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The Reality of Buying/Living with an EV in 2025 that nobody talks about !

2 years ago I made a video about the truth of dealing with an in which I made some predictions. Time to revist the subject and see if I was ideal!

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Video Contents
00:00 – 2 Years because the last video!
01:03 – Price
04:45 – Buying a Used
08:09 – Devaluation
10:12 – Range
12:49 – AC and DC Charging
20:15 – Road Tax and Insurance Coverage

#PetrolPed # #ElectricVehicle

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Comments

51 responses to “The Reality of Buying/Living with an EV in 2025 that nobody talks about !”

  1. @edwowen Avatar
    @edwowen

    Great vid as awlays Ped. As a dedicated petrolhead, we have only recently dipped our toe in the electric water. An approved used BMW i3 for £15k. Octopus overnight charging at 7p, so around £3 or less for 160 miles. Perfect for all our local journeys. As you have pointed out, it all goes to sh*t if and when you charge out and about. 75p in a hotel the other day worked out at twice the price of petrol in an M340i! EV’s have their place. But only if you can charge at home. We have to remember that people running existing cars is always better than building a new car and mining all the minerals that are required for the batteries. We just moved from mining oil to mining other chemicals! Oh and now the i3 is going to start having to pay road tax!

    Reply
    1. @PetrolPed Avatar
      @PetrolPed

      i3 was so ahead of its time 👌

      Reply
    2. @edwowen Avatar
      @edwowen

      @@PetrolPed Yup, nothing like it now which is a shame!

      Reply
    3. @MrAjjm65 Avatar
      @MrAjjm65

      Fantastic car for its time! Carbon tub and recycled plastics went in to its manufacture, as I remember. I think BMW electric vehicles have not evolved so quickly since the i3 and i8 landed – truly revolutionary designs and manufacture….

      Reply
    4. @Lewis_Standing Avatar
      @Lewis_Standing

      This is actually very untrue.

      The carbon debt of building a new Tesla model Y vs continuing to run a petrol car breaks even after 3 years in the UK.
      Google carbon brief EV myths for the maths on that.

      Everyone can charge at home. See the governments guidelines on cross pavement solutions. Councils only able to decline if it’s dangerous. Ie you can get a firm to install a device called Kerbo charge to facilitate this.

      You’ll need your highways dept permission first but they should all be getting their heads around this ASAP. Guidelines were published at Christmas

      Reply
    5. @tonyrobinson362 Avatar
      @tonyrobinson362

      If air-conditioning stops working get it sorted straight away, Disaster looming if you dont.

      Reply
  2. @leespowart2808 Avatar
    @leespowart2808

    Great information as always, I’ve always been a massive petrol head, but converted a year ago to the family car being EV after getting an i4 m50, great car and love it for daily use, but some of these changes are likely to make me move back as it was a financial decison for me, cost to run so much cheaper than previous cars such as C43 amg estate. Items like road tax, especially lux tax as most family EVs I would want are over 40k and the BIK percentage going up so much it’s likely to make me go back to petrol, government need to think this through, also cost of public charging is crazy and lots of hassle, every time I’ve had issues with no charger, or broken.

    I’m Lucky that 95% of my trips are under 200 miles and 6p charging at home or solar, but if that wasn’t true I wouldn’t have one

    Reply
    1. @PetrolPed Avatar
      @PetrolPed

      Thanks for this 👍

      Reply
  3. @jspa8030 Avatar
    @jspa8030

    This is truly one of the most considered videos, and bits of journalism in general, I’ve seen on EV ownership.

    Reply
    1. @PetrolPed Avatar
      @PetrolPed

      Wow…thank you 🙏🏻

      Reply
    2. @kez2164 Avatar
      @kez2164

      As an EV driver of 4 years with my only car being an EV – I agree with most of your general comments and thought it was a very balanced analysis.

      However, I would say that people who cannot charge at home tend to use slower/cheaper chargers more often (e.g. 7kW chargers) to charge whilst they are at work/gym/shopping etc.. And/Or there are subscriptions which reduces the cost of charging – notably Tesla charger prices are much cheaper than the Gridserve price you quoted, so the cost per mile is lower. Also there are apps such as Co-Charge which enable EV drivers to use other people’s EV chargers on their driveway, so if your neighbour has a driveway/charger but you don’t, you can still use that EV charger, it’s a ‘hidden’ network of EV chargers.

