Drivers in the UK will save on average £688 on fuel a year by switching from petrol to an electric car

Here at Pentagon Group, we wanted to find out how much money we would save commuting to work everyday in an electric car opposed to a petrol model. So, we decided to run a study to find out what the average savings would be and what we could potentially spend that money on... Christmas? Holiday next year? New car?

We have taken the Electric Vauxhall Corsa and compared it with a similar-sized city car to work out the money saved. Taking average commute time by hour for all the regions in the UK and looking at average fuel and electricity costs*, we were able to work out the money spent on fuel and what that could look like if we switched to an electric second-hand car. After finding out the savings, we compared this to using public transport for the year to see what would show the real savings.

*Average petrol cost 114p (7.5p per mile) | Average electricity 1.2p per mile | Average MPG 38.8 | Average year is based on a 48 working week taking into consideration holiday allowance.

With an average salary of £31,460.00, the third-highest in the UK, they will be making a saving of £904.49p a year on fuel! 1 year of worth of petrol spent on just the average daily commute works out to be £993.77 whilst electricity in an electric car would only cost £89.28.

The East of England has the longest commute in miles compared to anywhere else in the UK therefore spends the most on fuel so there is no doubt as to why they will see the biggest fuel savings.

This is due to the congestion in London and the number of vehicles on the road. The annual saving from making the switch is £583.54. You will be going from spending 1.72% of your salary on fuel to 0.15% which is a considerable saving.

This is the second-lowest saving in the UK due to the average miles-per-day being lower in London when compared to the East and South of England. Of course with London travel, the cost of driving your petrol car doesn't stop at just fuel each day.
You also need to take into consideration the congestion charge which is up to £15 per day depending on what zones you drive in. The congestion charge alone is £3,600 for the year which makes purchasing an annual season train ticket the better option costing around £3,067 - prices seem to increase annually.

However, driving your EV through London will save you a considerable amount of money. Currently, you do not have to pay congestion charges in any zones in London if you own an EV or Hybrid. Changes are coming into effect in 2021 which means only full EV will be exempt. The cost of electricity will be £360.00 per year to drive the average commute distance in London.

London has numerous charge points across the city with the target of installing 300 by the end of the year. Some charge points across the city offer free charging as well as free off-road parking whilst your car is charging which is an added bonus!

Welsh drivers spend, on average, £609 on petrol every year. Making the swap to an electric vehicle in Wales cuts this cost down to £54.72 a year or £1.14 per day! And with the average salary being £28,184, that’s just 0.19% of their yearly wage.

Welsh commuters travel an average of 19 miles a day, equating 48 minutes for their daily commute. This is the shortest distance and time spent commuting out of all the regions.

Northern Ireland spent the most part of their salary commuting compared to the rest of the UK. 3.27% of their salary on petrol a year (based on the average salary of £27,508) and stand to save £816.96 a year by switching to petrol. Commuting with an electric vehicle brings this down to just 0.29% of their salary, a massive reduction cut.

As mentioned above, the East of England, on average, spends just under £1K a year on petrol! With the second-highest average salary of £31,460, this equates to 3.16% of their yearly wage! But doing the same commute with an electric vehicle cuts this down to just 0.28% of their salary, or £89.28 a year. 

We think it’s pretty clear from the money saved that it’s definitely worth exploring making the switch from petrol to purchasing an electric vehicle. Especially in the East of England where you will make the most savings. Alternative fuel cars will start to be phased out in the coming years so it is definitely something we should all be considering when looking to purchase a new vehicle.