A consider verdict is the awkward middle: on your inputs, the calculator shows savings, but not enough to make the switch feel obvious. Often that is £200–£800 a year — real money if you keep the car, easy to shrug off if changing cars is a pain.
Fuel savings might be modest, but VED is often lower on an EV, maintenance can be simpler, and used prices on some models have stopped falling off a cliff. The spreadsheet says “maybe”; your current car’s MOT bill might say “please”.
If you were going to change cars in the next year or two anyway — PCP ending, family outgrowing the boot — an EV can make sense even when the annual saving is only a few hundred quid. You are not buying purely for maths; you are not ignoring maths either.
What you paid vs what you would get selling now. Our ownership section uses your purchase price and how long you have had the car — not a generic depreciation curve. Trading in too early on finance can wipe out a decade of fuel savings.
Where you charge. Home or cheap workplace charging makes moderate savings add up. Street parking plus Ionity at 79p/kWh does not.
Depends what you are comparing it to. If the EV costs the same to buy and you charge at home, £300 is £300. If you are stretching finance to get there and selling a car you only bought last year, the gap often disappears — rerun the figures when a natural change is on the horizon.