Rat
Well-known member
I just discovered I can actually profit just by driving my Leaf, i.e. come out ahead with money in my pocket, not just save money compared to driving an ICE. If you're self-employed you may be able to do it too.
Last weekend I drove 230 miles R/T to an event where I promoted my novel, including making some sales of autographed copies. Since I am required to do a Schedule C on my taxes for my book sales (it's treated as a business, not just royalties), I can and do deduct business travel. The permitted rate on cars (in 2012 anyway) is $.55 a mile. That's a deduction, not a credit, so your taxes are only reduced by your marginal tax rate times that amount. In my case, my federal and state rate combined is about 34% so my taxes are reduced by about 18.7 cents per mile. So that's $43 my taxes go down for that one trip, assuming rates and mileage rules stay the same for 2013. Of course that must be offset by the actual cost of driving the car. Since I did almost the whole trip on power from free public charging stations the electricity cost was near zero. I don't know what the marginal cost per mile of driving the car is when the power is free, but it must be very low. Something for the tire wear. Insurance and depreciation are probably negligible in my case since I drive very little as a retiree (and my wife drives even less in her car) and I think my insurance rates for both cars are based on the lowest mileage bracket the insurance company has, even with these occasional business trips. Similarly with depreciation. I venture to guess that whenever we sell or trade in the Leaf, it will still have very low mileage compared with other cars its age, and thus the condition is unlikely to be any different at the end of 10 or 12 years with or without these occasional trips, unless I have an accident, damage the battery from the QCs, or otherwise damage the car. Depreciation will pretty much be dictated by the model year of the car, since EV's are changing rapidly. A 2011 Leaf SL is going to be pretty much the same value with 85,000 miles 10 years from now as it will with 86,000 miles.
In terms of return on your time, a long trip may not be worth it, but if you can do it on free public charging (or even your regular employer's dime) you can make money doing this. If you can do it without the need to take extra time to charge, it's even better. For example, suppose you have a side business as a software consultant, and you're employed at company X, which provides free charging. If you run out at lunch to meet a personal client locally then come back to your job and charge up again at Company X, you can deduct $.55 a mile for the business travel, which you would have done anyway, but using the Leaf cost you nothing in terms of time or money.
In the long run we may find that there is a very real cost to each extra mile even with free power but for now I don't see it being anywhere near 19 cents a mile.
Last weekend I drove 230 miles R/T to an event where I promoted my novel, including making some sales of autographed copies. Since I am required to do a Schedule C on my taxes for my book sales (it's treated as a business, not just royalties), I can and do deduct business travel. The permitted rate on cars (in 2012 anyway) is $.55 a mile. That's a deduction, not a credit, so your taxes are only reduced by your marginal tax rate times that amount. In my case, my federal and state rate combined is about 34% so my taxes are reduced by about 18.7 cents per mile. So that's $43 my taxes go down for that one trip, assuming rates and mileage rules stay the same for 2013. Of course that must be offset by the actual cost of driving the car. Since I did almost the whole trip on power from free public charging stations the electricity cost was near zero. I don't know what the marginal cost per mile of driving the car is when the power is free, but it must be very low. Something for the tire wear. Insurance and depreciation are probably negligible in my case since I drive very little as a retiree (and my wife drives even less in her car) and I think my insurance rates for both cars are based on the lowest mileage bracket the insurance company has, even with these occasional business trips. Similarly with depreciation. I venture to guess that whenever we sell or trade in the Leaf, it will still have very low mileage compared with other cars its age, and thus the condition is unlikely to be any different at the end of 10 or 12 years with or without these occasional trips, unless I have an accident, damage the battery from the QCs, or otherwise damage the car. Depreciation will pretty much be dictated by the model year of the car, since EV's are changing rapidly. A 2011 Leaf SL is going to be pretty much the same value with 85,000 miles 10 years from now as it will with 86,000 miles.
In terms of return on your time, a long trip may not be worth it, but if you can do it on free public charging (or even your regular employer's dime) you can make money doing this. If you can do it without the need to take extra time to charge, it's even better. For example, suppose you have a side business as a software consultant, and you're employed at company X, which provides free charging. If you run out at lunch to meet a personal client locally then come back to your job and charge up again at Company X, you can deduct $.55 a mile for the business travel, which you would have done anyway, but using the Leaf cost you nothing in terms of time or money.
In the long run we may find that there is a very real cost to each extra mile even with free power but for now I don't see it being anywhere near 19 cents a mile.