POINTLESS UK EV grant of £3,750

This UK Labour government is as pointless and as misguided as the EV grant that they've introduced of £3,750 for brand-new electric vehicles.

It has to be a new vehicle. I'll tell you why it's a pointless grant and quite hopelessly misconceived. Take a EV that apparently holds value quite well: the Ford Puma GEN-E. Brand-new it costs £29,995 (as at today).

After the first year it'll be worth about £7000 less than that at about £23,000. So the purchaser loses about £7000 after 12 months, a point in the car's life at which the car is almost new. It's as good as new.

So if the buyer buys a nearly new i.e. one year old Ford Puma GEN-E car they will pay £23,000 for it and thereby save themselves £7000. But if they buy new one they will save themselves £3750 under the UK government grant.

It's pretty obvious that the wise choice is to buy a one year old version of this car because you save about twice as much money then you would if you bought a new one.

Other cars will depreciate faster. Many electric vehicles depreciate very rapidly actually, more so than the car mentioned in this article. And therefore the losses will be greater. As soon as the car is driven out of the showroom the buyer loses around £10,000 on many high-end EVs. They're paying £10,000 for the pleasure of smelling a new car!

This government's EV grant scheme is hopeless. It is hopelessly misconceived and is just a PR exercise. Anybody with a bit of common sense will not go down the route of seeking that grant.

In practice, the smart money is almost always a nearly new cars. You might like the dealer perks and the brand-new experience and you might like the maximum warranty but nowadays many cars have very long warranties up to 7 years and therefore taking one year off is neither here nor there.

To be fair, the grant is not absolutely useless. It does reduce the entry price for new buyers and some people really like to be new-car buyers. But in real cash terms, it's benefit is offset by the rapid drop in value of all new cars.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.