PETROL vs DIESEL (vs ELECTRIC CAR!) – which is REALLY cheaper? | What Car?

OK, so an electric car is cheaper, BUT.
Electric vehicles depreciate like a lead balloon plus you have the added advantage of it bursting into flames [Luton Airport carpark]
I'll stick to diesel and fuck the planet.

These comparisons always have a ridiculous price for the electric... My EV will do 300 miles, I can charge it to full every night for 10p/kwh should I need to... that's 30% of the figure stated here.
The other glaring omission in all of these videos is the environmental elephant in the room with diesel.... Diesel is transported to a filling station by a diesel vehicle, which gets its fuel from a tanker that also runs on diesel. the effect is exponential..... The environmental impact of just physically getting the fuel to the pump massively outweighs any argument of environmentalism.

I've owned several diesel cars over the years and the one major life limiting feature of the modern diesel engine is the introduction of the particulate filter. Yes, it needs to be there to satisfy emissions regulations. But anyone buying a diesel to do short trips needs to remember that these filters will clog up very quickly with this type of use. The cost to remedy a blocked DPF can run into the thousands.

I now drive a petrol purely because of the hassle DPFs have caused me.

But why is diesel fuel dearer ? It’s called theft

Do a range test, see how that goes.

EV's are great for the environment, where you drive them.
Not where all the energy is being generated.
NIMBY for fumes, hooray

The main take away is these new cars are 20k overpriced

I know all EV owners i know are always trying to justify there £500-£600 lease is better than my paid off used car

yea and the uk want to move to ELECTRIC CAR because they are cheaper to run bull.

forgot to mention after the use of the vehicle .. lithuim is an awful chemical toxic and extremely flamable / explosive ! and can not be recycled ! a petrol and diesel car can be completely recycled !

I learnt the hard way of hidden costs of a diesel. Using it to commute to work and the shops wasn't enough to keep the filters clear. So ended up with expensive repair bills. Do not get a diesel unless you do long journeys regularly otherwise you will pay a fortune in repairs.

But you didnt crunch the petrol hybrid car? It would have been almost 100%mpg for town driving and cheaper on long distance so it would have won, plus there is a petrol hybrid in the 3008 so im confused why that wasnt tested.

Most people who charge at home pay MUCH less than the 29p/KW/h. Every mile that I have done this year has been fuelled while I sleep at around 7p/kwh

I believe in these kind of comparisons you should find out and average age of an owner of said car and do some quotes in real life person that age, that would give a real world yearly cost of owning and using such vehicle. We would all like an electric car yo move about our towns or cities, but have another alternative for longer distances. but if it would cost me £600 to insure a diesel car in comparison to £3000/y for a car such as model y, then we can all see there is no savings.

Would of also been worth adding that if you filled those petrol / diesel at the services the price would have been different (like it was for the electric at a supercharger).

Why is diesel MORE expensive than petrol in the UK?

A great non bias video; I wished they’d put more videos like this on mainstream TV platforms.

A couple of things I personally feel is missing in this video. I admit, I live in a nordic country where the costs may vary somewhat regarding certain things. So what I'm about to say, might come with a little caviat. But... From my experience diesel is cheaper regarding fuel economy, no problem. But at least where I live, Diesel is quite a bit more expensive when it comes to service costs. Would say about 30% more than a comparable petrol car from the same brand.

Another thing I would like to point out regarding the engine in the petrol version of the 5008 shown here, the 1,2L 130hp. Is that from my personal experience, and from what I can also see several point out online. It has a lot of issues! I have a 308 SW 2016, it has had several massive issues, several engine failures. Wich has been described from the sales network here in my country as "known faults". With my luck, these issues reared their heads after the varenty had expired, and combined with the vast depriciation on Peugeots in general. And the money spent on all the issues with the car, I simply can't afford to get rid. Having said that, it's not just the engine that's been the issue. Exhaust rusted to bits long before you would expect it, springs crack and needed replacing etc etc. And time and time again the dealership refers too most issues as "known faults" with this car/brand. It's been the worst car I've owned in terms of reliabilty. The reason I'm writing all this, is I'm not too fond of all the "good press" this engine in perticular is getting, from motor journalists in general. All the before mentioned issues may not be present the first years of ownership. But if one normally keeps ones cars for a while. This engine/brand should be avoided in my opinion.

