Electric vehicles cost

[oil pan 4]

Last month I ran up 1,500 miles on my nissan leaf.
The energy economy is down to 4 miles per kwh.
But I haven't been going easy on the leaf and it's been getting colder.
Last month's electrical bill total cost divided by use was 0.096 cents per kwh.
The leaf used around 375 kwh which cost about $36.
Base rate is 7 cents per kwh or about $26 if you exclude the surcharge from the kwh cost.

To drive a normal vehicle 1,500 miles would cost any where from $300 for a truck SUV and maybe as little as $150 on gas for a hybrid economy car. Ok maybe as little as $100 if you drive it like you can't afford the gas.

Buying gas sucks. I have gone and am going to stay electric, I like money too much to flush 100s of dollars per month down the gasoline filler hole.

Disclaimer. The leaf is obviously not fossil fuel free. Most of my electrical power comes from coal and natural gas.

[jamesqf]

$66.21 if you drive a 1st gen Insight, figuring 70 mpg (I usually get a bit over that) and local gas price $3.09/gal. That's the price I pay for needing to go more than 100 miles or so between charging opportunities :-(

[19bonestock88]

That 1500mi would cost me about $90 in my Saturn, assuming a 48mpg average...

I seen a Tesla for sale on CL halfway close to me (for a half attainable price) and it made me really think... EVs are cheaper to run than ICEVs are and the free supercharging would swing the deal even further in favor...

Even if the note would be halfway affordable, I couldn’t swing the insurance on a P85D though... still though, I think more and more about becoming an EV convert...

[oil pan 4]

Not bad considering I use my leaf harder than some people use their pickups.

[ksa8907]

I agree with you, I was a little doubtful of the volt when I bought it but I'm glad I did. Really love the electric driving!

Electric is more expensive per the energy content, but since 75% of the energy in gas is lost... electric ends up being between 2x and 3x less expensive per mile.

[niky]

If only our local taxes weren't so stupid... Nissan is still waffling on bringing the Leaf to this market, though it's been testing the waters for the Note hybrid.

[oil pan 4]

Bad news, the leaf pack price replacement is now at around $8,000.

[Snax]

Figured I'd throw in my quick back of the napkin calculation on cost for my i3:

Charging efficiency is a little over 90% on L2, and for my latest 5 mile commute with about 1 mile of using the heat to 70F in 50F conditions, the car reports 4.1 mi/kWh for the trip.

Currently I pay about 9.2 cents/kWh.

9.2kWh / 90% = about 10.2 cents/kWh actually put into the pack.

So 10.2 cents / 4.1 mi = 2.5 cents per mile.

If I were to drive 1500 miles at that efficiency, that would be $37.50.

1500 miles in my previously daily driven 2002 1.8L Miata works out to $194 at my typical 24MPG and $3.10/gal locally.

That's only a cost savings of about $156, but considering the average person puts 12-15k miles on a vehicle annually, that is somewhere in the range of $1500 in possible fuel savings in a year. (I am struggling to decide which is more fun to drive right now as well.)

Comparing to my other vehicles without hyper-miling or modifications:

- 2015 Fiesta SE @36 MPG (8.6 cents/mi), $1000/yr savings (daughter's car)
- 2011 Flex SEL AWD @18 MPG (17.2 cents/mi), $2000/yr savings (trailer hauler)

Of course this ignores other maintenance for both types of vehicles, but I honestly think that side of it is mostly a wash when amortized out to battery replacement and or engine / transmission failures etc.

So the i3 by today's use is 8.6 / 2.5 = 3.4 x more cost efficient than 36 MPG, 6.8 x more cost efficient than 18 MPG, and about 5.1 times more cost efficient than my previous daily driver.

(I will leave the discussion of having the gassers paid off vs. the loan on the i3 to another discussion though!)

[redpoint5]

Thanks for sharing that math with us.

One thing I constantly bring up is that by far the biggest expense for most people is depreciation.

My signature has a total cost of ownership calculator. It requires you to assume a lot of unknowns, but at least it should give a good ballpark comparison between any 2 vehicles.

Often the biggest cost is the difference between the purchase price of the vehicle, and the anticipated sales price at the end of ownership, which is known as depreciation.

[oil pan 4]

Yeah they suffer catastrophic depreciation.