Dieselgate

FWIW My car has had two Haldex services by an independent Skoda dealer at 30k & 60k miles. For the first one he said (and showed pictures to demonstrate) that the filter definitely needed cleaning. For the second one he said it hardly needed doing which I thought was interesting. I'm unsure why this is as I have owned the car since new and the driving has not been very different throughout it's life. My only guess is whether a bit more gunk is produced by the haldex at the beginning of it's life but I'm not sure how likely this is. For clarity my car is a TDI 4x4.

EDF - FreePhase Dynamic tariff.

Electricity prices were negative nearly the whole of last weekend. I got 21 hours free on Saturday and 15 hours on Sunday. The hours that weren't free were still very low.

Decisions on whether to go for an EV aren't wholly a financial one. For oneself I will be holding on to my Superb until something of sufficient size that can do a 350 mile trip with no more than a 10 minute stop comes along. New Mercedes VLE looks interesting but probably still be slightly short of this and a lot of cash too. I would also like something with a spare wheel too. Having 1 EV and 1 ICE is working very nicely for us by deriving the benefits of both.

Looks like AUD to me.

No problem. Yes OK that's understood. It seems there are a few similar 'add on' tariffs out there now which probably can work out cheaper for some. My dad went with the EDF EV tariff as theirs didn't seem to impose much of a premium peak rate.

To clarify a couple of things. I have an EV myself through salary sacrifice. I never said nobody buys an EV with their own money, only that I don't know anybody who has (I don't include people I only know through internet forums in that category). I'm very glad if it's working out well for you - I'm very satisfied with mine myself but going EV only does not work for me right now for many different reasons, some of which I have been sharing on here (including simple factual data). As and when that changes I'll be happy to change. Out of interest what EV charging tariff do you use? Have you done any analysis on how much extra the peak rate is costing you on your general home electricity?

Sure - the ppm rates are cheap at face value but I calculated that based on my normal electricity usage, paying the penalty peak rate for 18 hours of the day would overall cost me about £500 extra per year. That's quite a chunk of cash off the savings. Plus obviously most EV drivers have to use public chargers from time to time as well.

Of course, but the same applied last January & February. Of course - though from what I've seen so far home charging costs have gone up rather than down so far this year. I was on IOG for a while at the end of last year and into January this year and was paying 7p kWh off peak and 29p peak rates. The current rates are 8p kWh off peak and 36p peak. So a roughly 14% increase in off peak rates and a 20% increase in peak rates. Petrol & diesel have gone up in recent weeks but not by that much - yet.

The market is without a doubt being turbocharged by taxation assistance. I know a lot of EV owners and none of them have any particular aversion to ICE cars. They have EVs for tax purposes/running costs only. In fact I don't think any EV owner I know actually has bought one with their own money, all are company cars/salary sacrifice. Just noticed that EVs only had 24.2% market share in new registrations for February. The second consecutive month where it's behind last years numbers (25.3% in February 2025). A LOT of catching up to do to meet the 33% target this year.

Things like that may be true but the comparison isn't quite as simplistic as you make out. If we assume an average price of 10p kWh for the electricity that suggests about 40kWh charged. At an average of 3.5kWh/mile (what my Cupra gets on average at the moment) then thats 140 miles worth of 'fuel'. £73 would get you almost exactly 50 litres of diesel based on pump prices in my area at the moment. My Superb which does about 55mpg when driven in a similar way to how I drive the Cupra could go about 605 miles with 11 gallons (near enough 50 litres) of fuel that £73 bought you. That will cost you at least £17 to charge an EV at home with to get the same number of miles. And if straying further from home then that could mean some charging on public rapid chargers where the gap will further narrow. And then you have the rarely cited additional cost of charging at home in the form of inflated electricity prices outside of your off peak pricing. Looking at EDF, Octopus, EON etc they all charge in the region of 31-35p kWh during all other hours which is quite a bit more than most are currently paying. Whilst some may be able to shift a bit of usage to the cheap period to lower the average, most will experience a partial offset in their savings due to the increased cost of cooking, washing, lighting etc at home. Not everyone has the funds or desire to invest in solar or home batteries etc to reduce this further. I'm not denying that in the overall EVs have lower running costs but when looked at in detail the gap is, in my opinion, normally smaller than the headline numbers suggest. Mine is definitely saving me money but when I did the sums it wasn't that much - and at the moment I'm getting all my charging done for free at work. Ultimately I took it because it would give me a (slightly) larger car and a few years newer than what I already had.

Perhaps what some EV drivers forget or ignore is that it's not that difficult to do a very minor diversion and pick up cheaper fuel rather than pay motorway prices especially on regular long trips. For our regular trips to Germany I have a couple of locations that are no more of a diversion than a regular motorway services and you pay what is more or less the going rate for that area. I'm not aware that public rapid charging has massive variation by location so you are fairly stuck paying the extortionate rate wherever you go.

To say nothing of the transition to heat pumps also.

