📋 Your most asked questions: answered.

An electric car is just a car - except that it’s not running on fuel.

Driving an EV is much like driving a traditional car except it makes no engine noise and tends to accelerate far faster.

Mechanically, they are much simpler than petrol and diesel cars too, meaning they break down less often and are easier to repair. There are far less moving parts to an EV so simply - there is less to go wrong!

Crucially, there is no CO2 is being emitted while the car is running. Instead of refuelling at a fuel station you plug it in at home or at a charger.

The myth of ‘range anxiety’ is just that - a myth. The average range of an electric car is now over 200 miles - with some cars exceeding 400.

Most car trips are between 2-3 miles and the average commuters travel 11 miles or less. This boils down to plugging in once every two weeks!

But, what about those long journeys? Well there is even a high end Mercedes coming out that can travel the length of the UK! But if traveling 600 miles or even 200 miles without stopping sounds unsustainable, then you can simply charge when you pull over for a break.

Plugging into a rapid or ultra rapid charger means that in around 20 minutes you can be driving off with a full charge, ready to complete your journey! Did we mention that you are never more than 25 miles away from a charger on a motorway? Take a look for yourself.

Wherever you want (within reason)!

The great news about going electric is that you can now refuel your car at home if you have a driveway.

Many offices and local councils are now installing street chargers and car park chargers too, so if you want to plug in for a few hours at a time - there may already be an way for you to do that without having off-street parking!

You can also use public charging points. This will be for those without a driveway or on longer trips around the country. These are found on lampposts, supermarket car parks, pay and display car parks, and motorway service stations. Some of these charging stations will let you charge your car for free, too.

Worried you won’t be able to find one? There are now over 60,000 charging points up and down the country, that’s more than the number of fuel stations already, and that number is growing! See if there is a charger near you.

No, but you may want to after reading this!

It’s important to remember that the 2035 petrol and diesel phase-out will only apply to new petrol and diesel cars.

Many people are calling it a ban on diesel and petrol cars but that simply isn’t true, as you will still be able to drive older cars after 2035.

So why bother switching? To put simply, EV drivers report better driving experiences, better acceleration, less maintenance, but most importantly - greatly reduced fuel costs.

With incentives already reducing due to prices of EVs falling, snapping up one with government assistance would set you in good stead to reap the other benefits as well as low running costs that are currently available, such as low to no tax, no fuel-duty, emission zone fee exempt, home-charger grant and much more.

As of now - many petrol cars have an EV equivalent for a similar price.

The cheapest "sensible" EV is the Dacia Spring, for just under £15k new/ £169 a month on PCP. It has a short range of 130 miles - which makes it a good city car, with 5 seats and decent boot space (as well as the usual car tech features).

Leasing a new electric car, however, is comparable with petrol and diesels already and can be done from as little as £150 a month!

On the second hand market EVs can be picked up from as little as £4,000 and as the young EV market develops, the bigger the second hand car market will get, meaning EVs will open up to a whole other market of buyers in a much bigger way.

But, that’s the upfront price, the fact is electric vehicles save the average driver around £700 a year in fuel and maintenance costs. See how much you could save by making the switch!

Yes they are!

As with any car - new vehicles tend to be more reliable than those that have come before them.

The average petrol or diesel engine has around 200 parts, an EV can have less than 17. So simply, there is much less that can go wrong, so we can add less time at the mechanics as a bonus as well!

Things like idling in a traffic jam with wipers and lights on is not going to cost you many miles, if any. Heating or A/C’s will reduce your range in a similar way to how fuel consumption increases by around 10% when the AC is on.

Don’t be fooled, they’re the worst of both worlds!

The reality is these cars are large and expensive (two engines) and they can only run on electric charge for 30-40 miles. Most drivers end up running them in petrol/diesel mode (70% of the time or more), which means they are carrying around a heavy, but unused battery.

They are also being phased out by 2035 at the very latest so you are buying a car that tends to be more expensive, with higher maintenance costs and a planned obsolescence date. December 2021 saw the first time sales of EVs were higher than sales of hybrids, and it promises not to be the last!

A lot less than a diesel or petrol vehicle.

Your electricity bill will go up slightly, but you’ll save far more from being free from the fuel station!

Other savings are to be had too - insurance used to come at a premium for EV drivers, it has now dropped to lower than petrol and diesel vehicles.

They are currently road tax exempt - if your car has no tailpipe - you pay nothing. If it’s a company car you currently have to pay 1% in Benefit-in-Kind.

There may be local savings to be had if you live in clean air zones where EVs are exempt. There is a lot to cash in on at the moment so see how much you could save now!