EV's and what's your driveway look like?

[fiisch]

TL;DR- What do you drive? Has being a contractor affected what fuel type/how you pay for it?

I've done a search, I've read the various implications and opinions on EVs (which largely seem unchanged from when I was previous a contractor in 2020), but wondering what other contractors do in terms of personal vs business ownership/leasing?

We bought a lightly-used Nissan Leaf about 6 months ago as a tentative step into EV ownership and I must admit even as a devout petrolhead I'm sold. The range is a bit carp which I expected, but as a do-it-all runabout it's been ideal, and I've noted a big drop in fuel bill.

Our second car - main family car - is a Skoda Superb, which now does only very limited mileage. I love it, it's been a fantastic servant and probably the best all-round car I've ever owned, but it's getting a bit leggy at 6 years old/70k miles and is at that age where it'll start presenting me with big bills.

I don't really "want" an EV for both slots on our driveway, but now I am back contracting for the foreseeable, and outside contracts seem to be the norm in my industry (insurance), the latest offers for business lease Tesla Model Y are very tempting (although being a contrarian, I like a car that is rare/unusual in some way (my Superb is yellow), so the Tesla isn't particularly desirable to me), but my warped man-maths is making me think the cheap personal costs of having one personal owned + one business leased EV on the drive frees up cash to eventually buy something silly for the weekend.

Am I letting the tail wag the dog in terms of getting a business lease on the company, or it is a financial no-brainer for the discerning contractor? If you leased, were there any restrictions in terms of company age/balance sheet to consider?

FWIW deal I'm looking at is 3 x 47 on a Model Y for £425 (15k miles/year).

(I'm well aware Leaf + Superb doesn't immediately shout petrolhead, in fact it screams boring ****, but for various reasons I had to take a step away from the silly cars, at least for a little while )

[Zigenare]

TL;DR- What do you drive? Has being a contractor affected what fuel type/how you pay for it?

I've done a search, I've read the various implications and opinions on EVs (which largely seem unchanged from when I was previous a contractor in 2020), but wondering what other contractors do in terms of personal vs business ownership/leasing?

We bought a lightly-used Nissan Leaf about 6 months ago as a tentative step into EV ownership and I must admit even as a devout petrolhead I'm sold. The range is a bit carp which I expected, but as a do-it-all runabout it's been ideal, and I've noted a big drop in fuel bill.

Our second car - main family car - is a Skoda Superb, which now does only very limited mileage. I love it, it's been a fantastic servant and probably the best all-round car I've ever owned, but it's getting a bit leggy at 6 years old/70k miles and is at that age where it'll start presenting me with big bills.

I don't really "want" an EV for both slots on our driveway, but now I am back contracting for the foreseeable, and outside contracts seem to be the norm in my industry (insurance), the latest offers for business lease Tesla Model Y are very tempting (although being a contrarian, I like a car that is rare/unusual in some way (my Superb is yellow), so the Tesla isn't particularly desirable to me), but my warped man-maths is making me think the cheap personal costs of having one personal owned + one business leased EV on the drive frees up cash to eventually buy something silly for the weekend.

Am I letting the tail wag the dog in terms of getting a business lease on the company, or it is a financial no-brainer for the discerning contractor? If you leased, were there any restrictions in terms of company age/balance sheet to consider?

FWIW deal I'm looking at is 3 x 47 on a Model Y for £425 (15k miles/year).

(I'm well aware Leaf + Superb doesn't immediately shout petrolhead, in fact it screams boring ****, but for various reasons I had to take a step away from the silly cars, at least for a little while )

They can shove EVs up their arses.

Driveway currently occupied by a Mercedes GLE 400 and a Land Rover Discovery Sport. The GLE is on loan until JLR return my XJ.

[northernladuk]

Nearly 6 litres of 4x4 and midlife crisis on mine. Only one cat converter between the two of them so smells lovely at startup as well.

I can see the draw of the electrics but not for me... but never say never.

Nice to hear fiisch's fuel bill has come down. It's as you'd expect but have you factored in total cost of ownership including depreciation of your leaf yet?
If you want an electric then I'm sure leasing one through the business is a very good idea. I think you have to want an electric though. In a side by side comparison the total cost of a Tesla when you give it back doesn't make a great deal if you are looking at costs alone. Also I wouldn't get hung up on a tesla either. A lot of other very good options around now.

[ladymuck]

Seeing as I've had the same car since 2008 I would say no, being a contractor not changed anything.

[fiisch]

Nearly 6 litres of 4x4 and midlife crisis on mine. Only one cat converter between the two of them so smells lovely at startup as well.

I can see the draw of the electrics but not for me... but never say never.

Nice to hear fiisch's fuel bill has come down. It's as you'd expect but have you factored in total cost of ownership including depreciation of your leaf yet?
If you want an electric then I'm sure leasing one through the business is a very good idea. I think you have to want an electric though. In a side by side comparison the total cost of a Tesla when you give it back doesn't make a great deal if you are looking at costs alone. Also I wouldn't get hung up on a tesla either. A lot of other very good options around now.

They sound ideal - how do I get them on a business lease?

I'm very anti-Tesla (white goods and far too common), but at the price it's hard to get anything equivalent currently (the """Mustang""" Mach E is slightly cheaper on same terms at £400/month, the VW ID4/5 are about £50-75 cheaper but they're inferior, slower cars for my money). I'd love an Enyaq vRS in hyper green, but the deals just aren't there at the moment.

