Read the article. I’m calling BS on it.
1. Just as ICE vehicles experienced over many years, the development of an infrastructure occurs in concentrated areas, then spreads out from there. EVs aren’t an “everywhere everyone anytime” solution - yet; neither was ICE. Averaging “opportunity costs” of rare-EV vs common-EV areas is disingenuous. (This is akin to anti-gun “studies” averaging “murders by established criminals” with “murders by upstanding gun-owning citizens” and concluding both groups should be forcibly disarmed.)
2. Electricity prices given are jacked up. My normal electricity cost is substantially below the lowest price they list. If new owners install a separate-metering 240V line to a dedicated charger, doing most charging at off-peak hours, electricity costs can be mostly 1/10th that of the study’s claim. Amortizing charger cost is considered, but is then abused by minimizing its use.
3. Way too much is made of “commercial charging” (incurring substantial power & time markup). If you get an EV, you charge it mostly at home - personal time spent involved in the charging process is utterly negligible (get out of car, plug it in, done ... unplug car, get in, done), and costs a small fraction of commercial high-speed chargers.
4. Study over-magnifies “opportunity costs”, claiming that because it allegedly takes 5 minutes (!) to plug/unplug an EV (actually takes seconds), that the cumulative 4.5 hours per month equates to billable hours lost.
5. Researchers explicitly equate “entry level EVs” with “mid luxury ICE” prices. $27,400 is not comparable to $40,000+.
6. After pages of explaining how they’re going to mangle the numbers (admitting unrealistic assumptions), they completely leave out entry- and mid-level EV mostly-at-home charging costs, particularly ignoring those who just plug their EV into a 110V outlet >95% of the time.
7. Too much use of “analysis/proof by insult” occurs.
8. No consideration of related vehicle maintenance costs is applied. Oil changes, mechanical failures, increased brake maintenance, etc plus the much-considered (for EVs) “opportunity costs” thereof are completely ignored.
More analysis at https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38043667/study-electric-cars-higher-cost-questions/ and other sites.
LOL! They probably got paid big bucks for their “study” as well. It’s info to be mulled over and conclusions made and differing opinions presented, like most things.