DaveinOlyWA
Well-known member
kikngas said:I think I cut through some of the misunderstanding amongst my friends when I posed this question:
I charged today at a public charge station during a visit to the library. I paid $1.50 and got about 30 miles of range in an hour. Did I get a good deal?
They stared at the ceiling a few seconds and concluded that was a price they'd be glad to pay. About half the price they pay to drive ICE.
Then I pointed out that if I had put the same charge in at home the same amount of electricity would only have cost about half as much from my existing household outlet. And that if I took advantage of off-peak rates from my power company, the cost would only be about half as much again, $.36
They still don't quite BELIEVE it, but I think it eliminates some of the confusion when you relate dollars directly to miles (and simplify away a bit of the uncertainty about exactly how many miles you might get for various reasons).
Keep in mind that this (the 6c/kWh off-peak rate) is an order of magnitude less than they are paying on a daily basis. If someone told you that you are paying 10x too much for cereal or Chinese food, you'd probably be looking for the "catch" in the story as well... But think about it, and you know you can buy a 10 pound bag of rice for about the price of one take-out order, and that a 60 pound bushel of wheat sells for roughly the price of two large boxes of Wheaties (weighing about 3 pounds).
the real issue in your story is the gasser's belief that their real cost is 10 cents per mile. That is highly dependent on their location as the West gas prices are MUCH higher, the North has fuel economy that is MUCH lower and there are other associated costs with driving gassers that EVs do not enjoy.
I challenge anyone who drives a gasser to track their costs; fuel, maintenance, licensing, taxes, insurance, etc. get a real "cost per mile" figure.
I am doing this and keep in mind; my test is weighted GREATLY in favor of the gasser. It was MUCH cheaper, it is only used for longer freeway trips, nearly 100% of its miles are reimbursed from work, etc. and so far, its performance shows. I am averaging over 39 MPG so far.
I will post results of the experiment at Christmas