, tyre and road noise, pus the faint whine of the motor – but an electric car is generally easier and more relaxing to drive.

Cheaper to maintain

With fewer moving parts, an electric car should be cheaper to maintain than a petrol or diesel vehicle. You can kiss goodbye to changing the oil, spark plugs, belts, coolant, air filters and transmission oil.

However, you will still need to visit a garage for replacement tyres, brakes, lights, windscreen wipers, tracking adjustment, suspension and cabin filtration.

Access to towns and cities

The introduction of Clean Air Zones (CAZ) signals a new era of penalties for driving a polluting vehicle in a town or city. At the very least, electric cars will be exempt from payment, but you could find that EVs are soon the only vehicles welcome in some urban environments. Buying an EV is thus a way to future-proof your motoring.

The feelgood factor

Finally, there’s the feelgood factor of doing your bit for the environment. By driving an electric car, you’ll be helping to improve local air quality, which will do wonders for your image. Just look at all the companies switching to electric vans to boost their environmental credentials.

The disadvantages of an electric car

Charging points

At last count, according to Zap Map, there are nearly 100,000 charging connectors in the UK. The government wants to ensure that nobody is further than 30 miles from a rapid charging station by 2025.

However, the number of EVs on the road has been increasing much faster than the number of charging points. And there’s no doubt that some areas of the country aren’t as well served as major cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester. Yes, the network is growing all the time, but so is the demand, meaning queues to charge aren’t uncommon.

If you arrive at a charging point to discover that it’s already in use, it could cause a significant delay to your journey. By contrast, if there is somebody at the petrol pump, you will only have to wait a few minutes.

Lastly, if a charging point is out of service or you can’t connect for some reason (many of us have been there), you could be left stranded.

Charging time

As above, charging an electric car will inevitably take longer than filling a petrol or diesel car with fuel. Although some EVs can be recharged to 80 percent in as little as 20 minutes using a rapid charger, you should allow up to an hour.

If you’re charging at home using a domestic socket, an overnight fill-up is the most realistic option. A full charge using a 3kW unit could take between six and 12 hours.

It requires a change in mindset. In the same way we’ve become accustomed to charging a smartphone, you’ll need to do the same with an electric car. If you charge a car overnight, you’ll wake up with a fully charged battery. If possible, you could leave the car on charge while you’re at work.

EV range anxiety

Some people struggle to come to terms with range anxiety. This is the fear of not reaching your destination without charging up. If you get flustered when your smartphone battery drops below 60 percent, you might struggle with an electric car.

As battery technology advances, range concerns are likely to become a thing of the past. Typically, you can expect anything between 200 and 400 miles from a new electric car, but a few are capable of even more.

Not strictly zero-emissions

Even the most ardent supporter of electric cars would have to concede that they’re only zero emissions at the point of use. A great deal of energy is consumed during the manufacturing of the car, and there’s also the issue of the electricity used during the charging process.

However, if the electricity is sourced using renewable sources (such as wind, hydro and solar), the environmental argument against electric cars becomes weaker. And the balance has started to shift.

The cost of buying one

For the time being at least, electric cars are relatively expensive. Your cheapest options tend to be electric vehicles based on the architecture of conventional cars, such as the Peugeot e-208.

Let’s use the Hyundai Kona Electric, pictured above, as an example. At £34,995, it’s nearly £9,000 more expensive than a basic Kona, and almost £5,000 more than the flagship Kona Ultimate. Once you get into the realms of premium brands such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Porsche, electric motoring gets very expensive.

Driving dynamics

Finally, although they’re very quick and wonderfully quiet, most EVs struggle to compete with conventional cars when it comes to driving fun. They’re simply too heavy to feel agile when cornering, while the weight of the batteries can make for a rather lumpy ride.

There are exceptions to the rule. The Porsche Taycan is genuinely rewarding to drive, for example, while the Tesla Model 3 is a very capable all-rounder. And a new generation of electric sports cars is on the way.