(April’s mileage was not recorded, so added to those in May and CPM from the 2 months combined)

The RAC’s comparative figure for our former Audi is 11.4 – 15.1 pence per mile. Home generation and use of EV tariff have a very large impact in reducing costs. Our pv installation was an up-front cost and because most of the generation powers the house, we don’t amortise the cost of installation purely through car usage. Saving a notional 9 pence /mile over the Audi at the 5,643 miles is equivalent to £508. Over the 19600 miles driven over the whole ownership at the same rate of saving, the total saved by the change to electric is £1,764.

These figures are unique to us because of our varied set-up of supply. Away from home we pay around 69p/kw and this price level allows us to complete a mid-drive charge within say 40minutes. Were we unable to charge at home, the EV’s 2023 mileage of 5643 would have cost £905.50 at 69p/kw and the car’s average 4.3 miles/kw.

That the Audi at 13ppm would have cost £733.59 in diesel suggest that at current away-from-home prices there is a real-world disincentive towards changing to electric power. The Times (12.08.23) reports that from 2021-2 ‘the IEA data shows that the UK had the highest average domestic electricity price of the countries assessed by the global body’. Considering that on 23.08.23, 48kwh supply in St Malo, France costs around 42 to 55 pence/kw, the IEA conclusion looks correct and for us there would be a cost-disincentive to change to electric drive without a proportion of charging being within a domestic tariff or at the EV tariff provided by our power supplier.

Retired, we have not experienced range anxiety either in the UK or abroad. For us, long journeys require a few minutes’ planning to identify mid-route charging points – generally after 3 hours driving: time for us to break the journey anyway – and we use the on-line help for this, accessible on the move by smartphone via e.g. Zapmap or ABRP in the UK or Chargemap in mainland Europe. We factor in charging- and possible detour- time to the overall journey. Using Zapmap - which updates minute-by-minute the existing charging conditions from driver reports - it is most accessible while the car is moving if there is a passenger in what used to be the ‘navigator’ role.

The public charging infrastructure continues to be weak and we have found it to be no more than adequate. There are too few charging points, many are badly positioned making poor use of available space, and units are vulnerable to breakdown. We have adopted a policy of phoning the provider to report the breakdown of each unit. On all but one occasion the provider was unaware of the breakdown, and was able to re-boot the unit remotely within 10 minutes. We have found that this driver action prevents or at least slows the cumulative breakdown of all the units on site by reducing pressure on each of them.

The other main difficulties we have avoided through care in route management are limited access to contactless payment at units on through routes; too many are accessible only through an app or subscription. We have found charge-points which are out-of-service and appear to be abandoned.  We also have found signage to be poor and in need of updating.

The economy provided by our ability to use our pv generation to charge the car has been the strongest argument in favour of going electric. At present we would not revert to petrol or diesel power in any context, but would not have changed to electric without the ability to home-charge. 

We feel that change is needed in charging infrastructure, the retail price of power and standards of operation for the charging companies with removal of rights from under-performing suppliers.