      @petrolped You should also consider doing some interviews with Charge UK on the channel, you could ask your audience for ideas for questions?

      Reply
  4. @pillred5974 Avatar
    @pillred5974

    I would say for a great many people even £15,000 to spend on a car is beyond their reach.

    Reply
    1. @SCYorks Avatar
      @SCYorks

      Fully agree with you especially around Yorkshire were I live the average car in the road is worth less than 10 grand.

      Reply
    2. @tonyrobinson362 Avatar
      @tonyrobinson362

      ​@SCYorks Same in Notts £15,000 Plus aint funny.

      Reply
    3. @SCYorks Avatar
      @SCYorks

      @@tonyrobinson362 Sometimes
      I think these YouTubers don’t live in the real world to be blunt don’t get me wrong I’ve 9 cars myself but realize that a lot every day people as I’ve said earlier struggle with finding over 10k for a car.

      Reply
    4. @richfixescars Avatar
      @richfixescars

      They could lease a new Leaf from £175 a month

      Reply
    5. @macweegie Avatar
      @macweegie

      ford fiesta, one of the best selling cars in the uk, cheapest entry level car was almost 19k before they stopped making them. Affordability means different things to different people. A brand new car is never cheap regardless of it being petrol or electric

      Reply
  5. @neilrwilliams218 Avatar
    @neilrwilliams218

    Interesting video, but I’ve got a few notes:
    EV3 is 400V architecture and £36k for the 375 mile WLTP range.
    The penny per mile calculation seems to be more like 2p per mile, making the Gridserve pricing 10-12 times the price, still a significant difference, but not the 20x suggested.

    Reply
    1. @johnbaker5533 Avatar
      @johnbaker5533

      Yeah a simple it is 7p a kWh to 79p kWh is not 20 times more. +gridserve is on the expensive end of charging.

      Reply
    2. @rogerfinch7651 Avatar
      @rogerfinch7651

      Jump on a Tesla charger and it’s 40p but they only run 400V anyway (so not fast for the EV6/9 or Porsche)

      Reply
  6. @workman122 Avatar
    @workman122

    People are deluded if they think the “low cost home charging” can continue along with tax incentives to buy EV’s. Haven’t you heard the UK is nearly bankrupt, you think a government will just allow all that tax revenue from fossil fuel to be lost. After the honeymoon /honeytrap period all that revenue will be raked back somehow from the then increasing EV owners.

    Reply
    1. @rogerfinch7651 Avatar
      @rogerfinch7651

      There aren’t any incentives now for home owners. Best not think about the amount the petrol companies make in profit while claiming subsidies from the same ‘bankrupt’ government!

      Reply
    2. @TheVedabuss Avatar
      @TheVedabuss

      @@workman122I think you are right so adopt early and bag the benefits while you can, I haven’t paid road tax in 3 years, and running costs are a fraction of when I was driving a diesel. This will end at some point, as it must, but I have really benefitted from this incentivised period so getting an EV was real smart.

      Reply
    3. @DrDave_63395 Avatar
      @DrDave_63395

      The reason for cheap ‘EV’ tariffs is to use energy when there is surplus electricity. I’ve seen Octopus charge my car in early evening rather than over night. It’s even charged during the day this summer. I was still paid the EV rate however.

