I drive a lot of motorway miles and think with the autopilot would take a lot of stress away. will it ?
In a word Yes. Although as others have said anything with a good stay-in-lane and adaptive-cruise-control will get you that driver-benefit. I have only driver Tesla that have that, I read of some "drunken driving" of other brands, but I'm sure there are good ones. Tesla AP will jump on the brakes, unexpectedly, at times ("Phantom braking") so it too has annoyances.
Pre pandemic I did 35K miles a year, so I have some knowledge and data for that.
I've had Tesla since 2015. First one I had did 95K miles in 3+ years. Most of it motorway. Back then my max range was 240 miles. The replacement I have has a range of 300 miles. (This is actual real-world range at motorway speed, not what the glossy brochure says ... (because the Blurb is required to use government-test figures and they are not suitable for "Max range" only for "Mixed journey range", and you will never have a journey which is both max-range and also mixed-mode (unless you are driving 7 hours a day, but then I can't see how you would have time for any work!!)
I had a regular journey (
for years before EV, and years afterwards) leaving at about 21:30 to come home. Arrive home at 23:00. All motorway except about 10-15 minutes at each end. No traffic at that time of night. Very boring, and I was often fighting tiredness for the last 20-30 minutes of motorway - windows down, radio full blast, driving on cats eye!. Car had adaptive-cruise-control but not stay-in-lane. Once I had Autopilot I never, not once, had that tiredness issue. I also have a journey from Suffolk down to an office in Bristol. Usually overnight, but sometimes there and back in the day. Nothing like as tiring as it used to be, I arrive "fresh" now. Same when we go skiing - 12 hours door-to-door, but now an extra hour for charging (3 x 20 minutes) and we arrive much fresher, I'm sure because of that enforced 20 minutes to stretch our legs, whilst charging, every 2-ish hours.
Model-Y has less range than Model-3. If you can manage with the Model-3 (can do without hatchback? You aren't 6' 6"+?! ) I recommend that. (If you can afford Model-S that has a bit more range still, but a lot more money, and not available "new" at present (which would be a problem for the tax benefits of company purchase)
Here's why range is important (choosing a model with more range, or paying more money for bigger battery).
When I had 240 mile range I was out-of-range and charging about 2 days a month. Bear in mind that you only need to top-up enough to get home, you don't need to fill the tank, so if you just need 50 miles more its a quick stop (maybe as little as 5 minutes). Provided the stalls are free
And you don't have to detour too far off-route to get to a charger.
Since I got the 300 mile range car I am now only out of range a couple of times a year. For me that was the difference, on many journeys, between "not quite enough" and "just enough". Your journeys may be different of course.
Hypothetic journeys:
Distance 300 miles. I can do that on the new car, needed 60 miles on the old one, 10 minute stop - plus 5 minutes get into/out of the services.
Distance 350 miles. I need a 50 mile top up, about 5 minutes. Old car needed 110 miles, 15 minutes at least.
And a bit more than that and the new car needs one stop, the old one needed two. Plus I can choose where to stop (a charger on my route), whereas before I had less choice. So I might have had to stop when I already had, say, 50% charge - which is a lot less efficient to charge than stopping at 10%
Have a go with
ABetterRoutePlanner. Choose the model of car, start the journey at 100%, and put in your Start / Finish for some of your longer journeys, and see what it says (it will tell you where you will have to charge, and for how long). Try it at, e.g., 110% for speed - if you have a bit of a heavy foot!
Try it in winter too - 5C, 5MPH wind. See how much more charging you would need to do.
Try for Model-3 and Model-Y. Maybe try and ID3 / ID4 as well? Whatever you fancy
Can you charge at Clients? Even 13AMP will help (about 7 MPH added ... if you are there 4 hours that might avoid the need for a pit-stop on the way home ... might also be free, our chargers at work are free to visitors)
If you are a travelling salesman - you stop for an hour at each client and then go to the next one - THAT situation is terrible in winter. If you pre-warm the car and battery (off the mains) and then just drive for a couple of hours at 70 MPH ... that uses about 10% more energy in Winter cold. But each time you stop, the battery gets cold, and you have "energy penalty" when you set off again. So lots of 1+ hour stops, in winter, is definitely worst-case for EV. But if you can plug in, whilst you are visiting, then that won't be much of a problem.
25k a year the lease payment is around £380 a month. Petrol is around £100 a week
In simple terms you will save £100 for each 10K miles you drive a year. If you have one of the "best" off peak rates AND you can complete your overnight charge in that time (4 hours = about 100 miles added) then you can increase that to £150 per month
So my simple question would be: Given you do 25K miles a year if you added £250 a month to your finance would that buy you a Tesla? (and if that is tight would £150 x 2.5 = £375 a month cover the finance? If the latter you are going to have to do some proper maths to make sure that you will actually get enough savings. For example, if you will have to pay for public charging (to top up whilst you are out) then that we be same price as Petrol (but for just those top-up miles).
Best off peak electricity rate is about 7.5p / kWh "Unit". Assuming you are mostly "pressing on" on the motorway then 3 miles / kWh is doable. If you want to drive at 65 MPH then you should get 4 miles / kWh. Of course some of the time you will be in traffic, or road works, and you will get 4 miles per kWh for that part of your jouney.
So ... 7.5p / kWh for electricity. 3 miles per kWh hour. 25k miles a year. That comes to £625 for electricity. BUT: using the cheapest overnight rate. And using ZERO 3rd party juice.
Your current £100 a week for fuel is 52 x £100 = £5,200 (assuming you don't go on holiday! or you drive the same distance on holiday as you do at work
)
So you would "save" £5,200 - £625 = £4,575 on fuel.
You will also need less servicing. I don't know what your current service interval is - and whether you stick to manufacturer guidelines? I think at 25K per year I'd service a Tesla once a year (personally I use an independent who will be cheaper than Tesla, and he travels to my home / work and services it on my drive - very convenient
). There is no cost for Oil, Spark Plugs, Cam Belt!!, and for a motorway driver (and provided you use regen for slowing down) your brakes will last 150,000 miles.
I know I can claim 50% of the vat back
That doesn't sound right - can you clarify that please?
You can buy the car with 100% first year writeoff. Basically you get a tax rebate for that portion. When you sell the car you "make a profit", so you have to then PAY tax on that profit. But as a one-person-band you have the use of the money for that time and if you then buy another EV then you pay the tax on PROFIT and get the tax BACK on the new car (which will be more expensive than your trade-ion). That is until the government ditch that tax refund.
As a company car you will pay peanuts in Benefit-in-Kind tax (compared to a Petrol car). So big saving there (for company car route)
Company can pay the insurance too. Tesla are all blinking fast, so they are in the highest insurance group
No congestion charge (if your business takes you into London etc.?)
still do a steady 200+ miles on a charge
I am doubtful that is enough for a 25K a year driver. Time spent charging would need to be factored in.
However, if O/P has to do emails "when you get home" ? then you can do those, sat in the car whilst charging, so that is then time-neutral, you will arive home later but not have to do those emails
But how does that work if your FIT is with a different supplier?
I believe you can have your FIT with one company and get your Juice from a different one. As such it may be best to move your FIT to a "Green company" so that they get the benefit (and if you are moving it AWAY from a non-green company that creates trouble for them as they have to get green credits from somewhere ... "Every Little Helps")