Advantages of Electric Vehicles

1. No fuel, no emissions

The main key points that attract many people to electric cars is to decrease your personal impact on the environment through transport, The electric engine within an EV operates on a closed circuit, so an electric car does not emit any of the gases often associated with global warming. The second key point is that you need no petrol or diesel if your car is fully electric vehicle, which is great for your carbon footprint and your pocket with the fast-rising fuel costs at the moment!

2. Running costs

Because you’re not paying for petrol or diesel to keep your car running, you can save a lot of money on fuel.  At the time of writing, it costs around £93.50 to fill the average unleaded petrol tank for drivers of medium-sized cars in the UK. By comparison, depending upon the electric vehicle you own and the tariff you are on, a full charge of your electric vehicle could cost as little as 96p

3. Low maintenance

We all know cars need a bit of TLC from time to time. Petrol and diesel engines can require expensive engine maintenance over their lifetimes – electric vehicles don’t.

Why is this? In a traditional combustion engine, there are hundreds of moving parts which can potentially go wrong, whereas an electric motor has fewer than 20. This means that your EV is likely to have lower long-term maintenance costs than other vehicles.

4. Performance

Most of the fun of owning a car comes from getting out on the roads and putting it to work. In the past, electric vehicles haven’t had the sleekest image; many have had low expectations as to how well an electric car can do versus traditional engines.

As more manufacturers have piled into the market with their own take on the electric vehicle, the performance levels of EVs have rocketed.  Electric cars are lighter, and – as all of their power is generated from a standing start – their acceleration capability can surprise. Certain brands, such as Tesla, have done a lot to improve people’s perceptions of electric vehicles – the Tesla Model S is one of the fastest-accelerating cars on the market, doing 0 – 60mph in just 2.5 seconds.

Of course, this isn’t the only measure of performance for a car. If you’re looking for something more family-friendly, then you’ll be pleased to know that many EVs are more spacious than conventional cars due to the lack of a large engine; they also offer a smoother drive with lower levels of noise.

5. Popularity

If you like to stand out in the crowd than perhaps knowing that electric cars are becoming increasingly more popular might be a negative for you, but for many it’s a huge positive. As more EVs find their way onto our roads, we will see the supporting infrastructure expand.  At the time of writing, there are already over 18000 offering nearly 50000 individual charging points – and these numbers are growing at an ever-increasing rate.

To compare, in 2016, there were 8,459 petrol stations and this number has been declining since 2000. With the increase in electric vehicles on the road, we are likely to see this number continue to fall while the number of charging locations will increase further.

In addition to more charging points, the increased popularity of EVs also means more options to choose from for the car itself. There are more affordable electric car options available now than ever before, like the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Zoe, with some of the most popular petrol and diesel models also available in an electric version, such as the Volkswagen eGolf.

6. Government Grant

Even with the removal of the Government Grant electric vehicles still make sense!

From April 2022, the EVHS grant will no longer be open to homeowners (including people with mortgages) who live in single-unit properties such as bungalows and detached, semi-detached or terraced housing.