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“As soon as you have a service of any type with an oil change, that’s probably the one key element of cost. Your oil filter doesn’t cost much, your fuel filter doesn’t cost a huge amount… oil is just such a big expense.”
Chambers says electric vehicles have played into the longer service intervals manufacturers have been chasing for years, knowing their appeal to the fleet market all too well, but the lower servicing costs are counteracted by tyres to a degree. Cap HPI’s November figures for BEV rubber at the same three-year/30,000-mile point came in at £943 – 5.8% and 43% more expensive than PHEVs (£891) and ICEs (£659) respectively – driven primarily by the average wear rate. At the same age and mileage point, BEVs got through an average of 3.8 sets of tyres next to 2.0 for ICEs and 2.2 for PHEVs. However, BEVs came out cheaper in every other SMR category, especially brakes, for which there was no cost at all. It tallies with Epyx data released in August, which said the average BEV SMR spend was £141 at the end of the first year of operation, compared to £195 for hybrids and £199 for ICE. They rose to £174 for BEVs in the second year, against £266 for hybrids, and £290 for ICEs, and £221 for EVs in year three, alongside £341 for hybrids and £401 for ICEs.
“There’s a bit of a split with BEVs,” says Chambers, “we’ve got those that are on conventional servicing – the likes of BYD and some others will have a conventional 12- or 24-month 10- or 20,000-mile service interval. Then you get others – VW, for example – will be on two-year service intervals, and there’s no distance driver to it, so you could theoretically drive many, many miles before you end up with a service. “You’ll probably go through a few sets of tyres
January 2020
Average garage booking lead time 11 days
September 2024 Source: Epyx 1link Service Network
if you’re doing 40,000 miles a year, but you don’t need to change very much on a BEV. The only thing in there will be a pollen filter.” Cap HPI data also suggests the average purchase price of electric vehicle tyres has reduced, simply because there are now more models available from a wider variety of manufacturers, which has
diluted the costly bias towards premium brands. Its November figures showed BEV tyre prices to be the cheapest of the lot at £205, versus £212 for ICEs (+3.4%) and £227 for PHEVs (+10.7%). In 2022, BEV tyres were 8.7% more expensive than those of ICEs, so they might chew through more rubber, but the rubber itself is now a bit cheaper.
13-14 days Average VOR time January 2020 November 2024
1.54 days 1.66 days
Above: BEVs use 3.8 sets of tyres on average, compared to 2.0 for ICEs and 2.2 for PHEVs.and 2.2 for PHEVs.
Above: Efficient motor workshops are essential to maintaining fleet performance, with skilled technicians navigating complex repairs and increasing service demands. 32 | November/December 2024 |
www.businesscar.co.uk
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