An electric car and a petrol car were compared to see which was cheapest to run (stock) (Image: Getty)
Electric cars are an increasingly common sight on the UK’s roads with recent data from the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) showing a gradual uptick in new vehicle registrations. This has been happening for some time and it means, over 10 years on from the start of the electric car renaissance, there are lots of them on the used car market.
This means you can now pick up an electric car for as little as £10,000; one which is of similar size to a petrol car. With this in mind, a journalist from car buying website Carwow compared two electric cars which can be bought for as little as £10,000 and tried to find out which one was cheapest to run.
A Renault Clio (Image: Getty)
Which cars did they compare?
The two cars chosen were made by the same company, in this case Renault. The petrol car was the popular Renault Clio which went up against its electric equivalent, the Renault Zoe.
How did they work out which was the cheapest?
The journalist in question, one Jamie Edkins, explained he would take into account a “30,000-mile ownership period” as well as the costs of servicing the cars, filling them up, and their respective depreciation.
Who won?
This is where it gets interesting. After everything was taken into account, the final total for the electric Zoe was £8,001 and £10,178 for the Clio. However, this was if the Zoe was charged up at the owner’s house.
The figure for the Zoe rose to £10,444, higher than the Clio, if the car was charged from a public charger. As a result, this demonstrates the importance, and the difference, where charging one’s car can make.
This was reflected in Jamie’s conclusion in which he explained that the Zoe was a “great buy” if one could charge their car at home.
A Renault Zoe (Image: Getty)
How popular are used electric cars?
Carwow’s assessment of a used electric car comes just weeks after data showed a massive increase in the number of used electric cars changing hands, with data from the SMMT showing 2,009,318 vehicles moving between owners. Contributing to this has been a rise in the cost of filling up a petrol car, due to oil prices skyrocketing as a result of America’s war with Iran.
Said popularity of used electric cars has not gone unnoticed, with director of editorial content at CarGurus Chris Knapman telling the Telegraph that some cars had actually increased in value on the used car market.
He explained: “While it remains the case that not everybody wants to switch to electric, interest has grown to the point where a handful of models have done something very unusual on the used car market and actually increased in value.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the models whose average listing prices on CarGurus have grown are all long-range EVs, with battery capacities that allow for 200-plus miles between charges.”
