Just negotiating a new (and exciting) contract role which is very welcome at 18 months of very little income. Unfortunately it will involve a 25 (cross town) or 35 (round motorway) mile commute each way.

My old peugeot diesel is on it’s last legs and is quite tiring to drive. We have/need a 4×4 for moving sheep but would rather not commute in one of those for environmental and fuel cost reasons so thinking about either buying a 2nd hand electric car or leasing a new one. I am looking at also getting a T5 for bike/holiday duties and wouldnt want to put commuting mileage on that.

The buy used option is a Nissan leaf but not sure if I should go with a lease battery one or not.

The lease new option is looking like a BMW i3. A quick check online points at £70-80/month additional tax on top of £210 ish + vat lease. £3,800 year + electricity

Figure wise:

25 mile route – 50miles/day, 48 weeks = 12,000 pa. 10p/mile = £1,200, 15p/mile = £1,800, 30p/mile = £3,600, 40p/mile = £4,800

35 mile route (less wear and tear on car and fatigue on me) – 70miles/day, 48 weeks = 16,800 pa. 10p/mile = £1,680, 15p/mile = £2,520, 30p/mile = £5,040 and 40p/mile = £6,720.

I assume that as it will be a regular place of work I cannot claim mileage allowance so am expecting this to be at my cost hence wanting to minimise my cost as well as minimise my pollution and maximise my comfort and reliability over my current bangernomics car.

My current car costs 10p/mile in fuel and yearly servicing, tax an insurance come to £500, with repairs quite few and far between at my current mileage of <10k/year. Realistically I expect to be using the 35 mile route in the morning when schools are in and a slightly modified variant of the 25 mile route on the way home as I can check the sheep on the way back when time is not an issue.

This….

andyl – Member

My old peugeot diesel is on it’s last legs and is quite tiring to drive.

doesn’t really tally up with this:

My current car costs 10p/mile in fuel and yearly servicing, tax an insurance come to £500, with repairs quite few and far between at my current mileage of <10k/year

unless the reason it’s on it’s last legs is due to not having repairs and stuff done to it…or is it rusting to bits?

Why is your current car on it’s last legs & why is it tiring to drive?

Unless you really can’t tolerate driving your current car over those distances (it’s not really that far) I would just keep the current car, but set-up a direct debit of x amount per month – perhaps £100/mth into a ‘car maintenance’ fund so you afford to have any jobs required done to it without concern.

How much would the Nissan Leaf cost/month to purchase, assuming you’ll be paying for it monthly.
You’ll have to save an awful lot of fuel to recover the cost of paying for the car.

Also, this is from Wikipedia, regarding the range of a Nissan Leaf:

Nissan estimates that the 2013 Leaf has a 135 km (84 miles) range from a 100% charge (Long-Distance Mode charging), while the range drops to 106 km (66 miles) for an 80% charge (Long-Life Mode charging). The new EPA testing procedure considers the average of these two ranges.

your estimated mileage of 60-70 miles/day would put me worryingly close to the upper reaches of the claimed range, unless of course you can charge the car up at work (can you?).

Current car really is fit for the scrap heap.

It’s been a good car I bought 5 years ago for £1k but it’s been abused for house renovating, moving farm equipment etc and when I was transplanting some nicer seats from another one at Christmas I found a head sized (not kidding) rust hole in the rear arch right by the rear seat belt mount so it’s not economically viable to repair given the condition of the rest of it. I keep the brakes and suspension etc in excellent condition but I cannot get hold of the correct rear beam for the rear (needs to be a heavy duty estate one which is rare as rocking horse poo on a car that has not been made for 15 years) and there is more work than the car is worth around the corner – cam belt, front suspension due, new tyres soon etc which on a 16 year old 160k peugeot that’s been well used and with terminal rust is just not worth it.

Car is tiring to drive as the seats are crap, driving position crap, rear suspension not right for the car and driving our much newer freelander is a hell of a lot less tiring.

oh and the clutch pedal leaves you with a left leg like Chris Hoy and again is just not worth spending money on.

Back to the original question:

Leaf would be £6-10k used.

I won’t be buying a car monthly as I don’t buy anything on credit unless it’s 0% and wont ever buy a new car due to depreciation.

Will have an electric charge point at work I can use but yes the leaf range is a bit close if I don’t get to use it but across the city route is 50 miles and will be slower and traffic wont hurt it as much as a petrol/diesel car.

i3 is more tempting due to range and the lease amount seems close to what I would spend on running a petrol/diesel car.

