[cogman10]

In the UK? Nah.

Electricity is expensive in the UK (~25p/kWh) But not gas car expensive. It is £1.57/L (£5.94/gallon).

The EV infrastructure is also pretty dang far along, especially compared to the US. Remember that everything in the UK is a lot smaller and closer together than it is in the US. Further, the UK has a functional train system for long distance travel. You can go from the top of Dunnet Head to Lizard Point in a 15 hour drive.

People downvoting me, Look up chargers in plugshare to see just how many there are in the UK, it's a lot. And also correct my math if it's wrong. An 80kWh car costs £20 to fill up. A 55L car, which has about the same range, costs £85 to fill up.

[teamonkey]

Also if you are able to charge at home you can subscribe to a smart tariff that gives you electricity for 4p/kWh overnight. That’s £3.20 to fill an 80kWh battery that on a modern car will take you up to 320 miles.

[throwaway85825]

"Functional train system" is not how anyone would describe the UK. It's cheaper to fly than take the train.

Cost to fill up doesnt matter, only the cost per mile.

[btbuilder]

~1.5 billion train journeys a year is “functional”.

[subscribed]

It's cheaper to purchase new bike/used car, tax and insure it, service and fuel, than to use train to ride to work.

Annual train ticket form my small town (25 miles from the Zone 1 of London) is over £5,500. Five GRAND. For the pleasure of standing every time and a much higher risk of getting mugged.

£15k will give you REALLY nice bike or pretty new car. After third year you're saving thousands. Of course if you decided to buy something old and used, you're saving from the second quarter of the first year on.

It's only functional because not everyone can afford another car to work.

[cogman10]

> It's cheaper to fly than take the train.

It can be, depends on a lot of factors. Obviously flying ryanair will often be the cheapest way to go, but if you do any sort of other regular airline trains will quickly start to win out.

And it's not as if you can fly everywhere in england. As soon as you start looking at more oddball flights (for example, london to birmingham) ryanair goes away as an option and all the flights end up super expensive.

Trains, on the other hand, remain cheap for pretty much the entire nation. You can basically go anywhere by train for under £60. A lot cheaper if you book in advance.

[graemep]

That is because of the cost structure of trains vs planes. Trains require a huge amount of infrastructure, and have higher labour costs because they are slower (so the same journey means people work for longer).

[eterm]

Trains are barely staffed, I can't believe it's a significant cost.

Staff per passenger hour has got to be far higher in the airline industry.

[Jblx2]

£3.20/320 miles = 1p/mile

[throwaway85825]

Typical ev car is .25kwh/m and at 25p/kwh it should be closer to 6p/m. Quite a bit more than 1p/m.