Joe had been distracted by the newspaper headline as he had drifted around the supermarket during the weekly shop. Over £17,000 for a Tesla replacement battery! It had made him think hard about the real economics of electric cars, ready to explain to Fred how electric cars conceal their costs and why they are inevitably more expensive than petrol or diesel cars.
Fred: (Beckoning Joe over as he polishes his new car.) Hey Joe, let me tell you about my electric car. It’s so economical to own.
Joe: Is it really?
Fred: Oh yes! Much better than that petrol car of yours. How much is that to run?
Joe: I suppose a full tank is about £70 nowadays. And I do about 500 miles with that. That’s 14p per mile.
Fred: My electric car’s much cheaper than that. I can charge it at home overnight with electricity at 16p per kilowatt hour. And since I can go four miles for each kWh, that’s only 4p a mile – tons better than your petrol car!
Joe: Gosh that’s really interesting. To be honest I need a new car. My Focus had to have a new petrol tank the other day. It was a pain to get one because they are so rarely needed. Cost me £100 on eBay – plus the labour – £300 altogether. (He pauses. Naughtily he asks.) Do you know how much a new battery costs for your Tesla?
Fred: I’m not sure I do actually. I guess it’s a bit more than that.
Joe: Go on – have a guess!
Fred: I’ve no idea. Do you know?
Joe: Yup. Near enough £18,000.
Fred: What?!
Joe: Exactly. But they won’t tell you that. It’s only when you have problems that you find out.
Fred: They are expensive but they do last the life of the car.
Joe: So do most petrol tanks. It’s only because my Focus is 20 years old.
(Both stand quietly, obviously thinking.)
Joe: (Breaking the silence) Tell me Fred, how many miles do you expect your fancy Tesla will do over its life?
Fred: I suppose it will be like any other car – probably around 120,000 miles before it gets scrapped.
Joe: So, when you think about it, that Tesla of yours, with its £18,000 battery lasting 120,000 miles… that’s (doing quick mental arithmetic in his head) 15p per mile just for the use of the battery.
Fred: I suppose you could put it like that…
Joe: (Interrupting)….plus the 4p per mile to charge it…
Fred: I suppose so..
Joe: 15p a mile for use of the battery and 4p a mile to fill it up – a total of 19p per mile. That’s more expensive than my petrol car at 14p per mile!
Fred: That does make it sound expensive.
Joe: And when you fill it up, when you’re not at home, how much does the charging cost then?
Fred: Mmm… It can be a bit more.
Joe: How much? Tell me!
Fred: Well, I did have to pay 80p a kWh the other day.
Joe: What! 80p a kilowatt hour? To take you four miles? That’s 20p a mile – on top of your 15p battery costs, that’s 35p a mile – more than twice what my petrol car costs.
Fred: I don’t often have to pay 80p. It’s more usually about 40p but I suppose that’s 10p for charging plus 15p for battery costs. Yes… 25p per mile when you think about it like that. A bit more than yours.
Joe: A bit more! It’s nearly twice as much! (Joe pauses) Yours is a Model 3 isn’t it? The long range model?
Fred: Yup.
Joe: I looked it up. About £50,000, am I right?
Fred: Yes it was about that.
Joe: When you think about it, that’s £32,000 for a normal car, plus £18,000 for the battery. That’s how it works. I know you don’t think of the £18,000 for the battery as running costs but that’s only because you’ve paid them up front, when you bought the car.
Fred: Makes sense.
Joe: And I’m thinking about a new Focus for £32,000 and at that price has the petrol tank included.
Fred: Mmm…
Joe: And costs 14p per mile to run – not somewhere between 18p and 35p.
Fred: (Half turning away) But I am helping save the planet!
Joe: (Joe remains quiet. He thinks he might have been too blunt. He ponders on the half ton of battery that Fred’s car has to drag around, the mines where they extract the rare battery chemicals, the impending piles of batteries needing so-called recycling all to ‘save the planet’. Out of respect for Joe, he tries not to snort audibly.)
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