Charge at home overnight on Octopus intelligent @7.5p would have cost £4.17 on Day one and 65p on day 2

ah yes coal emissions on top

Buy a reeky diesel then

Tbh most working class people don't give two hoots about climate change

Good review this and not overly technical, only thing I'd have asked them to include is a bit about factoring in the CO2 impact of producing the EV's purely to give a fully rounded review of EV's, there costs and there true impacts to the environment.

Lots of people won't care but if you are really into your save the planet stance its important you understand the nature of the production of the EV's ref mining of the Lithium, Cobalt and Nickle plus shipping required to make the current generation of batteries, with that in mind (note the latest evidence is that you'd need to drive your diesel / petrol vehicle for circa 60 - 80K miles before the environmental impacts even themselves out such that the EV is the better environmental choice) you might want to go for the Petrol / Diesel now until the battery tech changes in such a way that the production impact is lowered.

I'm not trying to put people off EV's, for me they are not quite fit for purpose at the moment but they will work some, however EV's are certainly going to improve substantively over the next 5 years or so (Solid State Batteries, different battery constructions away from Lithium and Cobalt, natural improvements in range, design, recharging technology and charging infrastructure etc) it might be worth a wait for the improvements to tip the balance more in the EV's favour than is present today.

Pigs are killed by being lowered into open top pits which are filled with Co2... think about that... an open top pit in the ground filled with Co2... now ask yourself... how the f**k is Co2 making the climate change high up in the earths atmosphere from below ground level in a OPEN top pit?...

Great video, very informative and honestly not surprising. Electric cars appeared great at first with free charging rates at chargers, government schemes, tax exempt etc but that's all changing, expensive charging rates when away from home, hugely expensive purchases out of reach for many, road tax from 2025, damaging to the environment in their own way due to battery manufacturing and so on. The only thing I think that was missed in your review was Ad Blue, not sure if the 5008 uses it, but that would need to be factored in to new diesel running costs.

I switched from a petrol (small hatchback with a 1.2) to a diesel (small hatchback with a 1.4) about 7 years ago.
Even with the higher price of diesel per litre, my weekly fuel bill halved! Insurance wasn't really affected, tyres and general maintenance was the same, and I saved money on VED, it dropped from £130 a year to £0.

I currently wouldn't consider an EV. The only ones that currently come up in my price range (<=£7k) are the Nissan Leaf and the Renault Zoe. The boot on the Leaf rules it out, as it just isn't big enough to get music equipment in, as the rear wheel arches intrude in the boot space. The Zoe is about big enough, but from what I can find has a 'real world' range of about 60-90 miles. When on site, I have a commute of 50 miles, with no way to charge whilst at work. So it's not really an option right now.

It's easy. Leasing an e208 costs me the same as having a diesel Ibiza in front of the door. For what I drive. (20,000km/year) It saves about €40/month which electricity is cheaper than diesel. So you do math. 🧮

EV ARE CRAP, ASK THE MACMASTER, ASK ELECTRIC CAR-NAGE, ASK GEOFF BUYS CARS..

No EV owner in their right mind charges their car at standard rates when all the major suppliers offer cheap over night rates 7-9p/kw... With well over 80% of driving being the town version it makes these stats very skewed. These comparison really should be done fully over a year. My avg is 10,000 pa and I've gone from £4000+ a year to around £500 for electric in a Tesla M3. Add to that the savings on tax, servicing and the savings to the house electric which also benefits from the cheap over night rate and the Dinosaur Juices days are numbered. In terms of "rich mans" toys comments the net cost of the Tesla to us after the various savings is about £150/mth. Cant buy a fiesta for that!

Something not factored into this is the used market, if buying new then the increased cost of a diesel means you are playing catch up, but on the used market diesels are abundant and well priced, Also not mentioned is that diesel cars generally enjoy lower road tax tariffs, some being as low as £30 per year. Also, as some people are now finding out, batteries on EV's last 3-5 years and cost as much as a new car to replace, this alone renders EV as completely useless as a potential replacement, even before you talk about the patchy charging infrastructure and inconsistent charging costs. From a pollution perspective it is also worth mentioning that the environmental damage caused by simply mining the Lithium for the batteries equates to almost all of the pollution a conventional combustion vehicle emits throughout it's lifetime, and that much of the electricity required to charge the EV still comes from gas/oil burning power stations. Diesel technology has made large strides in reducing pollution through the inclusion of DPF modules, and it has been successfully demonstrated that biodiesel can be produced from waste cooking oil and other vegetable oils completely removing the reliance on crude oil. The UK government even ran an initiative some years ago where you could purchase the materials from the Government itself to convert 100L of used cooking oil into biodiesel each year. For some reason this was scrapped and all mention of biodiesel seems to have been censored in favor of EV.

