I’m a professional cheapskate. Our gasoline bills totaled about 2600 last year and about 2000 the year before. I’ve tried like hell, but I cannot get the economics of EV’s to work.
The only scenario an EV would make sense is like a used Nissan Leaf for a short range commuter car since they can be had used for $7-8k. Their range is only like 90 miles though, so you could only use the car for commuting and short errands. Most of the fuel we buy goes into my wife’s car for her commute (I ride my bike to work), so it’d wipe out most of our gasoline bills but it’d be annoying to only have 1 car that can go on road trips.
The Chevy Volt makes a little more sense as the electric range is about 48 miles before the backup gasoline engine kicks in and it runs like a regular hybrid. That’d still gets her door to door on her commute without any gasoline, and the car could still be used for long road trips. However, the break-even horizon over her current car for a $33,000 Volt would be, er, about 14 years.
That sounds like just about the same amount of time it takes solar panels to pay for themselves.
The Chevy Volt makes no sense at all to me. I can sneeze and do 48 miles, not much mileage at all to justify an electric. A true hybrid is a much better alternative. My daughter drives an Altima Hybrid which gets 700 miles to the tank, and has quick all-around acceleration that is surprising, unlike the Prius which is slower. (The Altima uses Prius hybrid technology but with a Nissan powerplant.) Electric cars are still not ready for prime time, too many negative issues to deal with. Regular hybrids are the way to go.
I had a Leaf (plus SUV) for two years. Worked out very nicely.