But it’s not hard to see the other side of the argument, either. With incentives on home wallbox chargers, road tax and company car (BiK) tax, and the retail cost of most electric cars, not to mention the low cost of domestic electricity in the UK, the life costs of an EV are often at either parity or lower than for equivalent petrol cars. And remember, that’s despite EVs having purchase costs that are typically higher.

The advantages of electric cars aren’t merely measured in blunt financial terms for retail and corporate sectors either. The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global lockdown has shone a stark light on the benefits of better air quality in built-up areas, at just the moment when electric cars are becoming more popular thanks to a wave of new models. Where once we only really had the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe and BMW i3, there’s been an influx of rivals including the Volkswagen ID.3, Kia e-Niro, Peugeot e-208, MG ZS EV, Honda e, MINI Electric et al.

With so much new car choice, and more incentives than ever, it’s no surprise that (according to SMMT vehicle data) more than 108,205 pure electric vehicles (also known as battery electric vehicles, or BEVs) were sold in 2020. That figure represents an increase of 186% compared to sales in 2019 – a figure made all the more impressive when set against the drastic fall in overall car sales over the same period as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this guide we’ll go through everything you need to know about today’s electric car market. From the charging infrastructure and how it’s likely to evolve, to running costs and battery life, read on for the full CarGurus guide to the electric car market.

Sales of new pure electric cars rocketed in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic devastating the car market globally. In total 108,205 BEVs were registered in 2020, up from 37,850 in 2019 (according to SMMT).

Used electric vehicles are also very much in demand, to the point where some second-hand EVs have gone up in price in recent years. And so, while the purchase price of a used EV might be higher than an equivalent petrol or diesel model, it’s quite possible that ownership costs – including running costs and depreciation – might make it a more financially prudent long-term purchase.

The public charging infrastructure has seen a huge burst of growth in recent years, both in terms of the sheer numbers of charging locations available, and also in terms of the charging speeds on offer. There are now more than 13,000 locations in the UK where you can charge an electric car but, for some context, 619 of those were added in November 2020 alone (this actually accounts for 1,016 new connectors due to many chargers having multiple sockets, according to Zap-Map).

It’s the increase in rapid and ultra-rapid chargers that is particularly telling, as these are the devices that EV drivers will need for a quick top-up on a long journey. The definition of a ultra-rapid charger is one that can charge at 100kW or more. Of these, the 150kW chargers are the most common, which will deliver around 100 miles of range in 10 minutes to a car capable of charging at 150kW.

The fastest public chargers currently in use are rated at 350kW, but only the Porsche Taycan can charge at close to that speed. Its maximum charging rate of 270kW will allow for an additional 100 miles of range to be added in around five minutes.

Almost all electric cars produced today use the European standard Type 2 and CCS sockets. The former is for slower chargers – also called ‘AC’ or Alternating Current. To plug into one of these, you’ll need to bring the Type 2 cable that is normally provided as standard with the car, or can be bought very easily from aftermarket retailers for around £200.

This sort of charger is most often a ‘destination charger’ – which you find at supermarkets or town centre car parks. They shouldn’t be relied on for a full charge in an EV, as they’re slow to charge, but for additional top-ups while you’re shopping they’re very useful and they’re sometimes free to use.

Any of the CCS rapid chargers – which are all DC, or Direct Current, chargers – have the cable tethered to the charge point itself, so you don’t need to provide the cable. The only mainstream EV that doesn’t use CCS is the Nissan Leaf. While you’ll find many of the CHAdeMO rapid chargers that the Leaf is compatible with in the UK, even Nissan has announced that its new EV models will use CCS instead, so expect to see CHAdeMO chargers phased out in the long term.

One irritation with the UK’s public charging infrastructure as it stands today is the need for various phone apps or membership cards. Thankfully, legislation now means that any new charger must be fitted with a contactless payment option, and many of the big providers, such as bp Chargemaster’s Polar network, offer contactless on all of their stations.

It’s a shame that Ecotricity – the network that runs most of the chargers in UK motorway service stations – is yet to catch up with contactless payment, so most of these will still need an app, which isn’t always straightforward to use.

