Over Easter I made a 300-mile round trip to the Peak District, the electricity for this journey cost £7. Had I driven a petrol, car this would have cost £66. The Tesla Model Y has a list price of £44k.
Our heat pump is considerably cheaper to run than the oil boiler that it replaced. This project cost £10k, we got just over half of this back in grants.
A set of solar panels and a battery could reduce our summer consumption to near zero and in winter we could run exclusively on off peak electricity at one third of the daytime rate. Solar panels and a battery could cost £20k.
Entry into this 100% electric club would cost £74k, about three times the average UK take home pay, not many can afford the membership fee. For the around 8 million homes in the UK rental and housing association sector, two of these membership sections are closed.
What can be done? Clearly the issue is the capital outlay,
We could add the house upgrade costs of £30k to the mortgage, adding about £125 to the monthly repayments, a lot for households. Government grants are another option, redistributing wealth from higher rate taxpayers. Perhaps companies could offer lease options based on a service model, but they will need to make their profit.
Pushing adoption amongst those that can afford it should eventually drive down costs for everyone.
There are no easy answers.
