I reckon there’s going to be a bit of a lag but eventually there’s going to be plenty of garages fixing EV cars and replacing batteries etc to keep these cars going. It’s only the power plant that’s different really.
Remember at the moment there are gearbox specialist, turbo specialists etc etc so battery specialists will come about eventually.

You can replace the battery in a Prius yourself already, people make kits to do it – not sure in Uk or not, I just watched a ChrisFix video on it on YouTube.

So, these salary sacrifice schemes, open to all, or does your employer have to enrol?.

There’s no way ‘battery wear and condition’ is a factor on a 2 year old ev unless your usage is somewhat unusual.

Some people may be prepared to try bangernomics whereas others like the comfort of a new car under warranty.

While this is a true statement, it fails to acknowledge the fact that there’s a rather big range in the middle between those two extremes.

And some really quite nice, really reliable cars therein – which really don’t cost £400 a month, even with everything included.

I admit I’ve driven some woeful cars in the past when young and poor and willing to deal with breakdowns, but to imply that it’s that or a new car is an unhelpful oversimplification.

As for the OP, I’d love a EV, have no issues with the range etc, but they’re just not in my price range.

My tactic has previously been to buy nearly new or pre-registered vehicles at a big discount eg my Trafic was £14k including VAT against a list price of £22k, 5 months registered with 10 miles on the clock. That was 6 years ago, these types of deals just are not available now. Doubly so for EVs.

We are looking at getting and EV and cars up to a year old are advertised at pretty much the same as you can pay for a new car (on eg carwow).

So we need to go new or wait if we want an EV. The choice then is what payment method to take which is cheapest for us over the period we own the vehicle. Fortunately I am an accountant (amongst other things) and love a spreadsheet! Lots of lovely complications to add in about salary sacrifice, impact on DB pension, opportunity costs of using savings etc.

Ultimately it comes down to some crystal ball gazing a out how much the residual value of an 3/4 yo EV will be

So, these salary sacrifice schemes, open to all, or does your employer have to enrol?

It has to be offered by your company, it’s a benefit. It gets taxed, quite heavily, unless it’s an EV which makes expensive EVs a much better option than expensive ICE cars and is responsible for bringing a lot more cars onto the roads. It won’t be long before there are a great many used options on the market.

I reckon there’s going to be a bit of a lag but eventually there’s going to be plenty of garages fixing EV cars and replacing batteries etc to keep these cars going. It’s only the power plant that’s different really.

I know Renault/Nissan does this, because I did a bit of work for a company that used expired battery packs from their early EVs in Data Centres for second stage UPS (IIRC?) and for municipal energy banks in the Netherlands. Packs were regarded as expired for vehicle use at 70% capacity, so had plenty of life left in them. The challenge as I see it is that companies like Tesla are actively trying to prevent third parties from working on their vehicles. And I don’t want to buy a car I cant take to my local independent to get fixed. There are three four I’ve used over the last decade in my town that i’d very happily go to in the knowledge they would give me a fair assessment and do good work at below the dealer price. Hopefully reasonably-priced battery pack swaps will be a thing; the running gear tends to be simpler in terms of component numbers, so in theory is more reliable. One catch is that we’re nowhere near the optimum point for EVs at the moment – they’re rapidly getting more powerful, efficient etc. Luckily I’ve probably got 6-7 years before our existing cars start conking. The calculation for keeping petrol burners, by the way, is that the emissions from running them longer are less than either the emissions from making them or scrapping them, so running them into the ground is the least worst option now we own ’em. Correct me if this assumption is incorrect. Of course we could sell them on to another owner, but that’d be taking a bit of a loss, however minor, and for what we need for the ‘big’ car (towing of boats and bike carriers, on a limited number of trips over 150 miles, roof rack options) there are very few options in our acceptable price bracket. When I was looking for a replacement for our dear departed ’09 Octavia, the nearest EV option was the Hyundai Ioniq, which had a zero roof loading and a rumoured towbar option. Obviously things have changed significantly since then. A job change means a second car is a luxury, but hiring something with a towbar / roof rack is a little tricky, and two Udderlets mean regularish use of a second car is desirable.

I reckon there’s going to be a bit of a lag but eventually there’s going to be plenty of garages fixing EV cars and replacing batteries etc to keep these cars going

They’ll be replacing cells or modules. It’ll be fairly expensive but pretty rare and probably offset by the fact you’re not paying for oil changes, spark plugs, cambelts, transmission fluid changes etc etc. And not paying £1.40 to do 50 miles. Also, when a battery module fails, you’ll know what the problem is. There won’t be endless rounds of ‘hmm well, we can’t find the fault so we changed a shitload of random stuff to see if it made it better, here’s a bill’.

<blockquoteThere’s no way ‘battery wear and condition’ is a factor on a 2 year old ev unless your usage is somewhat unusual.

Had mine 18 months and the battery is as good as new. There has been no drop in range at all.

And not paying £1.40 to do 50 miles.

You’re getting 50 miles to the litre from an ICE car?! 😮

😉