Here’s a question every knows the answer to: are EVs just for rich people? Electric Cars are expensive to buy, expensive to insure, you get no residuals and now it would seem that a report from the UK proves that it is expensive, unless you own your own driveway.
The British public, who do not own their own home charging point are paying at least GBP1000 extra per year to charge-up their vehicles. Even with the ban on new ICE vehicles set to become a fact in just 7 years there is no end in sight for the misery that will befall UK motorists, and seemingly no chance of a reprieve either.
What is worse is the cost has actually increased by 10% in the past twelve months.
About one third of all UK drivers do not have access to a personal parking space where they can put a charging station and it is this very shortcoming in the blanket ban that is stopping drivers from converting over to an EV.
Charging at a rapid charger at a service station, which takes up to an hour, costs an average of 70p per kWh which is twice the rate for a home charger and of course with a home charger you can be comfortably watching TV whilst you charge.
It would seem that owning an EV has become a bit of a ‘privilege’ for the affluent as the country lacks adequate infrastructure to make the Electric Dream a reality. Advocate groups for EVs such as Electrifying.com believe that the UK government should do away with VAT on public chargers.
This may sound good but then where would the government get the money to build and maintain the roads. Currently it does this by taxing fossil fuel that goes into ICE engines.
It is in the Cities across the world where you are least likely to own your own driveway and thus have the least incentive to get an EV. Perversely it is exactly in these places where the argument for an EV is and the need to clean the air up is the strongest.