      Reply
  7. @markgeezey1809 Avatar
    @markgeezey1809

    I from the UK but live in Sweden and I have to say I am a big petrol head after being fortunate to own a number of nice ICE cars. However after owning two EV’s, now EV6 GT my latest. I think arguably I would never go back. I think the biggest issue in Blighty is firstly the charging network and secondly the huge amount of false information you hear and especially about battery degradation, charging and reliability.
    Living in the Nordics we don’t have the same feeling. Actually far from it and in the likes of Norway it is almost all EV’s being bought. In no way do I have any issues travelling around Sweden or actually in to Europe and remember Sweden is a big country. So if the UK got its act together on charging and a lot of the media stopped being negative. Then i think the up take would be huge. Just to put it into context Rory Reid borrowed an old Tesla modelS which had been a taxi and had over 400,000mls on it and was still working fine. I think in the UK you have a great advantage currently as prices much cheaper for you guys on second hand EV’s and should take advantage of it. 🤔. Plus not to forget on longer journeys you want a piss/food break and the car certainly has finished before I have. We have a lot of 350kw chargers over here so on cars like mine it is stupidly quick and then there is Tesla superchargers, which is now open to all cars. So charging for me on long journeys is never a consideration. Plus remember the more public chargers there are hopefully the more competitive it becomes price wise??
    Also many companies now specialising in battery cell replacement and therefore less need for insurance companies to write them off. And unfortunately don’t get me going on what China will be bringing over soon, I think people will be staggered?

    But great sum up Ped and a good even balance that is more realistic. 👍

    Reply
    1. @johnbaker5533 Avatar
      @johnbaker5533

      The public charging has been an issue but it Is going much better now. For decent 150kW+ chargers we have over 7000 now from 1700 2 years or 4 times as many. I expect another 5000 this year.
      We will be getting the Chinese stuff some no EU tax on them here.

      Reply
    2. @markgeezey1809 Avatar
      @markgeezey1809

      @@johnbaker5533regardless of the EU taxes they are certainly becoming more popular here. Especially considering how the level of quality has gotten over the last 2-3 years. You can understand why not many German EV’s especially, are not selling in China and particularly if they are 3/4 times more expensive but not that much better in quality. Looking at some of the latest Zeekr stuff, (who by the way the parent company Geely, own Lotus, Volvo, Polestar) are bringing out some really nice cars. Good the UK is improving as certainly having many more 150-350kw charges is in all honesty the key to stop people worrying about range anxiety or time charging. Obviously the irony is the vast amount of time most people travel less than 200mls on a daily basis. 🤷🏻

      Reply
    3. @titibobo2000 Avatar
      @titibobo2000

      Recently I saw a video of an enormous queue of weekend skiers with their Teslas, waiting for charging in some small town in Sweden, all of them on their way back home. They were just sitting there with their cars, along the streets, helpless.

      Reply
    4. @hunchanchoc8418 Avatar
      @hunchanchoc8418

      @@titibobo2000 Yes – 20 chargers, all occupied and in use, thus dramatically reducing the quoted output from the chargers, thus taking longer to charge. And the queue was at least 50 cars long, with more joining. All probably running their heaters, because the outside temperature was about minus 15 celcius.

      Reply
    5. @markgeezey1809 Avatar
      @markgeezey1809

      @@titibobo2000i can guarantee that is not the norm. Usually these small ski resorts are limited as middle of nowhere and probably during a busy skiing period. Hence why so many EV’s sold here.

      Reply
  8. @ikke12345 Avatar
    @ikke12345

    In the cost of charging versus petrol there is (for now) also the excise duty on petrol that you don’t have when charging at home. I suspect when the revenu of the excises on petrol will begin to drop, an excise duty on electricity used for charging ev’s will make it’s apearance (including when charging at home!)

    Reply
    1. @johnnodge4327 Avatar
      @johnnodge4327

      Putting fuel duty on home charging would be difficult to achieve. Especially if the home owner has solar and battery, so can effectively charge with zero power from the grid .

      Reply
    2. @rogerfinch7651 Avatar
      @rogerfinch7651

      They charge 20% vat on public charging and 5% on home electric. They won’t know how to charge you more for your EV at home, as it’s combined. What if you have solar too? No chance ..

      Reply
    3. @grahamatsea3575 Avatar
      @grahamatsea3575

      And that’s why they want people on smart meters!

      Reply
  9. @s10lucky Avatar
    @s10lucky

    Great video Pete and you’ve absolutely nailed it. I wouldn’t consider my Tesla if I couldn’t have the convenience of charging at home. Also your point about benefits being withdrawn is spot on too. 👍. Interestingly my insurance for my 3 performance came down £300 this year.

