Electric cars offer a great combination of new technology, lower running costs than traditional petrol / diesel alternatives and more environmentally conscious travel.

At first look, an electric car may seem more expensive than its petrol or diesel alternative, and often they are. What this price fails to take into consideration, however, are the overall costs associated with running a car, which can make leasing an electric car a truly viable and appealing option.

Electric cars are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, so here, we explore the key reasons why leasing an electric car may be the best option.

Affordability

As the technology for electric vehicles is still evolving, the initial selling price is relatively high. Leasing an electric car enables you to choose a great make / model with affordable monthly payments.

Tax Exemptions

Road Tax

As electric cars have no tailpipe emissions, they are all exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty, the car tax based on CO2 emissions. The example below illustrates the yearly tax you would avoid by switching to an electric car instead of, say, a BMW 3 Series.

Tax 1st year

Tax 2nd year

BMW 3 Series Touring 330i 2.0 M Sport Auto

£555

£490

Any Electric Car

£0

£0

Congestion charges

Leasing an electric vehicle would make you exempt from London Congestion Charges (LCC). Any electric car is free to enter the London Congestion charge zone. The following shows the difference in taking an electric car vs a Vauxhall Corsa into London for a day.

LCC

Vauxhall Corsa Hatchback 5 Door Hatch 1.2 75ps SE

£15

Any Electric Car

£0

Business Tax Incentives

Electric vehicles offer the potential for huge savings on tax for business users. Benefit in Kind (BIK) is determined by the P11D value of the car and your personal tax band. The significant advantage of electric cars is business car users are only charged 1% of the value of the car in 2021 and 2% for the following year, rather up to 37% for some cars, as illustrated below.

BIK per year

2021/2022

2022/2023

Mercedes GLC-Class SUV GLC220d Estate 2.0 AMG Line Premium 9G-Tronic Plus 4Matic

(Diesel)

£7,471

£7,471

Mercedes EQC SUV 300 MPV 204hp Sport Premium Auto

(Electric)

£262

£525

Improving battery range

One of the most common reasons for avoiding leasing electric vehicles is ‘range anxiety’. However, this is no longer a significant problem, as the technology has improved substantially, and the number of charging points is increasing rapidly.

The Volkswagen ID.3 has a maximum quoted range of 342 miles, and the Tesla Model 3 can do up to 348 miles. Even cheaper models ranges are reasonable like the Seat Mii which can do a maximum of 160 miles.

The UK has committed £1.3bn to improving charging infrastructure, so it will be even easier to find a local charging point along your route.

New Technology

As the future of cars, electric vehicles are the main focus for manufacturers, so they are the most progressive cars on the market to drive.

With constantly improving technology and new models becoming available, electric car leasing has a great bonus of enabling you to trade your car for a new model in as little as every 12 months.

Lower Running Costs

This is one of the best reasons to switch to leasing an electric vehicle.

Charging an electric vehicle is generally far cheaper than filling up at a fuel station. It can be more than three times more expensive to fill up a diesel or petrol car than an electric car. These potential yearly savings are shown below.

Yearly fuel & charging costs for 10,000 miles

Peugeot 208 Hatchback 5 Door Hatch 1.2 Puretech 130 Allure EAT8 Start+Stop

£1,112

Peugeot 208 Hatchback 5 Door Hatch 50kWh 136 Electric Alr Premium

£307

*The above are calculated using an average UK electricity cost of 12p/kWh and a petrol cost of 126p/ litre

Easy Maintenance

Without a traditional combustion engine, electric cars have far fewer moving parts so there are fewer elements that can fail. Electric cars use regenerative braking which means brake pads last longer too. For electric vehicles, maintenance is usually limited to tyres, brakes and windscreen wipers.

There is also the option to add maintenance packages to monthly leasing deals, making it even easier to run an electric car.

Environmentally conscious

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of switching to electric vehicles is the reduction of your carbon footprint.

Although running electric vehicles is not fully emission-free due to some of the UK’s electricity coming from burning fossil fuels, the amount of renewable energy is increasing rapidly. The emissions are transferred away from densely populated areas, improving air quality in urban areas.

Simple and enjoyable to drive

Electric cars offer performance that can easily compete with a petrol or diesel engine. They do extremely well at accelerating, with the Tesla Model S achieving 0-62 in 2.4 seconds (faster than the Bugatti Chiron) and the Porsche Taycan doing it in 2.8 seconds, even the Volkswagen ID.3 achieves an impressive 7.3 seconds.

As electric cars do not have a gearbox, the cars are essentially automatic, great for commuting and start-stop traffic. The battery’s location gives a low centre of gravity, making the handling great on sharp corners.

Ready to switch to electric leasing?

Whether you’ve decided it’s time to get an electric car, or just want to browse some of the new models available to lease, take a look at our huge range of electric car leasing deals.

Why Your Next Car Lease Should be Electric