Honestly, the lowest right now anywhere near me is $3.09 a gallon, not cheap at all. But even $2.53 a gallon is expensive compared to an EV, especially when you live near free EVSEs. I usually spend around $15 a month to charge and I drive about 1,500 miles a month. That works out to about $0.001 per mile. Now, add in the fact that I bought my Leaf used for about $6,000, I got a brand new battery in December under the capacity warranty. So I should easily get 100,000 miles out of that $6,000, so that adds $0.06 per mile to the cost. Add in tires and minor maintenance at around $0.005 per mile (assuming 70,000 miles on the tires) and total cost of ownership breaks down to about $0.066 cents per mile.RonDawg said:cmwade77 said:Umm, where do you live that gas prices are low? I can't get gas anywhere near me for less than $3.00 a gallon, I do not call that low by any standard.
$3.00/gallon is expensive by US standards today, but again isn't exactly dissuading some Californians from buying bro-dozers. Even in this state, with rare exceptions like the Prius, smaller high-MPG cars don't sell as well as larger and more thirsty models. GM and Ford sell far more light duty pickups than compacts. Ford just discontinued the Fiesta here in the US because sales just don't support continuing to sell it here. Even Toyota sells more Camrys than Corollas year after year.
And it's low compared to what we were paying 10 years ago, when some gas stations had $5+/gallon pricing. According to https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/12/driving-costs-the-same-as-it-did-in-the-50s.html, gasoline in 1956 was an average of 30 cents/gallon. That's worth $2.77 in today's money....California is more expensive, but not that much more expensive. A quick Google search shows the average price right now is around $2.53 for regular. So as a country, we're paying less than we did 62 years ago.
And remember that's an average of the entire country. When some parts of Oregon finally got self-serve gas, a popular meme being distributed shows a clip from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" of a gas station exploding; the prices that were posted were in the mid 30 cent range. The scene was filmed in Marin County, so that's likely what prices were in that area at that time.
Figure on average vehicles get about 26 MPG at present, at $2.53 a gallon, that means they cost $0.0973 per mile just for gas, add in tires at $0.004 per mile, maintenance at $0.01 per mile for oil changes, tune ups, etc. and the cost of the vehicle, even used, you are usually looking at around $12,000 and it will get you probably about 60,000 miles before needing major mechanical repairs to the point that it is better to replace it, so that adds in about $0.20 per mile. Add in some minor mechanical repairs that the Leaf and other EVs won't generally have and if they do, definitely not as often and you add about another $0.05 per mile for a grand total of about $0.3613 per mile driven and this is on the cheap end, consider that AAA and the Federal government estimate the costs over $0.50 per mile driven on this one.
I dare you to find me ANY other type of vehicle that can come anywhere close to $0.066 per mile for total cost of ownership, including the cost of the vehicle. Now, let's say that you have to pay for your electricity for every single charge and you are in the expensive area that I am where it will run you $0.18/kWh. At about 4 miles per kWh, that breaks down to $0.045 per mile instead of $0.001, making total cost of ownership about $0.11 per mile.
Now, just a quick note, these numbers do not include cost of insurance, as the cost is about the same on both types of vehicles if you shop around. Literally the difference was about actually about $10 cheaper for the EV for us than our old gas car.