EVs... no one wants them!

It is not an extra 15 minutes though. Stopping at a service station adds at least another 15 minutes on top of that so is closer to 30 minutes. You have time leaving motorway, finding a parking spot, getting yourself sorted and then rejoining the motorway.

Wait, petrol and diesel cars don’t depreciate? Or is this an old car vs new car comparison?

And how many times per year would you actually do that?

They're 'owners' not 'EVangelists'. And, unlike you, they have owned both ICE and EV - I own both.

In my case I have already saved around £25k in petrol, servicing and VED in the 4 years I've owned an EV against the V8 it replaced as a daily driver. I have also saved an additional £20k in tax. The car cost £50k and is still 'as new' with an immeasurably small battery degradation. I am not sure depreciation is any concern at all.

I was bored one afternoon and thought I'd create a spreadsheet to accurately plot the costs of both using .22p kwh and £1.50 petrol.

I’m never buying a diesel as I can’t afford the time waiting for the glow plug to do its thing.

Yep. Huge price inflation blip for new ICE, caused by supply shortages, just like we saw in Covid. And also just like Covid, the prices will roll down into used supply and we'll see three and four year old Yaris's going for more than they cost new.

Indeed but the OP did state that in his example the tragic victim had physically saved up the £50k so I was just pointing out that people who are actually capable of saving up £50k just aren't you're typical consumer thicko who charges into a shop to grab the latest chattel without doing any research or engaging their brain.

That said, it's still an imaginary scenario as the sort of person who prudently accumulates £50k over a period of time isn't going to then piss it away on an ID7!!! A car that is going to half in value inside of 2-3 years, where the dealer is going to use an artificial RRP to overcharge you for not taking their comedy junk rate credit from VW Finance. Even if a company offers a discounted credit rate a person who is a saver isn't going to fall for that trick as they'll automatically realise that the premium that's come off the house credit has been spanked on somewhere else, same with not falling for the deposit contribution trick. That only works on spenders as faux cash backs and discounted credit rates are catnip to them but repellents to savers.

No one who has the brains and the ability to save up £50k is ever going to find themselves facing the consumer spankings of the everyday pro shopper.

No one is even going to buy one of these privately anyway, whether using money, third party credit or taking a spanking on comedy junk rates from VW. It's a big VW saloon sort of thing so clearly aimed at businesses that need a car to allow middle management to look superior to junior when playing the company car game.

Surely the only person in the U.K. who would be using one of these is someone like a John Lewis branch manager or department head who has earned their spurs down in the Toyota pool but now deserves to escape those losers and be rocking up in something that screams 'winner'?

The issue Which has is that they're going to typically be pitching the motability end of the market, your mid sized, Asian crossovers that sort of thing but to private buyers who don't get the big BIK savings so post them introduction of the BIK discount they shouldn't be promoting EVs as an affordable solution anyway. Add in the spike in fuelling costs and it would be nigh on impossible to be legitimately pitching new EVs to people on fixed budgets who can't take advantage of the major tax savings. Someone who did that should be shot to be honest. New EVs are very much a company car play while that tax break is open. But used EV values have broken free of the manufacturer's ability to artificially manipulate them higher to support the PCP formula on new sales and used EVs are just about the only cars in the U.K. where their price is being set by the consumer (and instead of celebrating that emergence of a free market in a market so heavily manipulated by the manufacturers and the tied credit services, some are actually mocking it which does seem unbelievably dim!!). Anyway, used EVs are beginning to look like far superior value to certain consumers over ICE but Which can't pitch used, only new kit.

Interestingly, I was looking at the used ID7s on AT and wondering who was going to buy one.

Looks to be a decent alternative to Tesla, but over £40k used and £50k new is going to be a tough sell away from company car drivers / business owners.

There are loads right next to the motorways I use. M40 > M6. The improvement over the last 4 years has been excellent.

Ford is screwed in the U.K. Its product range and brand sits firmly among the section of society that not only doesn't need an EV but where using one isn't going to begin to start making sense for over a decade.

Where is Ford going to find EV buyers? Higher income, employed individuals who have driveways and vehicle usage scenarios that work for EVs? That's not a Ford demographic. Ford is young people starting out, old people needing to be frugal, families on a budget. Ford's demographic is the precice group that EVs are categorically not aimed at but are being left well alone to switch years from now.

And Ford's solution is to sell fewer ICE. Well, at that they're going to win big, like proper big because Ford is gone from the U.K. with that tactic.

So, err, bye bye Ford cars I guess. What a catastrophic and devastating blow to the U.K.!!! Oh wait, it's of absolutely no relevance at all, just a culling of the weak. And it's not as if Ford can go all whingy as surely being God fearing Capitalists they understand how that all works.

It's what the good Lord would want.

Now, Renault. They sell cheap cars to people on a budget and their core demographic is the precise group of Britons who have absolutely no need to be wasting a moment of their time, let alone money fannying about with EVs. Same core market as Ford and yet Renault are selling EVs and actually doing a good job of it. Renault seem very likely to not be overly troubled by the ZEV Mandate.

So it's not the nasty gubberment but Ford's long term U.K. management. All losers who watched this coming decades out and decided to not do anything about it only to end up at the 11th hour whinging about how the dog has eaten their homework or they had to go to their granny's funeral for the 8th time.

The simple truth is that Ford are losers. They installed loser management and ran a loser business plan and customers don't want to pay hard earned money to be linked to losers and Ford is making itself a loser brand. It's perfectly capable of competing with the others but they need to ditch the losers first.