Go all the way with a battery-electric vehicle
They’re often called ‘pure’ or ‘100%’ electric cars – because they’re powered solely by electricity. With a battery you can recharge at home, on-street or at a public chargepoint, the vehicles don’t produce any tailpipe emissions at all.
Most battery-electric cars have a real-world range of 100-300 miles, so for most journeys you’ll be covered. Heading further afield? There are now thousands of public places with chargepoints across the UK, so you can top up on the road.
What’s the cost?
Battery-electric cars can be more expensive to buy than petrol or diesel cars, but they’re cheaper to run because electricity costs less per mile than fuel.
It could cost you as little as £8-12 to fully charge a pure electric car at home, if you install a smart chargepoint and are on an off-peak overnight electricity tariff.
Say your car has a range of 200 miles – it would cost you £26-32 to drive the same distance with petrol or diesel fuel. And there are other savings to look forward to:
- You could benefit from lower servicing and maintenance costs – with fewer mechanical components, there’s less to go wrong
- You won’t pay a penny in vehicle excise duty until 2025, when the government is planning to introduce excise duty for zero emission vehicles
- You could get free parking – many towns and cities offer free or discounted parking for 100% electric cars
- Until 2025, you won’t have to pay the London congestion charge if you’ve a zero emission car, thanks to the 100% cleaner vehicle discount