There is the ongoing cost of maintenance of the ICE based car. Might try to do a breakdown of long term cost of keeping said paid off ICE vehicle vs trading in the ICE car and financing the remainder for an EV.
I am not convinced the fully paid off car has that big of an advantage to be honest. I know in the last 12 months from my circle 7 people that have had to do Engine replacements that cost them over 40k.
Kia Rio (about 40k with no labour as persons Dad is a mechanic).
Peugeot 508 (about 60k).
BMW M4 CS (stock) a bit over 90k if I recall correctly.
Hyundai i10 a bit over 40k (still on going)
Audi S3 (he was tuned to be fair) a bit over 150k.
BMW F30 320i piston rings damaged from injector issues. 50k he spent.
Mitsubishi Pajero complete engine replacement but was done on goodwill so no cost.
And before all of this, there were fuel pumps (Peugeot), water pumps, charge coolers etc that had to be done.
Even basic things like brake pads and disks last considerably longer on EVs coz they do regen braking.
If the EV has at least 2 motors, there is no differential. Each motor drives its own wheel. The guys with the S3 got an RS3 and had to replace the diff with a used one for 35k. Another cost the EV guy doesn’t deal with.
Electricty prices are stable and go up with Eskom’s increases once a year (8/9% which is unfortunately still damn high) but at least you don’t deal with the wildly swinging fuel prices. At this point there is people who are giving up basic things to afford to commute and do their things coz of the fuel. At least with Eskom you have a whole year to plan.
My workplace has solar and I had asked my boss if he would be fine with people charging their cars on the company premises and he said no problem as the company pays for fuel at the moment for the employees so it would be less overheads for him.
Let alone counting the fact that one can add solar at their house also if funds allow which also cuts your own electric bills.
So the question remains. A guy with an F30 320i for example that can be traded on for 200k. And a BYD that is costing 330k. That 130k that has to be financed, are you really sure that your ICE car won’t swallow up that 130k with maintenance?
Also keep in mind the average person when a car starts giving lots of issues goes and buys another one again. Now you are financing regardless whereas the EV would have pushed you half a million km easily with no rebuilding etc. For most cars at some point over 200k you will do major work. That is guaranteed.