Another petrol/diesel regular car has limited use to us as I want a van for sports/holidays and we need a 4×4 for sheep. A 3rd car would be used for commuting and local trips but 99% of the time would be doing less than 100 miles a day hence considering electric. Long term the small holding we are building is in a remote location but only a couple of miles from civilisation so we have been planning a small electric run around for there anyway.

How about a Prius?

Have you looked at the cost of a Renault Zoe? There’s one parked on the business park I work on daily, but no idea what sort of commute it could manage.

It does sound like your car is pretty much wrecked….. 😀

Have you compared it with city cars with small engines? I was looking a while back and electric cars didn’t really make any sense (financially) unless you’re commuting into a congestion charge area like London. We ended up with a 2nd hand Toyota IQ.

Range wise the 30kWh Leaf or the i3 with the new bigger battery will do 60/70 miles a day easy unless you want to sit at 80mph on a motorway for all of that.

I’m running a Renault Zoe, currently getting 100+ miles from a charge, lowest winter range I got was around 87.

Zoe appears the more sensible option to the BMW, certainly on price!

I know someone who has a Zoe and loves it for commuting.

Of course there are also now loads of hybrids too.

I assume that as it will be a regular place of work I cannot claim mileage allowance so am expecting this to be at my cost hence wanting to minimise

If you’re proper contracting you can claim it at 45ppm.

And a T5 is built to do miles, it’s a VAN!

If you’re proper contracting you can claim it at 45ppm

just fired an email to my accountant to check.

I have never had a full time job and was contracting for a small company (friends company) and had lots of promises but lots of time wasted and been kicking myself. If you knew how much I had earnt over the last 5 years you would slap me for letting myself be had. I was doing what I enjoyed and trying to make a difference so ignored that some years I only just make base tax bracket! So I can certainly live very frugally. Wont speak any more about that.

I was operating as self employed and am VAT registered but this will be a big change and a full time contractor role. Quite excited tbh. I have worked with the company on and off for years so waited until the role I was suited to came up and they havent even bothered with a 2nd interview 🙂

I looked at buying a Zoe 2nd hand but the battery lease put me off a bit as I am buying the car and leasing the battery so looks like worst of both worlds. Will take another look including new lease.

Hybrids are a definite option and looking at those too. Preferably a plug in with enough range to get there and then charge. If not the figures dont work as they are not great mpg when on their engines so a cheaper used diesel starts to catch up in the end figures. Prius definitely an option and boot big enough to throw a bike in.

T5’s are built for mileage but I dont want to put 17k a year on my day van just getting to and from work. It might get used every now and then in summer if planning a ride somewhere different after work but will just give the commuting car to the OH that day. She uses the 4×4 at the moment as she only does 3-10 miles (needs car in case she gets called out for a home visit, or so she says when I tell her to cycle to work).

I might try cycling some days but the 25 mile route is not a particularly nice one to cycle.

Don’t bother looking at the GTE golf – I’ve not got over 25 miles on a charge, and you can’t fast charge it (16A max. )
Zoë looks to be what you want.

I quite fancy a Twizy but wont be going on the motorway in one!

I also liked the idea of a Twizy, but it seemed to be relatively expensive to buy and run.

I assume that as it will be a regular place of work I cannot claim mileage allowance

Usual rule. New contract = temporary place of work for next 2 years, so claim away.

Just technically you need to be careful that there is no promise written down anywhere of it becoming permanent or expected to run for longer than 2 years. The instant you know it may go longer then you can’t claim. Technically 😉

45p per mile up to 10,000 miles in a year, 25p after. 2 years max and you stress it’s temporary place of work.

There are also deals for getting a car through the business but not sure how they work or if they’re any good these days.

If you haven’t driven an electric car yet take a Zoe, i3, Leaf and maybe even the Kia Soul for a test drive. Forgetting any cost savings or “eco” stuff I’d take my Zoe for a drive over my Fiesta diesel any day purely on the driving experience, quietness, smoothness and instant torque make for a very enjoyable and relaxing daily drive 🙂

In fact after a 1200 mile round Ireland trip in a diesel last month I’m taking the Zoe over there next month.

Cars can feel tired and warn. 4xbushes and drop links will work wonders. Ever feel worn bushes on a mountain bike?

The range on our Zoe dropped to 50 miles in the winter. Just back to 70ish now. We had 90 last year but our driving patterns. Now involve more a roads.

My old peugeot diesel is on it’s last legs and is quite tiring to drive. We have/need a 4×4 for moving sheep but would rather not commute in one of those for environmental and fuel cost reasons so thinking about either buying a 2nd hand electric car or leasing a new one. I am looking at also getting a T5 for bike/holiday duties and wouldnt want to put commuting mileage on that.

