I switched to an EV – no one tells you about the hassle & extra costs… but it added surprise value to our property
A DRIVER who switched from a petrol car to an EV has revealed that the process was blighted by hassle and extra costs but that there was a surprising upside.
Faith Archer went through months of rigmarole to make the change to an electric car but found it was worth it in the end.
Writing for The Telegraph she detailed how the process was almost derailed by an unforeseen issue.
She said: “When my elderly petrol car was towed off for scrap, I didn’t expect switching to an electric car would be so much hassle.
“Finding a second-hand electric car was relatively easy: my husband went for a one-year-old Renault Zoe GT Line R135 for £15,000; it has a 52 kWh battery and an official range of 239 miles.
“The rest of the process? Not so much.
“The problems emerged when we got an electrician to quote for installing an EV charger.”
The couple where stunned at the complexity of installing the charging point, with the electrician informing them that it would involve changing the cables that supplied their home to allow a larger fuse to be fitted and a wall box installed.
Since they live in a Grade II listed home in Hadleigh, Suffolk, this involved contacting the local council to see if they might even need planning permission to have this done.
Fortunately for them, officials decided they did not need to go through the months-long planning process, but others in a similar situation might, according to Historic England.
Just that check alone set them back by two weeks, only for them to find out they also had to get a smart meter fitted to qualify for an EV energy tariff to keep costs down, while installing the box itself took another month.
And that’s before they got on to the subject of cost, with the family being quoted between £1,078 and £1,737 to have their home charger installed.
Since they don’t live in a flat or rental property, they could not qualify for a £350 government grant to help with the bills and ended up paying a local electrician £1,479.
However, Faith was quick to point out the upsides of going through the process.
She explained that the home charger is three times faster than using a domestic socket, while also costing just 7.5p per kWh to charge overnight, compared to the nearest public charger’s 39p per kWh.
According to Faith, this means they pay about £203 a year for charging fully once a week rather than £1,080 at the public charging point.
Not only that, but there was a hidden benefit that they had not taken into account.
Faith explained: “As EVs become increasingly popular, having an EV charging point already up and running can be a huge plus if you decide to move in future.
“Installing an EV charging point can add around £2,000 to £3,000 to the value of your property, according to Jonathan Rolande at the National Association of Property Buyers.”
It comes after a woman claimed that she was wrongly hit with £800 in fines over an IT error.
Meanwhile, petrol stations will be forced to publish their profits or face a 5% in a major win for The Sun’s Keep It Down campaign.