Speaking at the RAC Foundation’s Shades of Green event last week, Andy Carroll, managing director of Glass’s UK, compared per mile costs for the Nissan Leaf, Vauxhall Ampera and a leased battery vehicle against a conventional diesel competitor over three years and 36,000 miles.

Vehicles running leased batteries, such as Renault’s ZE range, fared well at 33p per mile, while the Leaf and Ampera cost 49p and 52p respectively. Diesel cars fell between the two, at 40p per mile.

The costs were based on residual values of 35% for the Leaf and 43% for the Ampera , against 54% for a vehicle with leased batteries, claiming uncertainty over the technology was responsible for the quicker depreciation.

He said: ‘The only way that either as a member of the public or a leasing company or a fleet you can compare these different technologies and different business models is whole life costs. We’re going to drive our language much towards trying to get our head around what we mean by that.’

‘Depreciation is coming from both sides. On the one side are the high prices, driven by the low volumes of these vehicles, and on the other level it’s being driven by residual values that don’t have a huge premium compared to diesel.

‘Uncertainty means risk, and risk means a premium. With leasing solutions the manufacturer is removing some of the risk, some of the uncertainty, from the equation hence why it looks more attractive.’