The Yuletide Tale of Sally and Simon
Posted by Roseanne: Dec 23, 2019 • 4 min read
A tale of two siblings with opposing views on electric vehicles. We explore how electric Kona driver Sally ends up better off than brother Simon with his petrol equivalent.
‘Twas the night before Christmas… in 2018 when Sally and Simon were on their way to visit their parents. As chance would have it, they were both driving down in their new Hyundai KONAs. Only they’d gone for different types, Sally had gone for the Hyundai KONA Electric, Simon for the performance 1.6L Turbo model.
There was some merriment/rancour at Christmas dinner the next day as they discussed their new cars and a bet was made...
Christmas past...
“Are you sure you want one of those electric cars, Sally? They’re so expensive!” Said Simon. Though it transpired Sally was going to pay an almost identical amount in monthly lease costs.
“Oh. Well, you’ll just get stuck everywhere and run out of battery. Like what if it’s cold?”
“Quite sure, thanks Simon, more than 250 miles is fine for me. That's enough to get here and back home on one charge."
“Fair enough, but I couldn’t have one, I need a bit of power! Mine’s the turbo model - does 0-60 in 7.8 seconds! Beat that!”
“Well, yes” piped up Tiny Tim, Sally’s son. “The Electric does 0-60 in 7.6 seconds. And the instant acceleration means it feels even faster!”
“Bah!" said Simon, "Humbug!”
“Dad, maybe we should get one?” said Little Laura.
“Well whatever, but they aren’t even green! What about the coal power plants?” wailed Simon.
Tiny Tim and Little Laura attempted to explain the decarbonising grid mix and electric drivetrain efficiency to little effect.
“Well, aren’t you going to get sick to death waiting for it to charge?” asks an increasingly sheepish Simon.
“Not really.” said Sally. “It’s just full every morning with 250 miles in it. We got a Pod Point installed for it at home, you see. Plus, there are lots of public chargers about and it just charges while you’re busy doing something else”.
“Right well, seems you’ve thought of everything then.” said Simon, sarcastically. “But I bet you £100 this time next year, you’ll wish you had a petrol car. It’ll be cheaper to run, more fun to drive and it’ll even have less Carbon emissions!”
Sally took the bet.
Over the course of the year...
Each sibling did exactly 15,000 miles (a Christmas miracle) and their lease costs were identical. But, here’s how their running costs differed*
| Petrol | EV | |
| Miles | 15,000 | 15,000 |
| Cost per mile | £0.14 | £0.04 |
| Emissions g/km | 158 | 52 |
| Total fuel cost | £2,144 | £534 |
| Total fuel emissions (kg) | 2,370 | 783 |
- Sally saved £1,610 in fuel costs and 1,587kg of carbon emissions.
- They’ve also just paid their annual road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) Simon’s cost £145, Sally’s was £0.
...and so to Christmas present...
In the morning, Sally is getting into her Kona Electric for the 100-mile drive to her parents’ house. The car is fully charged with more than enough miles for the round trip, defrosted and already warm before the family get in. They’ll be there in double-quick time and the round trip will cost her £4 of electricity.
Simon is scraping at his windscreen in the bitter cold with the car running. Using up valuable petrol that means he will have to stop en route and pay £60 for a tank of fuel, the trip itself costing £14 of that petrol tank.
Simon has bought Tiny Tim a woolly hat from his favourite football team. Sally, who was feeling flush, has bought Little Laura the full home strip.
Don’t worry, Sally’s going to give Tiny Tim that £100 too. And she’s going to let Simon test drive the Kona Electric.
...Christmas yet to come
From next year they’ll both arrive in EVs and their parents will have a Pod Point available for them when they do.
Merry Christmas everyone!
*Hyundai KONA 1.6T-GDi 177 Premium GT Blue Drive DCT 5dr
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Data |
Source |
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|
MPG |
40.4 |
|
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Cost per litre |
£1.27 |
https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/driving-costs/fuel-prices |
Hyundai KONA Electric 64kWh
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Data |
Source |
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kWh/mile |
0.245 |
https://pod-point.com/guides/vehicles/hyundai/2018/kona-64-kwh |
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Average UK gCO2/kWh |
213 |
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