Electric, Petrol or Diesel. Which offers the best value for money?
Electric, petrol or diesel? Prices of both fuel & electricity have risen exponentially in recent weeks & months. Making the cost of living for millions around the country almost unbearable.
A big question on everybody’s minds at the moment is which is the cheapest or most affordable method of running a vehicle.
Electric Vehicles & The Cost Breakdown
A widely popular opinion is that running and charging an electric car is cheap or even completely free.
This is certainly not the case as charging your electric vehicle at home costs money and will impact your energy bill. Furthermore, some energy providers are not accepting new customers or tariff changes to make the cost cheaper.
The average cost to charge your electric car at your home and travel 10,000 miles is now around £1,055.
Although some public EV charging points are free when you’re out & about, the vast majority of EV charging points are pay to use.
On top of this if you haven’t already got an EV charger installed at your home, you’ll need one to charge your car with an average installation cost of around £500. However the OZEV (Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles) provides funding of up to 75% towards the cost of installation of a smart charger.
The initial outlay of owning an electric vehicle is also vastly more expensive than a petrol or diesel equivalent.
Petrol & Diesel Costings
Over recent months petrol costs are & have been continuing to rise, recently now exceeding the £100 mark for the very first time.
The past 12 months have seen petrol prices soaring with an increase of over 36%. Resulting in the cost of petrol now in the UK starting at 182 per litre.
Like petrol, diesel has also been continuously on the rise over the past 12 months today in the UK today costing 188 per litre. Likely to continue to rise over the coming weeks.
Compared to diesel cars, petrol is less fuel-efficient. Petrol might be cheaper than diesel. However you will get more miles to the gallon from a diesel car especially on longer distance drives & at higher speeds.
Having a diesel car could save you money in the long-term as its likely depending on your vehicle that you’ll have to fill up your tank less often than a petrol vehicle. Especially if you are clocking up a lot of miles on your car.
Fuel Cost Savings
Petrol costs at this moment in time are roughly 6 pence per litre less than diesel. Petrol currently at 182.31 per litre & diesel at 188.05 per litre.
This may only be a rough saving of £3.16 on a 55-litre fuel tank. Over time the savings can add up with fuel prices very likely to continue to rise.
Which is the best option?
Overall, the costs of running a vehicle are getting higher & higher for all fuel types.
The big question is which is the most money saving? of course that will depend on the type & amount of mileage that do you do in your car.
If you’re a driver who mainly takes short journeys around town. Certainly the electric or petrol option is best for you.
If you’re a driver that takes a lot longer journeys for work on the motorways then diesel would be the best option for you. Although they are more costly to fill up than petrol. Diesel is more fuel efficient & more likely to save you money in the long run.
