At some stage I wonder if the UK will need to regulate the charger industry. The price gouging is wild in places. If we look at the energy content of petrol, a litre of gas contains about 9kwh of energy, or at average pump prices 1.58/9 = ~18 pence a kwh.

For sure, EVs are far more efficient at converting a kwh of energy into forward motion, but if we assume 35 mpg (9.25 miles/litre) for the gas car, we need about 970wh to travel 1 mile. A modern EV can manage a mile on ~260wh, almost a quarter of the gas requirement.

There are public charging networks in the UK averaging 92p/kwh - we know we need much less energy to move the more efficient EV, but even with this adjustment fuel cost per mile looks like:

petrol at UK average today: 17p/mi

Electric at very expensive public charger: ~24p/mi !!

At many chargers, there are no savings at all. For comparisons sake, that 92p kwh would be just 28.6p on the most expensive domestic electricity supply, and charging at home would be ~8p per mile on the worst possible tariffs.

I've probably done some bad math somewhere here, but I think the broad picture is correct.

But compared to the US home charging via a mains outlet is much more viable because it's 240v vs 110v. If you plug you car overnight you'll typically have enough charge to last you the next day.

Given that the majority of people in the uk have or can have access to home charging it's not a major problem

https://www.racfoundation.org/research/mobility/still-standi...

Wales – 75% of households have – or could have – off-street parking and EV charging England – 68% Scotland – 63%

In London, sure, most homes don't have off-street parking and ev charging, but then only half the households in London have a car

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/travel-in-london-2024-car-ownersh...

> In 2022 is was £1.89 a litre and spent most of the year over £1.60 a litre

Why are you choosing the 2022 energy crises as your baseline? Not only your choice was arbitary but you managed to choose the year fuel was at its highest as a reaction to the war in Ukraine.

That price was not representative or typical, it was a spike. You can see it here.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/time...

Eh, last year I was paying the equivalent of £0.38 per liter over here in the States ($2 a gallon gas, $3.30 or so for diesel).

"Insanely cheap" for the UK to feels really strange for those of us way over here who tend to forget how good we have it.

Yes well people like to complain, and people have a short memory. If it were really a massive problem you would see a lot more smaller cars, rather than Range Rovers and BMWs.

We will see exactly the same thing again in a few years when people are 'shocked' that prices are rising again. And then expect the government to step in, even though on the interim they've bought a massive car on PCP rather than take some personal responsibility and buy a car that they can afford when inevitably something goes wrong.

EVs aren’t exactly new; there’s a deep, accessble secondhand market by now. I’ve been using a 2019 Nissan Leaf as a primary family car for two years now, that I picked up off Gumtree for around £3k. It’s been one of the best (little) cars I’ve ever owned.

Not saying new EVs aren’t pricey, but if you want into electric on a budget (i.e. because you don’t feel like you can afford to fill up on diesel) it can absolutely be done.

The id.Polo starts at 22k GBP. The ordinary, petrol-driven Polo also starts at 22k. You can see how massive increases in the price of petrol and diesel might influence purchasing behaviour there...

This is a good site for seeing the differents UK models, and their prices, that are on the market or coming onto the market.

These are all models under £20,000 - https://ev-database.org/uk/#group=vehicle-group&av-1=1&av-23...

There's also a large number of used EVs available. Here's a selection of 2024+ models between £8000-£10000

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?channel=cars&fuel-ty...

Price sensitivity doesn’t spring into existence at the point something becomes unaffordable.

You have half a point here.

Diesel was traditionally the fuel of people who did high miles. Ie not the people that can't have an EV 'just in case they need to do 300 miles on a day's, because they probably legitimately are.

You kind of spoil that point by pull £80k out of your arse without looking at comparable diesels though.

There are new 30k euros EVs on the marker right now.