Is It Worth Leasing An Electric Car?
Leasing an electric car might be something you’ve recently started to think about. After all, more and more electric cars are on the market, and there’s a lot of fanfare surrounding investing into this climate friendly scheme.
Which leaves you with the question: is it a fluke, or will it really be worth it to lease an electric car?
If you’re someone who’s interested in electric cars, but you’re just not yet sure if it’d be worth it to lease one, let’s go through some of the main factors that could tip your decision.
There’s an Increase of Electric Cars on the Road
Electric vehicles have been around since the 19th century, and quite a few modern electric car prototypes were invented during the 60s and 70s. However, it wasn’t until the mid noughties, when the Tesla Roadster began production, that electric cars really started to take off.
And since then, the number of electric cars on the road has been steadily growing. In 2018 alone, almost 3.3 million electric battery vehicles were on the road worldwide, and the market for electric vehicles is expected to rise to a value of $567 billion by 2026.
In terms of taking out a car lease, these are all good signs for whether or not it would be worth it. If you have an interest in electric cars, the numbers above hold a promising future for you.
There’s Many Benefits to Electric Cars
Electric cars have many benefits to them, and it’s why they have such a big market draw, and a very bright future for the industry ahead. Let’s go through a few of the main pros below:
Electric Cars are Cleaner
Electric cars are notably cleaner for the environment around them. They’re run on purely electric means, and if your household needs to lower its collective carbon footprint right now, leasing an electric car could be a great way to cut down emissions tenfold.
Electric cars are far more energy efficient, compared to standard combustion engines. Electric vehicles use 77% of grid power at the wheels, whereas combustion engines tend to only convert up to 30% of the energy in fuel.
Electric Cars are Cheaper to Run
Sure, outright buying or leasing an electric car seems expensive. But in the long run, the running costs are going to be much lower, and you’ll have no need to fork out for fuel. To charge up an electric vehicle, it could cost you less than 5p per mile – much less than the average £1.30 per mile for petrol/diesel. We recommend using Zap-Map’s Electric Vehicle Home Charging Calculator and Electric Vehicle Journey Cost Comparison Tool to really see how much the full difference will save you.
Not to mention that electric cars are exempt from car tax, due to the fact that they produce little to no CO2 emissions.
Most electric vehicle owners tend to charge their vehicles at home, therefore the best way to ensure your recharge costings are as low as possible is by making sure you are getting the best deal from your home energy provider.
We fully recommend that you check out ‘Look After My Bills‘ the UK’s no.1 energy auto-switching site. Registration is FREE and takes just 2 minutes from which the service will review your current energy provider vs. the market. If they find a better deal available, they will automatically switch you to the new deal. When that deal ends, they review and switch you once again – meaning that you can be confident you are always on a great deal without the hassle of having to scan comparison sites each year when your deal runs out. Think of it as the electric vehicle equivalent of driving around fuel stations trying to find the cheapest current fuel cost!
Electric Cars are Quiet to Run
Whether you live in the inner city or you’re out in the countryside, having an electric vehicle means you won’t contribute to existing noise pollution either. Electric vehicles are almost silent when turned on, and you won’t be dealing with the roar of an engine on the commute.
BMW released the all electric i3, which is a five seater car ready made for urban and suburban travel, meaning it’s a perfect contender for a silent and comfortable day to day drive.
Electric Cars Handle General Commute Distances Very Well
Commuting is something we do most in our cars; motorway or long distance driving isn’t common on a day to day scale, and thus, we just need to know if we can get from A to B with no trouble on the horizon.
With an electric car’s innate ability to keep your carbon footprint low, combined with the cheaper cost of leasing the vehicle, you won’t be in any doubt of commuting power when behind an all electric vehicle’s wheel.
The Tesla Model 3, one of the cheapest electric vehicles currently on the market, has a mileage range of 322, meaning it’ll get you from A to B multiple times in just a single charge. That means, in terms of local and/or general commuting, electric vehicles handle the distance better than you could ever need them to.
There’s Benefits to Leasing Too
Leasing an electric car is perfect for someone in your position, who is undecided about whether or not an electric car is right for them. Let’s go through what leasing can do for you:
Accessibility
Let’s run with an example here: The Nissan Leaf is currently the most popular electric car model on a global scale, but trying to get your hands on one might prove tricky – you may not have the upfront costs, there’s serious market competition, etc.
But that’s where leasing comes in; get in touch with a car lease company that has a Leaf currently in the lot, and your problems are solved. All in all, it’s a lot more accessible to lease an electric car, rather than try to buy. If you are still not convinced, then we recommend you read our article on the differences between buying a car and leasing.
No Commitment
When buying a vehicle, you’re going to have to watch it drop in value. When you lease it instead, you completely skip out on this integral part of the dealership model, and instead, have a shiny and new car to take home with you, with no excess fees, and no depreciation to cope with.
Remember, Electric Cars are a Lot Like Mobile Phones
Electric cars can be looked at in the same vein as mobile phones – they’re always updating to newer models and bringing them out to market, introducing longer and larger mileage ranges for people with more than a simple commuting need, and innovation will always just be right around the corner.
It’s why leasing an electric vehicle makes the most sense; it makes sense to keep up to date with any and all latest models, and that cannot be done when you’ve spent thousands to pay to own an electric car. Take out a simple lease, and then upgrade when you want or need to.
If you already have an electric vehicle then you should check out our handy local electric vehicle charging point tool to find a station closest to you.
Leasing an electric car is a big decision, but is it worth it for you? There are quite a few pros to it!