On October 14, the company specializing in automobile leasing LeasePlan has published its “Car Cost Index” for the year 2021. Although the company only deals with cars and not motorcycles, it is still of potential interest to motorcyclists. Indeed, it has been 6 years since this company started writing this annual report, and 2021 marks the first year in which LeasePlan has seen cost parity between electric cars and their combustion engine counterparts in the majority of European countries. interviewed.
LeasePlan has compiled results from 22 European countries, which are: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
This survey calculates the total cost of owning a petrol, diesel, electric and hybrid car taking into account the purchase price, taxation, insurance, maintenance, energy costs and depreciation. This is all averaged over a four-year period and assuming an average driving distance of 30 kilometers per year. Interestingly, the survey found that the electric Volkswagen ID.000 costs less to own than any VW Golf model in the majority of countries surveyed, whether petrol or diesel.
Overall, electric vehicles are very cost competitive in the premium mid-size segment in 17 of 22 countries. Meanwhile, in the compact segment, electric vehicles are fully competitive in 14 countries.
If France is in the average with an annual cost estimated at €887, the extreme values range from €743 in Greece to €1 in Switzerland. Compared to GDP, electricity costs the most in Switzerland and Portugal. Conversely, Denmark and Germany are proportionally the most attractive in terms of prices.
Furthermore, the leasing company estimates that if current trends continue, electric vehicles should reach full competitiveness in all 22 countries surveyed by the mid-2020s. That's a pretty impressive trajectory, even if it doesn't. does not yet include motorcycles.
The more electric vehicles there are on the road everywhere, the more infrastructure needed to power them and if they are to stay on the road, the more infrastructure construction and maintenance will be required. While motorcycle and scooter makers haven't been as quick to ride the electric wave as automakers, everyone from Piaggio to Honda to BMW has made significant progress of late. And with the price of oil soaring, it's a safe bet that some of us will decide to go electric.
