an electric or a petrol car?

“It’s too early.” “I’d like to, but they’re too expensive.” The street interviews conducted by the ANWB last year give a good idea of ​​how people think about purchasing an electric car. Despite the recent strong growth, barely 5 percent of the vehicle fleet in the Netherlands is still electric, the majority of which are lease cars. The Telegraph did not increase the enthusiasm among his readers by reporting at the end of August: ‘Plug drivers are now more expensive.’

‘Yet an electric car is still cheaper if you include all costs’, says sustainable mobility specialist Mariken Stolk of the information organization Milieu Centraal. It is then about the Total Cost of Ownership: not only the purchase, but also maintenance, fuel or charging costs, tax, insurance and depreciation. ‘In January we have our calculation updated and then the petrol price for Euro 95 was 1.95 euros (now the suggested retail price is 2.11 euros, red.).’ A newly purchased petrol car, which drives an average of 15,000 kilometers per year, then cost 700 euros per month over a period of four years, compared to 660 euros for an electric car. ‘If you don’t buy that electric car but lease it privately, you’ll end up with even cheaper: 640 euros per month.’ Milieu Centraal, says Stolk, coordinates the calculations with the ANWB, so that they are widely recognised.

Tipping moment

Car specialist Menno Neeteson of the ANWB makes the cost comparison concrete with the car cost tool: the popular electric Volkswagen ID.3 competes against two versions of the Volkswagen Golf in the same mid-range segment: a plug-in hybrid (with plug) with a 1.4 liter engine, and an ‘entry-level’ petrol car with a 1.0 engine. Neeteson calculates with five years of driving and an average of 10,000 kilometers per year.

He does report that the comparison has become more difficult due to the sharp rise in electricity costs. It makes quite a difference whether you charge the electric car with power from your own solar panels or charge it at home with grid power from a freshly concluded energy contract. Only in the latter, which is not very common, does The Telegraph equal. That is why Neeteson uses different scenarios for home charging that counts most in the cost tool (60 percent, compared to 30 percent at the public charging station, and 10 percent at the fast charger). Also in this differentiated calculation, the electric car usually comes out as the cheapest: from 535 to 630 euros per month, compared to 595 euros for the entry-level Golf. For the hybrid Golf you will lose between 560 and 685 euros per month.

‘It tipping point where electric became cheaper than petrol came last year’, says Neeteson. In particular, the costs of running the car have a negative effect on the petrol car. Charging is usually cheaper than filling up with petrol. The tires of a heavier electric car do wear out faster, but the ID.3 is cheaper to maintain: an electric motor is easier to put together than a combustion engine with more than two hundred rotating parts. In terms of tax, you are also more favorable with an electric car: until 2025 it will be exempt from road tax, to encourage electric driving.

jar is empty

‘The purchase costs are also getting closer and closer together’, says the ANWB expert. Not that the prices of an electric car are falling spectacularly. ‘But a new petrol car has become more and more expensive, because of all the technology needed to meet European emission standards. An entry-level Golf now costs 36,000 euros, ten years ago it was still 25,000 euros.’

And then the ANWB car cost tool does not even calculate with the government subsidy for purchase that will be awarded until 2025. At the moment it is 3,350 euros – although the pot for this year has been empty since June.

Another hurdle to start driving an e-car also seems to be disappearing. The infamous ‘battery degradation’, the reduction in capacity, is not that bad in practice. A study among Teslas showed that with 250,000 kilometers on the clock, an average of 90 percent of the capacity is still available. Neeteson: ‘In terms of depreciation, there is little difference between petrol cars and electric cars these days.’ And that could tilt even more in favor of the electric car in the coming years: from 2035 no new combustion engine cars are allowed to be sold in the EU and that undoubtedly casts its shadow.

So the choice seems pretty easy, except for inveterate petrol heads who cannot live without the smell of petrol. The latest e-cars drive further and further on a charge and even pull a caravan with ease. But an electric car with a decent range of about 300 kilometers still costs at least 30,000 euros, an amount that not everyone puts on the table like that. The second-hand market for electric cars is now also starting to pick up, according to the ANWB. ‘The subsidy pot for second-hand cars has been oversubscribed for the first time,’ says Neeteson.

Second-hand has really become an alternative. Provided it is a young occasion, because with the first generation electric car you will not get much further than 100 kilometers – with the exception of Teslas. Private lease is an interesting option for those who do not drive many miles. Or you scrape all your savings together and buy a new one anyway. In 7 to 8 years you can spend it for a nice amount of money to motorists who think it is still ‘too early’.