In short, the UK’s charging network has a long way to go before it can truly support a convenient transition to electric cars. But networks such as the widespread and famously fast and reliable Tesla Supercharger network show how it can be done (sadly, only Teslas can use these chargers). And, with the rest of the public charging network evolving at a rapid pace, and with the focus now increasingly on reliability, convenience and speed as well as the sheer number of chargers, the next few years promise a drastic change in convenience as well as a growth in numbers.

‘Project Rapid’ and the Rapid Charging Fund are part of the UK Government’s £500 million investment dedicated to enabling the transition to pure electric travel. Announced in May 2020, it specifies that there should be 2,500 ultra-rapid charging hubs offering charging speeds of 150–350kW across the country by 2030.

That figure is actually quite pessimistic. As we have noted, there are already over 1,200 ultra-rapid connectors in the UK (up from 876 at the end of 2019). bp Chargemaster alone plans to have 1,400 such ultra-rapid charging stations across the UK by 2030, and there are plenty of other charge providers joining the ultra-rapid network, too.

Ionity – a company owned by a conglomerate of car manufacturers including BMW, Daimler, Ford and Audi – intends to have 50 ultra-rapid charging hubs live in the UK by the end of 2021.

Gridserve is another company just breaking into the rapid charging market. It has now launched its first Electric Forecourt, which will serve as many as 30 cars rapid charging simultaneously, using net-zero carbon energy. Gridserve plans to roll out 100 further Electric Forecourts in the next five years, all of which will offer shopping, meeting spaces, coffee shops and more, with the company’s CEO Toddington Harper saying that "we want people to get an EV because they like the experience, not because the government told them to."

It’s extremely unlikely that charging will get faster than the 350kW top rates we already have in use. bp Chargemaster’s CEO, Matteo de Ranzi, stated that "we have already seen chargers faster than 350kW being demonstrated, but I’m not sure anyone can say whether these will categorically be needed. With that speed, you could get around 100 miles of range in less than five minutes, so the gap is closing to the average forecourt experience [for a petrol car]."

Which isn’t to say that the public rapid charging infrastructure will evolve without issue. While James McKemey, Head of Insights at Pod Point, says that many EV drivers who don’t routinely use public chargers “have no deficit of convenience by running an EV instead of an ICE car, in fact they have a surplus”, he is also open about potential hurdles with rapid charging. "Innovative business models are seeing the en-route rapid charging network grow. However, high infrastructure costs and limit on what pricing drivers will bear make it a challenge. Furthermore, with batteries getting bigger, higher powered chargers are required, significantly increasing infrastructure costs, while the longer range provided mean that per-EV utilisation of en-route charging decreases. It’s an area that needs to improve quickly so that it doesn’t impede EV uptake."

There are various other green fuels that could form a big part of the solution to converting personal transportation to renewable fuels. While battery electric vehicles look set to account for the majority of private cars, hydrogen is also mooted as a likely solution for some sectors – especially for public transport, commercial and heavy goods vehicles.

Hydrogen vehicles (HEVs) are electric vehicles; just like battery EVs, the wheels are turned by an electric motor. The difference is that the electricity used to power the motor comes from hydrogen fuel cells, which mix hydrogen and oxygen with the resulting wizardry producing electricity. The only biproduct is a trickle of water every now and then.

The benefit of HEVs is that you can refill a hydrogen tank in the same way, and just as quickly, as you do a petrol or diesel fuel tank – and then you have a range of around 500 miles before you need to refill again. There are difficulties, such as in the greenhouse gas burden of producing and transporting hydrogen, although on-site solar-powered hydrogen power stations are feasible. The safety of storing and moving such large quantities of hydrogen, which is extremely flammable, are also a core reason why the infrastructure hasn’t taken off in the UK.

Still, the 2021 Toyota Mirai showcases new fuel cell tech that is cheaper, lighter and easier to produce than ever before, allowing the Japanese maker to produce up to 30,000 of these new fuel cell stacks each year. Although the Mirai is still expensive and virtually impossible to recommend to retail buyers, Chief Engineer of Toyota’s hydrogen fuel cell development, Yoshikazu Tanaka explains that "The Mirai is the vessel to get the volume of units out there. This way we will increase the usage of hydrogen and get the fuel cells out into the field of large commercial vehicles including buses."