Electric cars also have the issue of being able to charge at home as you will find people in terraced houses don't have that option. The best car to buy is a diesel and always buy an old, used one. Sod Khan.

Try selling a used EV !!!.
Do they factor in Battery replacement ?.
I'll stick with my diesel Merc.

Cant home charge then don't buy an EV its that simple.

I regularly have to drive from Yorkshire to Scotland. I get 65mpg on average in my 2018 Audi A4 Avant Sport Ultra 2.0 TDI. It has lower CO2 emissions and has got Adblue to reduce particulates & NOx. I don't need to do any short journeys mostly, so I have no need for an electric vehicle personally (and still there's none that'll do the journey I can do to the Isle of Skye without needing to charge multiple times and that's a challenge north of Glasgow). The tests you've done here show why Diesel cars are still the most efficient (and cost effective in many cases). Especially if you don't have access to a slow granny charger at home and have to use superchargers / public fast chargers like I would need to.

Diesel still the cheapest

We own 2 diesels and 1 petrol. The diesels are more efficient. Our new 4x4 diesel is a Euro6 engine and the other is Euro5.. The petrol car is not used much these days, it only 4 years old, but obviously lucky to get 42 mpg out of it. We live in the countryside, so sorry our thoughts are mainly on the efficient diesels not what come out of the tailpipe.

nOt EvErYoNe LiVeS iN LONDON!!!!

Diesel wins, always has, always will.

did they factor in the price of Adblue into these calculations ?

Co2 does NOT cause climate change, the climate constantly changes regardless to how much Co2 there is. Co2 is heavy, it doesn't float away up into the atmosphere. it remains low close to the earth where plants are in desperate need of it if they want to survive and flourish, the only way one could claim Co2 affects the climate is if the claimed that o2 affects the climate as that is the only biproduct of Co2 being absorbed by plant which makes it up high enough in the atmosphere for it to have any chance of effecting global weather events. if anything high amounts of Co2 is bad for humans and animals other than that it is essential for the planet. with co2 we died, without co2 the planet dies, without the planet we die. that f**king simple!

Is there a particular reason that the cost difference of the Tesla and payback time was neglected?

Two payback times home charging vs public?

Current insurance for EVs and hybrids seem to be very expensive, possibly as they tend to have better acceleration than a bog standard ICE

Good luck finding a nice diesel nowadays unless you want a Peugeot as most manufacturers have ditched them, Also didn’t include servicing into those prices

Take it for 600 miles trip ; you will see why those electric cars are not good yet

for everyday driving you cannot beat a diesel, be it city driving, motorway driving or cruising the hilly B roads, diesel is superior. low end torque and just stronger and more hard wearing parts all round, even if it was slightly more expensive it would still be worth it.

Crazy that electric bikes with throttles are illegal but cars continue to be encouraged despite congestion.

You know what are you missing ? Toyota Hybrid : ) , please include it in the test next time.

Diesel on Veg Oil For the Win 🙌🙌

If EVs were free to charge I still wouldn't have one, I'll keep my diesel.

All this is irrelevant. You first need to buy an EV which already puts you so far in the red as far as money goes that the EV just doesn’t make sense at all. Let’s not talk about depreciation 😂😂😂😂

I had an EV (model 3), I will be getting another one later (Polestar 3 or Hyundai EV9) but I’m not under any illusion I’m saving money or the environment because well I’m just not.

I still have a few ICE cars to use for fun and longer distance driving so I’m not relying on the EV.

With the price of EVs and these numbers, which at least for me over cost the petrol and under cost the electricity, really just shows that if you are money minded, buying an old diesel is the way to go. A new car is a waste of money anyway, but you really don’t want a 2nd hand EV and they aren’t cheap enough to run to offset their initial cost.

And all this is before the government decide that losing fuel duty due to EVs isn’t a great idea and will add something to the electricity for EV charging, which will likely make them more expensive than ICE to run full stop.

We need a better solution for the future.