Switch to electric car will cost £720 in first year despite soaring petrol costs

A new survey shows the UK is bottom of the European league when it comes to delivering the financial benefits of going plug-in.

Switching to an electric car will cost an extra £720 in the first year despite the soaring cost of petrol.

A new survey shows we are bottom of the European league when it comes to delivering the financial benefits of going plug-in.

Danish motorists get the best deal with savings of more than £22,000 within 12 months of choosing electric over petrol.

The comparison site money.co.uk calculated the average price of buying a new car plus the cost of 10,000 miles of travel in ten different countries in the first year.

That showed Danes would spend £21,938 on an EV plus travel costs compared to £43,975 for a petrol driven car, a saving of more than 50%. A litre of unleaded in Denmark costs £1.85.

A British motorist would shell out an average of £27,487 on electric and £26,767 on a traditional car, costing an extra 2.69%.

Germans are £693 worse off by going plug-in though the percentage difference is higher than the UK’s at 2.77%.

James Andrews of money.co.uk said: “Denmark leads the way. You could buy and run two electric cars for a year for the same cost as a petrol VW Golf.

“But in Britain chargepoint rollout is slow and EVs are also still more expensive than their petrol equivalents .”

Denmark also offers EV drivers free parking up to £588 a year and payment of road tax in installments.

One in six new car registrations in Britain last year were plug-ins compared with one in 10 in 2020.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says 305,000 EVs were sold in 2021 accounting for 18.6% of market share.

But SMMT boss Mike Hawes said: “There’s a long way to go to reach net zero.

”Around one in 100 vehicles on the road is a plug-in. The government’s ambition is that by 2030 we need to get that to one in three.”

The most popular EV is theTesla Model 3 followed by Kia e-Niro and Volkswagen ID 3.

Mr Andrews added: “Access to rapid chargers is still harder than finding a petrol station. You need to make sure you have public points available nearby before you commit to a purchase.”

A Government grant for EVs has been cut from £5,000 to £1,500 and the £350 toward the installation of a home charger was also scrapped.

Net Zero minister Jo Churchill said: “Phasing out the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2035 will reduce greenhouse gas emissions faster.”