Synthetic fuels, such as the ‘eFuel’ announced by Porsche in conjunction with Siemens, are also a growing area of interest. Currently, it’s a technology in its infancy and is intended more as a way to reduce the CO2 output of ICE engines rather than an alternative to battery electric vehicles.

The vast majority of EV owners do almost all of their routine charging at home with a wallbox charger. It’s a critical enabling factor for running an EV conveniently, since charging times with a standard three-pin domestic socket are restrictive. You’ll be lucky to get 10 miles of range per hour in this way, while a normal 7kW home wallbox delivers more like 30 miles of range per hour.

Provided you have a driveway and access to your property’s fuse box, having a home charger installed is straightforward. Companies such as Pod Point, bp Chargemaster and Ohme EV will install a wallbox at your home from as little as £500 – after a government grant of £350 has been applied. To get that grant, all you need to do is provide proof that you have bought an electric car, whether it is used or new. Those running a company car are also eligible for the grant, provided that they will be the primary user of the vehicle for at least six months.

As of 2019, all home wallbox chargers had to provide ‘smart’ online connectivity that makes it easy to track how much electricity you are using, and there are also now intelligent chargers – such as those from Ohme EV – that are designed to work as a standard charger, or in conjunction with solar panels and static energy storage systems.

This is an extremely good question that will worry vast swathes of motorists in the UK as the electric car becomes more mainstream. A 2018 report by PwC estimates that some 78% of homeowners in the UK have off-street parking, although that figure falls to only 48% in London (circa 60% in Cardiff, Manchester and Edinburgh).

"Those motorists without driveways are the most challenging to cover," admits James McKemey, Head of Insights at Pod Point. "Exactly how regular charging for this cohort of drivers is addressed remains to be seen, but we will likely tackle them through some combination of on-street charging, en-route charging, charging hubs (such as those being installed across UK rail), and bolstering the public charging ecosystem such that charging is available at every destination and they’re never left wanting."

There are already a number of kerbside charge providers, such as Ubitricity, Connected Kerbside, Rolec, and even a new retractable charge point by Trojan Energy that is being trialled in London. Kerbside charging services work by using ‘smart’ cables; the user buys a cable that is registered to their membership account on one of a variety of tariffs, and then it tracks and charges the relevant amount for the electricity used.

There are also an increasing number of app-based solutions that allow EV users who search for and use nearby households that do have a home charger. JustPark, for instance, is a widely used app that allows drivers to pay homeowners to park on driveways, but it also now has an EV charger facility so that drivers can also pay to use a home charger while parked on the driveway.

A new app from Co Charger offers a similar service. Joel Teague, CEO of Co Charger said, "It's a simple, community-based solution to the biggest barrier facing the adoption of electric vehicles: how to be an electric vehicle owner if you cannot charge at home. Millions of people want to ditch their fossil fuel vehicles in favour of electric ones but won't until they have the convenience, affordability and reliability of home charging. Co Charger gives those people the confidence to switch by making it easy for a neighbour with a charger to make it available to them."

In short, right now it’s prohibitively difficult for most motorists without a home charger to live with an EV conveniently. With this sector now wide open for new companies, new ideas and new investment - and all the incentive to make it work given the confirmed switch to electric cars – it’s guaranteed to be an area of extreme growth in the next few years.

The additional drain on the UK’s mains electricity is a commonly cited area of concern, but the National Grid has always been adamant that it can cope. In February 2020, Graeme Cooper, the National Grid’s Project Director – Transport Decarbonisation, stated that "the most demand for electricity we’ve had in recent years in the UK was for 62GW in 2002. Since then, due to improved energy efficiency, the nation’s peak demand has fallen by roughly 16%. Even if the impossible happened and we all switched to EVs overnight, we think demand would only increase by around 10 per cent. So we’d still be using less power as a nation than we did in 2002 and this is well within the range of manageable load fluctuation." (Source: 6 Myths About Electric Vehicles Busted).

There are ways to avoid a particular spike in energy at peak times, too. New home car chargers must already have online connectivity and the ability to reduce the energy drain by delaying charging at peak times – such as between 5pm and 7pm when commuters return home and plug the car in. It’s likely that home chargers in the future will default to off-peak charging, with a manual override available for when the car needs charging straight away. Almost all modern EVs also offer timed charging via the car’s system or a connected phone app.

