THE REAL COST OF EV OWNERSHIP
Electric vehicles may look expensive on paper, but in the long run, they actually work out to be better value for your money. More so, with fuel prices rising the way they are these days! Let's look at the prices of both the Hyundai Kona Electric and the Creta (SX(O) Turbo-DCT) for example. The ex-showroom (Delhi) price of the Creta is `17.5 lakh. Meanwhile, the Kona's is `23.75 lakh. Once you calculate the on-road prices, that gap reduces as the registration for EVs is free. The Creta is now `20.1 lakh, and the Kona is `25 lakh — a difference of just under `5 lakh. This covers registration insurance and TCS.
The real benefits are seen when you actually start driving the cars. Assuming the Kona gives you a real-world range of 290km, and considering 1 unit of electricity in Delhi costs `9, running the Kona Electric costs `1.23 per kilometre! Meanwhile, assuming the Creta gives you an average of 10kmpl and using the current petrol prices which stand at `88.44 per litre, the Creta costs `8.84 per kilometre. This difference seems negligible right now but when you compound it by the number of kilometres you run in a year, it becomes massive. Let us assume you run your car 12,000km in a year. That means, the Kona will cost you `14,800 for the electricity it consumes, while the Creta will cost you `1.06 lakh in fuel bills! That's a difference of `92,000! Remember the `5 lakh that the Kona costs over the Creta? You can make up that money in little over five years' time!
In fact, if you're planning to take a loan on your car, the time taken to recover the difference will reduce as the government currently offers a deduction on the interest on loans taken for EVs. The Delhi government is giving a `1.5 lakh subsidy on four-wheeler EVs, but neither the Kona Electric or MG ZS EV are eligible as they are over the `15 lakh cap. Each state has its own policies that incentivise EVs — some waiving road tax, some offering subsidised public charging, while some are offering free parking and tolls. So don't let that high sticker price hold you back. There's more to EVs than meet the eye!