Real Weekly Road Fuel Prices in the UK

Every week BEIS publishes data on the average price of road fuel, it's always an interesting read, but appears to be missing something.. what about all those Electric Vehicle (EV) Drivers?

As fuel prices are set out in Litres and Electricity as kWh it's hard to compare directly. But lets assume that you travel about 10,000 miles a year, a pretty normal distance and perfectly viable even for EV drivers. It's about what we've done in my household for the last two years. Here is a chart overlaying the historical weekly fuel prices with the historical electricity prices. Of course decent EV's weren't available back then, the first Leaf hit the UK around 2011, but it is eye opening.

There are a lot of assumptions in this data (set out at the end), but it's clearly cheaper and with less volatile price increases for those EV drivers buying (fuel). All the fuels prices above include taxes, however unlike electricity, Fuel duty has reduced in real terms since 2010. Despite this it's currently nearly £800 a year cheaper to run your average EV.

What about your Carbon footprint

Mainly due to the decommissioning of Coal, the Carbon Intensity of Electricity in the UK has dramatically reduced over the last couple years. That said, even back in 2011 your carbon footprint would have been nearly a half a tonne CO2e lower than a non-EV driver. Those advances mean that this year you would have over 1 tonne lower carbon footprint, that's a reduction of 15% off the average UK carbon footprint of 8 tonnes.

We are close with new vehicles, but at the moment not every long distance journey can be made by EV's and the cost of replacing your vehicle, or lack of driveway is a barrier.. but with the right investment in infrastructure, a shift towards more EV usage could have huge impact on the UK's carbon footprint.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the views of the authors employer. 

Assumptions

Fuel Efficiency - Diesel (55mpg), Petrol (50mpg) and Electric Vehicle (0.3kWh/Mile)

Electricity - Direct Debit (England and Wales average including standing charges)

Carbon Intensity of Fuels - I have used historic emission factors for Electricity for most years (as these are easy to get) the Diesel and Petrol are the average Biofuel blend for 2018 (as the old Emission Conversion Factors sheets all use 2015).