Vehicle-to-grid technology, which enables an EV with a full battery to return energy to the grid when demand is high, also already exists and is likely to become the norm.

The longevity of electric car batteries is often quoted – along with charging times and driving range – as a chief concern for consumers thinking of switching to an EV. Understandable, since batteries do lose performance over time. To help deliver peace of mind, all EV manufacturers provide long battery warranties – most offering eight years or 100,000 miles of cover, and often with a performance guarantee included should the battery lose a lot of its performance in that time.

The good news is that the last decade and more of EV sales and ownership experience has proven that modern lithium-ion batteries last far longer than many feared. There are plenty of 150,000-mile (and more) Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf examples still in use, which show that the batteries will typically outlive the car.

However, there will be a degradation in performance, and that varies depending on the battery chemistry in question and how the car is used. As a rough guide, most EVs will lose between 10% and 20% of the as-new battery performance over the first 100,000 miles of use. That means that, if the car would cover 200 miles between charges when the battery was box-fresh and fully charged, in 100,000 miles’ time a full charge will probably deliver between 160 and 180 miles.

There are ways to maintain good battery performance, primarily by keeping your routine battery charge to between 20- and 80%, and only doing a full 100% top-up when you need it for a long journey. All modern EVs allow you to set a maximum charge level, so you can leave the car plugged in for as long as you want and it’ll stop charging automatically at 80%. Avoiding frequent rapid charging also helps to keep a battery in good health, as the high temperatures involved with rapid charging are a big contributor to battery cell degradation.

When it does come to the end of a battery’s useful life in a car, there are various ways it can continue to be used – either as static energy storage, or EV batteries are also very recyclable provided they can be transported safely to a battery recycling plant. Ultimately, the metals in batteries are too precious to be wasted, so the industry around making good use of damaged or unwanted EVs is growing in line with the rest of the battery propulsion industry.

It’s also worth noting that battery technology is improving rapidly. Sourcing cobalt and lithium for today’s batteries is a heavy environmental burden. That’s why it uses more resources to produce an EV than an ICE car. Note, however, that the much lower emissions of an EV thereafter typically offsets the manufacturing burden within around 30,000 – 40,000 miles in the UK, after which the EV is the far greener vehicle.

That situation is only set to improve as battery tech becomes greener. Manufacturers are already set to have low cobalt, or even cobalt-free batteries within the next few years – the new BMW i4’s batteries use some two thirds less cobalt than before, while Renault has said that it hopes to have cobalt-free, solid-state cells by 2025. Tesla is also working to produce lithium-ion phosphate batteries within the next few years, in conjunction with battery giant CATL. These would use cobalt-free cathodes, and are also said to be cheaper and even more long-lived than current batteries.

Electric cars vary greatly in purchase cost, whether you’re buying used or new. On the used market, the more affordable options will be the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf since they are also the longest-running EVs. You’ll find them from as little as £5,000, but go for a later car if you can. Prices are substantially higher than for early cars, but from late 2015 onwards both the Leaf and Zoe received improved battery tech – upping range from roughly 80 miles in varied real world driving to more like 110 miles. The BMW i3 also makes a fantastic used electric car, while the slightly dull but super-efficient Hyundai Ioniq Electric is also highly recommendable.

New electric cars are just as varied in price as new petrol and diesel cars – it’s really a case of what you’re looking for. The Seat Mii electric is the cheapest new electric car on sale today, costing from under £20,000 after the £3,000 government Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG), which is applied to any pure electric car costing less than £50,000.

Bigger, longer-range and far better equipped alternatives such as the fun and stylish Fiat 500e, Peugeot e-208 and Vauxhall Corsa-e can all be had for around £25,000 (less for the Fiat), or from around £250 to £300 per month on finance with a modest deposit. Then there are the family hatches, such as the VW ID.3, Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric, which cost between £30,000 and £40,000.

At the top end of the scale are cars such as the Jaguar I-Pace or Porsche Taycan, which are our favourites of the luxury electric cars. They cost just as much as you’d expect of a prestige performance car from these brands, and are not subject to the PiCG, but will still cost far less to run than any petrol or diesel alternative.