Trade the current 4×4 for something that’ll run on veg oil Nissan R20 motor springs to mind. Ticks all boxes except electric.
The commute will be more comfortable as fewer road warriors will try and take you on.
Veg oil burner without any changes to the motor.
Comfy to drive, so the sheep will love it.
Buy add ons like awnings and roof top tents for camping duties.
Easy to work on, as and when you need. The R20 motor is the same as the London Taxi, so I think that they’re robust.
Fugly though. 🙂

The range on our Zoe dropped to 50 miles in the winter. Just back to 70ish now. We had 90 last year but our driving patterns. Now involve more a roads.

That’s worrying. Do you own or lease the battery?

Not driving round in a ford maveric or doing 17k miles running on veg oil!

Will be a max of 2 years so looks like I can claim my mileage.

Quick calc suggests it will work out as £6250 allowable on tax, not sure if that will be at 40% or 20% but will still go towards the lease of an i3.

Assuming I bought a cheap car for £7k that did 50mpg that will be £1800 in fuel + other running costs and say £1k depreciation. £2800 a year + servicing, repairs etc with a £7k outlay.

i3 would be £250 a month inclusive and £1500 up front. Kia Soul EV is £199 a month + £1k up front. Both will do over 100 miles on a charge so should be no problem and end up costing me very little and be much nicer places to be.

Andyl it’s battery lease. Supposedly theyll replace the battery if it drops below 70-80% which it does seem to have done. For us its ok though …if we needed more range I’d harass renault.

Cold weather isn’t great for electric cars – both the effects on battery performance and the demands placed upon it- Linky

@swedishmatt is your Zoe one with the “cold climate” spec fitted?

@matt doubt it, 15 reg?

BTW leaf seems to get decent range in winter too. Especially the newer ones with bigger capacity batteries 120miles (theoretical ).

I was assuming your location from your nick, some cold countries have a heating element along with the heat pump for cabin heating and I think a system to warm the battery.

50 miles seems very low, I’ve seen the estimated range drop to just over 60 at a start of a really cold trip but it corrects itself quite quickly, the car always returns more miles than it says it can. You can get a phone app called CanZE which allows you to pull all sorts of info from the battery including its state of health.

T5’s are built for mileage but I dont want to put 17k a year on my day van just getting to and from work. It might get used every now and then in summer if planning a ride somewhere different after work but will just give the commuting car to the OH that day.

Why? Just buy the T5 and ‘claim’ the 45ppm. Far cheaper than buying the T5 and not using it and then buying another car to do the commute.

@matt ah sorry, Geordie domiciled Swede 🙂 so 50 odd is with arctic newcastle temperatures of 5-10 degrees.

Make sure you take into account cost of ownership when looking at electric vehicles. E.g. you can buy a G-wiz really cheap but need to be careful about how many cycles are left on the battery as a new one costs about £700.

What about an electric bike? An e-bike would be cheaper (especially if taking into account using work electricity/water for charging and showering), open up other route options/short cuts and if used right will boss your legs.

I did think about an E-bike as it would solve the problem of some pretty big and long hills on thr 25 mile route. Still going to take me over 2hrs from here and the new place we are building is looking like almost 3 hours by bike but 2 miles less than here when on the motorway route as it’s further away in direct line cross country but closer to the motorway junction.

One option is get the T5 and drive part way and cycle part way. Then I get to factor in some exercise as I will be doing 8am starts (leaving home at 7-7.15 so won’t be able to fit in my usual morning gym session I do now working from home.

We’ve got a Nissan Leaf on a PCP, brand new car with total cost for car over 24months as 4240. Would easily do the mileage you’re after and I have to say is a fab car. Wouldn’t but a new one as the depreciation is horrifi and works out more than what the PCP is over the term. Possibly going to buy a 3year old one after this one, however, if I can find a similar deal will go new..

Possibly going to buy a 3year old one after this one

I wouldn’t buy a 3 year old battery powered car. Surely by that point batteries would past it and need changing?

deadkenny is correct on the 2yr thing. The 45p / 25p rate is if you provide your own car, if the lease is run through the company then different (lower) rates apply and they’re dependant on fuel type & engine size. I’m not sure where electric cars sit in that scheme.

You’ll need to weigh up whether it’s better to lease through the company, reduce your CT liability but pay BIK and claim less in mileage, or get a personal lease and just claim the 45p/25p. There’s a lot of variables so it’s not always clear cut.