Probably safe to assume that he does. You don't normally get that kind of job without one. Did you actually read what he said? The key point being that bills will be about 2/3 system costs and 1/3 wholesale prices. The grid upgrades are happening and will cost money one way or another that everyone will have to pay for. That is regardless of how the electricity is being generated, battery/pumped storage etc.

You haven't unfortunately addressed the main point which was about Centrica saying the price of electricity is likely to increase a lot over the next 4 years and by extension the impact this could have on the takeup of EVs (which is of course the main topic of this thread). You initially dismissed this as a biased viewpoint but have provided nothing to back this up. Do you think that electricity prices are not going to go up between now and 2030? Gas has always been much cheaper than electricity. If it was the same price then nobody would be able to afford to heat their home. Saying it is cheap right now just because it's cheaper than electricity is like saying bread is cheap just because it's less than meat even if bread has just doubled in price.

Centrica is not a lot smaller than Octopus and I've no idea why you think that explains him trying to feed what you are effectively dismissing as 'disinformation'. Everyone needs electricity, not everyone uses gas so it's not as if they are going to abandon the electricity market. Why do you keep saying that when it has doubled in the last few years? I was paying 2.5p kW/h as recently as early 2022.

So why do you think they sell heat pumps? People shifting their energy usage from gas to electricity simply means they move from one of his products to the other.

Did you not see this? https://www.cityam.com/british-gas-electricity-bills-higher-than-ukraine-war-2030/

31% Market share in December 2024, 32.2% in December 2025 Is that 'much higher'? Not really for me.

Yes but the same thing applied the previous year. I.e a December rush followed by a January slump.

EVs market share actually went down in January 2026 compared to January 2025, not exactly encouraging data even if it is early in the year. Considering that market share last year was also 4.6% adrift of the ZEV mandate I struggle to see them getting back on track this year. The boss of Centrica/British Gas was in the news this week saying that electricity will be more expensive in 2030 than during the early days of the Ukraine war so it wouldn't surprise me if that will cause a lot of people to think twice before investing. Whilst I have just over another 2 years with the Born I'm far from sure I'll go for an EV next time - will have to see how things are at the time. The economics only just stacked up this time and I could easily see them going the other way next time.

Not sure if I should have started a new topic but had a rather narrow escape last Friday when setting off on a long journey, hopefully this saves someone else from a similar fate! Superb had sat in the drive for probably a couple of weeks hardly being used and the weather has obviously been quite cold... Car was loaded, all ready to go. Pushed the start button and... not a lot happened! Was our day out about to be ruined? No! Enter my latest hero... https://www.amazon.co.uk/27000MAh-Compressor-UTRAI-Flashlight-Powerbank/dp/B0F4C96KZG?ref_=ast_sto_dp I bought this a year or so back to replace my previous portable compressor (which was 12v cable powered and died) for topping up the tyres occasionally. I didn't really have much need (or so I thought) for the jump starter or the other features such as power bank, flashlight etc but the fact that it was battery powered and had these extra features was a pleasant upgrade at the time and fitted with my mantra of being prepared for anything you can reasonably foresee. And I was exceedingly glad I had it (and that it was charged!) Straight out of the boot, bonnet up and connected up in seconds. Pushed the starter button and bingo - started like a new battery! On our way with only a minute or so of delay - VERY relieved! Not exactly putting a plug in for any particular product as I guess there are quite a few out there that do a similar job (there are smaller and cheaper ones available I believe). This just happens to be the product I have.

Mine has historically been a motorway plodder so probably fairly easy on the Haldex overall. It will probably take a fair bit more of a shooing now it's mainly used by the wife who doesn't like to hang around, albeit now doing an overall lower mileage. Yes I have heard of some dealers being happy to do (reports suggest my local VW dealer does) it but you will have to agree the price with them as if you just book a standard Haldex service with them then all they will do is change the oil.

Mine has done just over 60k miles. I haven't done a DSG service yet but I've kept it under the Skoda All In warranty just in case it does go pop, there's certainly not been any sign of it yet. Done 2 Haldex services (every 30k miles). The first time the filter was quite dirty and definitely needed doing but the second time it was pretty clean and probably hardly needed doing. Guess the nature of your driving has an impact here.

Still not comment on mileage done whilst not in the UK. It appears that mileage done in other countries will have to be paid for also. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/11/27/drivers-face-annual-mileage-checks-at-mot-centres-for-ev-ta/ 'The pay-per-mile charge will apply even to motorists who drive a significant number of miles outside the UK, for example motorists who live in Northern Ireland but regularly drive in the Republic of Ireland. Taking readings each year is preferable to other methods that could exempt miles driven overseas because it is the best way to protect privacy, according to the consultation documents. In future, cars’ in-built telematics systems may be able to report mileages to the DVLA, although this will always be optional, the Government said.' Obviously this is a moving picture with the charge not due to come in until 2028 so it could change but that seems to be the current expectation.