    Reply
  10. @johntrinick712 Avatar
    @johntrinick712

    The other issue you didn’t raise with the charging network is that in my part of the country, most public chargers are in public car parks. So you have to pay a parking charge on top of charge for the electricity. What’s more you can’t leave your car all day blocking the space once your car is charged. So, you’ve gone to the beach for the day. You get there early, find a space with a charger, charge your car. Late morning you then need to move your car, however by 10:30 am all the car parking spaces are full. So you leave your family on the beach and drive around for hours trying to find a space!!!!

    Reply
    1. @rogerfinch7651 Avatar
      @rogerfinch7651

      Naaah you just drop the charge rate so it charges slower but is still charging. Easy.

      Reply
  11. @StupotTaylor Avatar
    @StupotTaylor

    I live in Bristol and decided just to go for it and buy a Tesla Model 3 Performance. It was the best decision I ever made and even though my wall charger has recently broken, I’m still able to put 30+ miles on it overnight from a plug socket. I plug it in whenever I can and never really think about range when I’m going around the city. If I go on a longer journey then there’s the Tesla charging network which has been an absolute doddle and it’s taught me that taking 15-30 mins rest is ideal when motorway driving can be quite exhausting.

    Tesla buzz my phone when the next part of my journey can be made, so sometimes I’m only charging for 10 mins and off I go. Once you start driving an EV you very (VERY) quickly become aware of when and where you need to charge – it’s almost intuitive and really is not stressful at all.

    I miss having an engine car for the spirit of it – we all know that engine cars have character – but our Tesla isn’t without a personality and it’s comfort far outweighs all cars I have ever driven. A motorway journey is so easy when you double click the right stalk and the car just cruises. There is certainly a feeling of expedition and pioneering that you don’t always get with engine cars. You’re out there in a cutting edge vehicle and voyaging into the future of motoring. I won’t go back.

    Reply
    1. @MoaningGit Avatar
      @MoaningGit

      Thank you for war and peace

      Reply
  12. @clivepierce1816 Avatar
    @clivepierce1816

    A well balanced analysis. We run two EVs – an 8 year old Nissan Leaf which we use as a run-around and a 1 year old MG5 which is used for long journeys. Contrary to media reporting, range has never really been an issue, where as access to public chargers occasionally is. In its 8 years, the Leaf has never failed despite the fact that is driven through 6 inches of mud and cow dung twice a day every day, across fields, and through flood water, sometime several feet deep. Running costs are a tenth of our old petrol and diesel vehicles but we do have off-road charging and solar PV. Would we go back to the ICE? No – the disadvantages of EVs are far outweighed by the benefits.

    Reply
  13. @ezraschwartz5201 Avatar
    @ezraschwartz5201

    Great video – well organized, informative, you cover all key aspects in an interesting way and style. Thank you!

    Reply
  14. @peterthompson9318 Avatar
    @peterthompson9318

    Something not mentioned – aside from the pricing issue, public charging points are typically located some distance from immediate assistance, at the far end of carparks and retails areas etc., meaning a vulnerable person may have far more difficulties than filling an ICE car on a petrol forecort. The cables on the ultra rapid charges are thick and very heavy. There’s no way my elderly mother would be able to manhandle one of those!

    Reply
    1. @rogerfinch7651 Avatar
      @rogerfinch7651

      Depends on the location and charger. I’ve used them at moto services right next to the entrance and also the kem power chargers are on overhead bendy arms to carry the weight. I’d be more concerned with wheelchair access as they can be sited up on kerbs making it impossible

      Reply
  15. @bobchivers3114 Avatar
    @bobchivers3114

    Hi Pete,
    Great video – I very often refer to your content in arguments about EV’s as a baseline, sensible person’s, view!!
    I would note a couple of things from this one though.
    Firstly, the cost of home charging is slightly wrong on the maths and nearer to 2p/mile. That said, the point is made – 10x the cost to charge “out and about” has to be looked at to encourage anyone who had no ability to home charge.
    Secondly, your depreciation example is a car that very, very few people can afford and one that hasn’t exactly sold well from new.
    Very expensive cars tend to either depreciate like stones or (GT3RS) go up in value for collecter reasons.
    As a tradesman (spark) of some 40+ years earning decent employee money, I would struggle to justify more than 20k on a car – EV or ICE – and this really limits what is available. Historically I have bought 2yr old, less than 10,000 mile vehicles that last me 4yrs before being replaced (15k/yr) but I have now had my current vehicle for 7 years and don’t want to change it because of the uncertainty and cost.
    This is probably part of the reason for the current market as people I know, are doing the same.
    Any thoughts for people like me moving forward?
    Cheers.

