Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: rdcbn1
At least 12K miles per of home charged miles. That’s the threshold where getting an EV makes economic sense. That’s based on gas vs power prices in Alabama, and based on what car prices were 3 years ago when my wife’s gas crossover needed replacing anyway and I replaced it with an EV.

I don’t know about today’s car prices. Nor did my research involve cold weather reducing miles/kWh throughput (not talking about reduced range on trips, the home charged miles is when the gas savings happens).

For us the threshold is 8K miles per year of home charged miles, but that’s because most of our power comes from decentralized solar. You must do your homework on an EV and/or solar.

3.5 miles / kWh. That’s the magic number that took forever to find. The question of how much gas savings vs increasing your power bill comes down to how many miles your realistically get for every kWh you add to your bill. I regularly get 3.9 miles per kWh, but that’s from the DC battery. Reduce that by 10% for loss while converting AC power to DC power while home charging and it comes out to 3.5 miles/kWh. Forget the most talked about numbers like range and time it takes to charge, at least when deciding if the gas savings is worth it. That 3.5 is for a crossover shape (read: less efficient than a sudan) in mostly warm weather (read: more efficient than running your heat in the cold north).

6 posted on 02/20/2025 2:58:34 AM PST by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]


To: Tell It Right
I supposed when one is very comfortably retired it is fun to fine-tune your financials to make it OK to purchase unusual toys and the infrastructure needed to manage them (EVs, solar, etc).

For me I want the wife and I to have a dependable ICE (well known technology) that won't have it or her bothering me about our transportation. I also want the transportation to have some trade-in value after using it for several years and not need a $15,000 battery every 3-4 years. I mean ... really?

In fairness I wouldn't buy an ICE vehicle that had an engine that was prone to self-destruction every few thousand miles (see GMs latest V8s).

8 posted on 02/20/2025 4:57:41 AM PST by ByteMercenary (Liberalism is a mental disorder.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

To: Tell It Right

I suppose if your house burns down from some sort of short while charging in your garage that makes the value goes down a tad.


9 posted on 02/20/2025 5:59:07 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson