Mercedes-Benz Eqa

We’ve had to dock a huge amount of kudos from the Mercedes EQA in running costs because, as we mentioned in the introduction, there is no chargingtimer on the EQA. So, unless your wallbox at home has its own timer (ours doesn’t), you won’t be able to take advantage of your own off-peak tariff, unless you stay up until midnight every night to plug it in to charge. This is plainly ridiculous - only Mercedes and MG don’t offer a charging timer on their cars, and it means the total cost of ownership increases significantly, wiping out a major attraction of running an electric car. To put some numbers against that most off-peak electricity tariffs at home cost 20-26p per kWh in the day, a figure that can fall as low as 4-6p per kWh midnight-5am. Charge your car at night, and it will cost you roughly a fifth of what it costs in the day. Multiply that by seven nights a week, and you can see the difference in price.

That rather major issue aside, other running costs - road tax/VED, Benefit in Kind for company car users, servicing, congestions charge - all remain very low.