    Reply
  16. @ronnieright4935 Avatar
    @ronnieright4935

    I like a lot of other people dont like to be told what car you can buy, you will never convince me to buy a EV.

    Reply
    1. @TheVedabuss Avatar
      @TheVedabuss

      @@ronnieright4935 how did you cope when you were told you can only drive an ICE car?

      Reply
  17. @randomjasmicisrandom Avatar
    @randomjasmicisrandom

    My heart sank when I saw a video pop up about EVs by a channel called petrol ped. I’m pleasantly surprised by the level headed approach to the topic. Much of the objections against EVs from the anti’s is nonsense, but EVs do have issues. Ironically the biggest for me is one you discussed, the pace of development making older cars obsolete is breathtaking.

    For me, they are a perfect solution, I have off street parking, but for my sister who has a house without a road in front of it, let alone a driveway, they just don’t fit her needs. The ‘issues’ you cite at the end however areas far as I’m concerned positives, the lack of noise for instance is a big part of why I like my EV. I have mine through the Mobility scheme as I am disabled, and the savings over my old diesel help me enormously.

    Reply
  18. @onthemove301 Avatar
    @onthemove301

    Just a small point on the maths. If an EV being charged at off peak domestic rate of 6.7p per kWh is going to cost (according to the video calculation) 1p per mile to run, that implies you are getting 6.7miles per kWh. With five EVs under my belt I have never managed much better than 4 miles per kWh, and that would be in summer, downhill with a following wind. Realistically it’s more like 3 to 4 miles per kWh, depending upon the road conditions. And public EV charging can still be crap, especially in the North of England. At one location near Warrington today I was pre-charged twice with £99 in order to unlock a charger that worked, and so far have only been refunded for one payment. The pre-charge assumed that my car battery was 180kWh capacity (at 55p per kWh) which is much larger than any traction battery available in a car in the UK. So, it’s still the wild west at some locations because far too many public chargers have problems.

    Reply
  19. @MS-VO Avatar
    @MS-VO

    Such an incredibly balanced video on a really divisive topic. Well done! Thank you

    Reply
    1. @PetrolPed Avatar
      @PetrolPed

      Glad you enjoyed it 🙏🏻

      Reply
  20. @weenedonpetrol Avatar
    @weenedonpetrol

    Well done Peter, another excellent, well researched and informative video.
    I’m currently in the fortunate position of buying two new vehicles, an estate car and a camper van. I am a disabled person and I have looked into getting an electric vehicle but I’ve ruled this out at this stage, not because there’s anything wrong with the vehicles as such, there is no electric vehicle that currently meets my individual combination of access needs. There are three main barriers:
    1. There are very few electric estate cars currently on the market and I don’t like clambering up into or dropping down from a SUV. Paradoxically, I find getting out a van such as a Volkswagen Transporter 6.1 easy. It’s a slightly different movement.
    2. There are no electric camper vans currently on the market. Ford is bringing out an electric version of their Transit based Nugget (which reminds me of what I used to call nougat when I was a child). However the Ford Nougat (I’m getting confused) has my third barrier.
    3. Central touch screens are impossible to use in a right-hand drive vehicle if, like me you have an impairment affecting your left arm. It would be, at best inconvenient and at worst highly dangerous to attempt to use a central touch screen with your right hand while driving. Unfortunately there is no solution currently available.
    These mean that I’m having to buy a BMW 3-series Touring (I can use an i-drive, just) and a Transporter based Volkswagen California 6.1.
    I do wish manufacturers would bring out more electric estate cars, more electric vans and refrain from hiding major driving controls in touchscreen operated infotainment systems.

    Reply

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