Electric cars are cheaper to own than petrol cars

Electric cars are cheaper to own over their whole lifetime according to new research. Even including the sometimes high initial purchase cost of electric models, they are more cost effective than their petrol equivalents over the long term, but the difference isn’t huge.

The average total cost of buying a new electric car in 2020 and driving it for just under 14 years - the average lifespan of a car - has been calculated as £52,133. Doing the same with a petrol-powered model would cost £53,625.

If you take the purchase price out of the equation, annual running costs - including refuelling/recharging, insurance, road tax, MoTs and servicing - work out at £1,742 per year for an electric car, 21 per cent less than the £2,205 you’d pay for an equivalent petrol model.

The data - which comes from Direct Line Group and is based on a comparison of five electric car models and their petrol equivalents available to buy new in 2020 - also shows annual Vehicle Excise Duty, MoT and servicing costs are 49 per cent lower on average for EVs than they are for the similar petrol models.

Recharging an EV is 58 per cent cheaper than refuelling a petrol car, but one area where petrols do tend to be cheaper, though, are insurance costs, with electric cars 25 per cent more expensive to get insurance cover on.