IT·Science Talk

18 months with an EV in rural France: my honest running costs

I bought a small used electric car in spring last year, mainly because my old diesel needed expensive work. I keep a notebook for everything, so here are my own figures, not a brochure.

I drive about 11,000 km a year, mostly short trips plus a monthly 300 km round trip to see my daughter. I charge at home on an off-peak tariff almost all the time. My electricity costs for the car work out at roughly a third of what I used to pay for diesel over the same distance.

Servicing has been almost nothing: tyres, wipers, cabin filter. Insurance was slightly higher. The real cost is depreciation, which I cannot measure until I sell it.

The weak point: public charging on the motorway is fine but more expensive per km than I expected, and in cold weeks the range drops noticeably. For my use, it has been worth it. For someone without a home charger, I am less sure.