Compare motorway rapid vs motorway petrol and the EV price per mile is typically still cheaper
Is that strictly correct though in practice?
I also have a Seat Leon ST 2.0D 184hp and still love the interior and refinement with excellent power/economy mix with the DSG gearbox and ACC that imo is better than most others I’ve experienced. I suspect I’m not alone in my thinking that approx 500 miles from a tank of fuel means topping-up at a motorway services is only ever done in an ‘emergency’ and then only enough to give sufficient range to fill up properly after leaving the motorway. Hence fuel price differentials between town filling stations and m/way services aren’t as significant as they first appear.
Having a 150-200 mile range between top-ups in an EV certainly puts a different spin on things. It seems UK rapid/supercharging prices are artificially high (with exception of Tesla) pretty much everywhere and considerably more expensive than if you have access to cheap overnight charging rates and/or can access charging at work etc.
So for me, in the XPower, I do a 130 round mile commute 2-3 days a week which can be accommodated by topping-up overnight on the 7kW home charger at 8p/kWh. At say ave 3.0m/kWh that equates to roughly 3p/mile or £4 per return trip, after factoring charging inefficiencies.
By comparison, if I was only using rapid chargers at say 70p/kWh that would equate to c.£30 (23p/mile) for the same return trip, prior to any DC-DC inefficiencies. Even at Tesla open off-peak rate of 42p/kWh that’s still over £18 per trip
Back to the Seat; UK ave diesel price is currently around £1.42/Ltr. So at 50mpg = 12.9 pence per mile or approx £16.80 per trip
So, if your circumstances limit you to only using rapid charging you might break-even with fuel prices by having Tesla subscription but pretty much all other providers are going to make the cost prohibitively expensive.
Like most things though this is never clear cut - other factors such as lower EV servicing costs plus ‘performance for your buck’ are still likely to make it viable for many people.
Finally, as others have said, with the latest updates, I find that the MG Autopilot functions including ACC and LKA/ELK don’t cause me any problems and there are times such as when stuck in slow-moving traffic or going through 50mph speed limited m/way roadworks they can be really useful.
Oh, and did anyone mention that the sheer performance of the XPower is utterly bonkers - it will leave a lasting grin on your face every time you use it…
