Here we go then. The big one!
The car listed at £79k new. But it had been registered two months before I bought it and was being used by the dealer principle. I “paid“ £67k, but on a three year company lease deal, through Audi finance, with a GFV of £34k. The reality is that it’s worth a few £k less than that now as trade in, but that’s Audi finances’s problem, not mine.
So, in depreciation, the car has cost me £33k over 36 months and 34k miles. If we add in the costs for fuel, servicing etc, we may as well call it £36k. So, all-in, £1k a month, for approx 1k a month mileage, for three years.
Though of course, it’s not actually cost me that, as it’s through one my companies. With reclaiming the VAT, paying no BIK, etc, in real terms, I estimate it was the equivalent of my forgoing maybe £300 a month in post tax income. Which is an absolute bargain.
Could I have been driving around in a new £70k ICE car for that? Obviously not. Which is exactly why me and thousands of other company car qualifying people took advantage of the generous government incentives offered.
An equivalent new £70k ICE car would have cost more than that £300 figure per month just in fuel and servicing. And would still have depreciated, what, £25k? (depending on which Audi/Merc/BMW/Jag I’d chosen). And if had been a company car, quite a lot in BIK (I’ve not looked it up, but I’d imagine at least £500 a month).
Overall, therefore, given my personal circumstances, the experiment has worked out very well. But not everyone is in the same position as me, so the sums could look very different. As ever, you need to look at your own financial/tax circumstances, plus your driving habits, where you park, and when/how you can charge it.
I hope my findings from my 3 year EV experiment may be of use to some. (Even if just to rule out the thought of EV ownership!)
And in the meantime, I look forward to the arrival of the new one. Which is higher spec (being newer), with better range, better m/kWh, and nearly £25k cheaper even as a brand spanking new car. It’s on Audi finance again, at a monthly rate of approx 2/3rds of the old one, and a good GFV.