Statement: ‘Electric car is still too expensive for me’

High fuel prices, environmental zones and a clique of people who like to park the car with a combustion engine in the damn corner: in 2022 you may get the feeling that you have to explain something with your petrol or diesel car. The European Union will ban the sale of cars with a combustion engine from 2035, so cars with a combustion engine in our corner of the world do not have a long future. The electric car is still not an alternative for everyone. Electric cars are not yet well represented on the second-hand market and those who opt for new usually have to bring quite a bit of money. There are only a handful of new electric cars that cost less than €30,000.

The price difference between the cheapest EV and the cheapest petrol car is considerable.

With its starting price of just under 21 grand, the Dacia Spring is the cheapest electric car in the Netherlands. For €20,850 you can drive a 44 hp compact electric car with a 33 kWh battery that will take you up to 230 WLTP kilometers. A sprint to 100 km/h? Sit back and relax, because the Spring takes 19 seconds to do that. If we look at the cheapest new passenger car with a petrol engine, we end up with the Mitsubishi Space Star. For about 7 grand less than you pay for the Spring, you get a format-technical car comparable to the Spring with a 71 hp petrol engine. Thanks to an average combined consumption of 5.0 l/100 kilometers and a 35-liter petrol tank, you will theoretically only be back at the pump after 700 kilometers. Of course, with the Spring you benefit from the advantages that an EV offers. For example, it is quite spry, especially up to 60 km / h, you drive around silently and without emissions and you do not have to refuel an expensive E10 or E5.

Prefer a size bigger? Then you will soon end up with the Opel Corsa-e, a more mature model that will cost you at least about €34,000. It offers 136 electric horsepower and a range of 330 kilometers. But for no less than €12,500 less you already have a Corsa with a petrol engine. Although it is significantly less potent with 75 hp, Opel also offers versions with 100 hp (from about 25 mille) and 130 hp (31 mille and directly as a fully loaded GS Line). Apart from the possible savings that an EV offers in the long term, we are therefore talking about considerable price differences.

Duration is relative

At the other end of the spectrum, there are EVs that are relatively cheap in terms of performance. Think of the Tesla Model 3, a car that is on the order books from €52,000 and offers a WLTP range of almost 500 kilometers for that amount. You can already rumble to a speed of 100 km / h in 6.1 seconds. The Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Long Range costs just under 60 grand and is lightning fast with a 0-100 sprint in 4.4 seconds and also offers a range of 600 kilometers. For a BMW 3-series that is just as fast, you should go for the €88,113 M340i xDrive. ‘Expensive’ is also a very relative concept in EV land.

In short: it depends on how much value you attach to certain features whether an EV is cheap or expensive, but the fact is that the cheapest electric cars are still more expensive than the cheapest cars with a petrol engine.

You already feel it, we are curious about your opinion. Time for a round of voting, in which we posit the following proposition:

‘The electric car is still too expensive for me’

Can you find yourself in that? Why or why not? Is it more of a feeling issue? Do you think it’s fine to pay more for emission-free driving and do you therefore not find EVs expensive at all? To be clear: the statement does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the AutoWeek editors.

You can add explanations and arguments in the comments. As always, your opinion does not have to be someone else’s. We should all be on AutoWeek.nl because we have a thing for cars, so be kind to each other and try not to get too carried away.