For me, EVs are there to do the boring miles to save fossil fuels and special cars for the weekend. EVs are "better" to drive if driving for you purely means getting from A to B, and I think the Leaf works out about 5p/mile (and that's before we've swapped to a cheap EV tarriff) vs about 15p/mile for the petrol-powered Skoda (admittedly heavier). We're quite rural, school run is a 20 mile round trip, so we do about 15k/year just ordinary day-to-day running around, even though I'm mostly based from home. Leaf was bought as a 3 year old, 12k mile car - in 6 months we've put 10k on it, and it's lost about £4k/25% of it's value, but that includes the used main dealer mark-up, which I don't think is too bad. Typically, I bought it just before I returned to contracting, otherwise I'd have waited and put it through the ltd.

I'm struggling as for me a car is an emotional purchase, and I just can't get emotional about an EV...

[edison]

TL;DR- What do you drive? Has being a contractor affected what fuel type/how you pay for it?

I've done a search, I've read the various implications and opinions on EVs (which largely seem unchanged from when I was previous a contractor in 2020), but wondering what other contractors do in terms of personal vs business ownership/leasing?

We bought a lightly-used Nissan Leaf about 6 months ago as a tentative step into EV ownership and I must admit even as a devout petrolhead I'm sold. The range is a bit carp which I expected, but as a do-it-all runabout it's been ideal, and I've noted a big drop in fuel bill.

Our second car - main family car - is a Skoda Superb, which now does only very limited mileage. I love it, it's been a fantastic servant and probably the best all-round car I've ever owned, but it's getting a bit leggy at 6 years old/70k miles and is at that age where it'll start presenting me with big bills.

I don't really "want" an EV for both slots on our driveway, but now I am back contracting for the foreseeable, and outside contracts seem to be the norm in my industry (insurance), the latest offers for business lease Tesla Model Y are very tempting (although being a contrarian, I like a car that is rare/unusual in some way (my Superb is yellow), so the Tesla isn't particularly desirable to me), but my warped man-maths is making me think the cheap personal costs of having one personal owned + one business leased EV on the drive frees up cash to eventually buy something silly for the weekend.

Am I letting the tail wag the dog in terms of getting a business lease on the company, or it is a financial no-brainer for the discerning contractor? If you leased, were there any restrictions in terms of company age/balance sheet to consider?

FWIW deal I'm looking at is 3 x 47 on a Model Y for £425 (15k miles/year).

(I'm well aware Leaf + Superb doesn't immediately shout petrolhead, in fact it screams boring ****, but for various reasons I had to take a step away from the silly cars, at least for a little while )

A six year old/70k miles car is leggy? A car like that should still have a lot of life left in it and even accounting for some potential repair bills, compare that to the effective cost of depreciation on leasing a new car. My last three cars have been a petrol Toyota, Ford and VW and they've done about 180k miles in the last 15 years with very few problems.

Most of the people I know with Teslas are on business leases and are fans but they seem to have a lot of reliability problems. I spent two hours as a passenger in a Model Y at the weekend and I can't say I was that impressed with the ride. It felt more like a laptop on wheels.

[vetran]

The acceleration on the Tesla is insane. If you are doing a predictable route its easy to keep charged. BIL has one.

[northernladuk]

The acceleration on the Tesla is insane. If you are doing a predictable route its easy to keep charged. BIL has one.

My BiL has one as well and he scares the crap out of me. I mentioned this in a thread about insurance. He's been used to family cars and last one was the hybrid Mitsubishi truck thing. No experience with high powered cars and now he gives the berries every time he accelerates in a car with normal tyres and suspension. He's like a kid. He's either accelerating or breaking, nothing in between. I don't know how he's not stuffed it up the back of someone or ended up in a ditch yet. I'll bet everything I have he's had a couple of frights and not told anyone though.

Putting average old blokes in Tesla's seem a recipe for disaster but I don't see the evidence yet. I would have thought it was like born again bikers. Bunch of old, slow people on modern powerful kit they can't handle hence highest mortality rate in biking.

[willendure]

Currently walking to the office. Its lovely, walking past all those stationary cars and stressed drivers. This is in Edinburgh where the level of traffic has just become insane and the council just love closing roads and creating stupid one way systems etc. They really hate drivers. Sometimes I like to imagine being a fly on the wall at their council meetings to observe what a bunch of absolute twats they must be...

Got a 20 years Landcruiser Prado in near mint condition, for when I want to get out of town for an adventure. Landcruisers are easily the best 4x4, smaller engined model like the Prado are cheap to run, easy to fix, fantastic reliability, great off road, can still pull a large caravan etc.

EVs are kind of pointless, certainly won't save the planet.

[vetran]

My BiL has one as well and he scares the crap out of me. I mentioned this in a thread about insurance. He's been used to family cars and last one was the hybrid Mitsubishi truck thing. No experience with high powered cars and now he gives the berries every time he accelerates in a car with normal tyres and suspension. He's like a kid. He's either accelerating or breaking, nothing in between. I don't know how he's not stuffed it up the back of someone or ended up in a ditch yet. I'll bet everything I have he's had a couple of frights and not told anyone though.

Putting average old blokes in Tesla's seem a recipe for disaster but I don't see the evidence yet. I would have thought it was like born again bikers. Bunch of old, slow people on modern powerful kit they can't handle hence highest mortality rate in biking.

basically like owning an R8 then but with working indicators?