Most EV owners will charge up at home, where standard domestic electricity currently costs around 14p/kWh on average. To calculate how much your prospective EV will cost to charge, simply multiply your price per kWh by the size of the car’s battery. For example, a complete 50kWh battery recharge at 14p/kWh will cost £7.

However, there are a few important things to consider. First, you can save a huge amount on ‘fuelling’ your EV by shopping around for a good electricity tariff. There are a number of EV-specific tariffs available that offer power during off-peak hours from as little as 4p/kWh. Octopus, EDF and OVO are some of the best providers for electric car tariffs, not only because they offer low rates but also because they supply green energy.

The vast majority of EV owners will make use of overnight charging, which is easy to do since most EVs offer timed charging parameters that you can set in the car’s menus (or often via a phone app). Even if you don’t do this and pay the full average utilities price, most electric cars work out at around 4–6p per mile to fuel; roughly a third of what you’ll pay to fuel a petrol car doing 40mpg, or half of a diesel car doing 55mpg. Using those off-peak tariffs will obviously widen that disparity much further.

Buying an efficient EV is the other big consideration. The laws of physics dictate that big performance SUVs such as the Jaguar I-Pace, Audi e-tron, Tesla Model X and Mercedes EQC will be less efficient than something like a Nissan Leaf.

On the subject of efficiency, any EV owner needs to get used to miles per kWh (miles/kWh), which is mpg for electric cars. It’s very simple to understand, too, since it’s literally the distance the car will go per kWh of its battery capacity.

As an example, the Kia e-Niro is one of the most efficient electric cars in real world use, and you’ll see well over 4.0 miles/kWh even in colder weather and motorway use. That means that the usable 64kWh battery will get you 256 miles (4.0 multiplied by 64) and will cost 3.5p per mile to fuel at 14pence per kWh. By comparison, an Audi e-tron will do more like 2.3 miles per kWh, so even with a bigger usable battery capacity of 83.6kWh it’ll do more like 192 miles in varied everyday use, which works out at over 6p per mile.

You want the highest miles/kWh figure possible for the best efficiency and cheapest running costs, so don’t forget to look at this figure if you’re keen to save the pennies and the environment.

Charging at public rapid chargers is much more expensive and varies drastically, but you can read more about the costs in our guide to how much it costs to charge and electric car.

Other ownership expenses for EVs tend to be on a par, or lower than for a petrol or diesel car. Insurance is now roughly the same as ICE alternatives, while servicing costs are typically lower because an EV has far fewer moving parts and requires servicing less frequently. However, servicing schedules for electric cars vary greatly depending on the manufacturer and some still require a service every year to maintain the warranty.

For the same reason that servicing isn’t needed so often, electric cars tend to be more reliable overall. There is simply less to go wrong with an electric motor, which has around four moving parts, than there is with a combustion engine, which has roughly 10,000 moving parts. That’s not to say that there can’t still be issues with software, bodywork, ancillary electrics (lights, heating etc) just as there can be with any car – and charging hardware can play up on EVs, too - but as far as the powertrain goes, an EV is a far simpler object than a petrol or diesel engine.

For many motorists, the question of whether to buy an electric car isn’t a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Jump in early and you’ll pay a noticeable premium compared with what a similar petrol or diesel car would cost. And depending on your usage you might also need to be prepared to put up with a charging infrastructure that is still developing (albeit at a rapid pace).

On the plus side, as an early adopter you’ll benefit from Government incentives that are designed to get people into EVs. The Plug-in Car Grant for buyers of new EVs is an obvious one, but there are ancillary benefits, such as grants for home charger installations, and tiny rates when it comes to road tax and benefit-in-kind. These alone could be worth several hundred – if not thousands of – pounds per year.

Then of course there’s the incredibly low cost of fuelling an electric car. With electricity costing about a third of the taxed cost of petrol or diesel, it is possible to rack up meaningful savings in no time at all. The kind of savings, indeed, that are certain to give future governments pause for thought when there is indeed a wholesale switch away from heavily taxed petrol and diesel cars.

Whatever stage you’re at in your electric car journey, CarGurus is here to help with EV news, reviews and advice. Plus of course CarGurus is packed with listings for electric cars for sale near you, complete with deal ratings and dealer reviews to help you easily find a great deal on your next EV.