What Like-for-Like Actually Means When Your Car Is Electric

Like-for-like means a replacement vehicle comparable to the one you lost the use of. For an electric vehicle that usually means another electric vehicle, of similar size and similar range, and it is reasonable to ask for one.

The reason it is worth writing about now is that somebody has just set a very specific benchmark, and it is a good one.

What just changed

Farizon, which makes electric vans, has partnered with Europcar Mobility Group UK to provide replacement vehicles to its customers.

The terms are unusually specific. If a Farizon van cannot be repaired at the roadside, the customer is due a replacement Farizon electric van within two days. Europcar is holding an initial fleet of ten Farizon SV vans at locations around the UK to make that possible. More than 70% of the Europcar network has EV charging, and the vans are supplied with at least 80% charge at the start of the loan. The service runs for the length of the warranty, which is four years or 120,000 miles on the SV and five years or 120,000 miles on the V7E.

Worth noting what that means in practice. The replacement is always an SV, even for a V7E customer, and the ringfenced fleet is L1H1, the smallest of the five SV body sizes. So it is a fast, matched-brand electric van rather than a size-for-size match.

Same manufacturer. Two days. Already charged.

That is what somebody looks like when they have designed a replacement service around electric vehicles from the start, rather than adding EVs to a service designed for petrol ones.

Why that is not the same as a non-fault claim

This is the part worth being straight about, because the two get confused and the difference matters.

What Farizon has announced is a manufacturer aftersales service. It sits alongside the four years of AA roadside assistance Farizon vans come with, it runs for the length of the warranty, and it is triggered when a van cannot be fixed at the roadside. It is a promise from the company that sold you the van, not a claim against anybody.

A replacement vehicle after a non-fault accident is a different thing entirely. It is not a warranty benefit. It comes from the fact that somebody else damaged your vehicle and, where liability is established, is responsible for putting you back in the position you were in. That is why there is normally nothing to pay upfront, though there are honest caveats to that which we set out on will I have to pay. It is also why what you get is governed by what is reasonable and necessary rather than by a contract you signed with a manufacturer.

Different route, different funding, different rules. The Farizon service is a useful benchmark for what good looks like. It is not a description of your entitlement.

So what should you actually expect?

Start from what you lost the use of. Our like-for-like explainer covers the general standard, which is broad equivalence rather than an identical vehicle. What follows is the electric-specific version of it.

If you drove an electric car, a comparable replacement is normally an electric car of similar size and similar range. If you drove an electric van and it carried a particular load, the replacement should carry that load. That is what comparable means, and it is what we work to.

Where it gets more interesting than petrol is that with an EV, "similar" has more moving parts.

Range matters more than badge. Two electric cars in the same size class can differ by a hundred miles of real-world range. If your commute is ninety miles round trip, a car that manages a hundred and ten in winter is not a like-for-like swap for one that manages two hundred and forty, whatever the vehicle group says.

Charging speed matters almost as much. A vehicle that takes forty minutes on a rapid charger and one that takes an hour and a half are different vehicles in practice, even if the range on paper is similar.

How you charge matters most of all. More on that below, because it is the one that catches people out.

The charging cost question nobody asks at the start

You pay for the electricity, in the same way you would pay for petrol. That part is straightforward and nobody argues about it.

What is not straightforward is that your cost per mile can change enormously depending on the vehicle you are given and where you can charge it.

If you normally charge at home overnight on an EV tariff, you might be paying a few pence per kilowatt hour. If your replacement has to live on public rapid chargers, because it does not fit your driveway, or because it cannot use your home unit, or because you have been given a petrol car and are now buying fuel, your running costs go up for the whole hire period.

Nobody sets out to hide this. It just does not come up, because the conversation on the first call is about getting you mobile, and charging feels like a detail. It is not a detail if the hire runs six weeks.

So raise it at the start. Say how you normally charge and what your typical week looks like. It changes which replacement is actually right for you, and it is much easier to sort at the beginning than three weeks in.

What if there is no electric replacement available?

Sometimes there is not one, or not one nearby, or not one today.

The honest position is that EV replacement stock is thinner than petrol and diesel stock, and it varies a lot by region and by vehicle type. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling.

What should happen is that you get told what is genuinely available and when, so you can choose. Roughly:

• Wait a day for the right vehicle. Often the best answer if you are not stuck without transport in the meantime.
• Take something else now and swap later. Sensible if you need to be mobile today.
• Take a petrol or diesel equivalent for the whole period. Sometimes the right call, particularly on shorter hires, but it should be your decision made with the costs in front of you.

What should not happen is that a petrol car turns up and nobody mentions that an electric one was an option.

If you run a van or a fleet

Three things worth doing before you ever need to make the call.

Write down what the van actually has to do. Payload, load length, whether it needs a tow bar, whether it needs to complete a fixed route on one charge. "Like-for-like" is much easier to deliver when somebody has written down what like means for your operation.

Check what your manufacturer already gives you. If your vans came with a replacement service like the Farizon one, that may be the faster route for a breakdown, even though a non-fault accident is handled differently. Knowing which is which before an incident saves a day.

Tell your provider your charging setup. Depot charging, home charging for drivers, public network, or a mix. It changes which replacement works.

The short version

The Farizon and Europcar arrangement is a good benchmark. Same manufacturer, two days, arrives charged, even if it is not a size-for-size match. That is what a replacement service looks like when EVs are designed into it.

After a non-fault accident you are in a different system, and what you get is driven by what is reasonable and what is available rather than by a warranty. But the questions are the same ones: does it have the range I need, can I charge it the way I normally charge, and will it do the job the old one did.

Ask those three on the first call. It is the difference between a replacement that works and one that technically counts.

If you have had a non-fault accident in an electric vehicle and want to know what we can get you and how quickly, give us a call on 01606 662300. We will tell you what is actually available in your area rather than what sounds good on the phone.