Gotta disagree. The driver, as I mentioned in my post, WILL have to pay a higher cost per kilowatt to cover the costs of owning and operating the EV system.
Right now I pay for electricity at the utility rate to charge. That’s my variable cost.
AND I have to amortize the cost (higher) of buying the electric model of my chosen sedan, AND amortize the cost of the degrading battery.
I have no illusion that the overall cost of my EV is lower per mile than the gas version of the same vehicle. I ran the numbers: I will have to drive the vehicle for almost 250,000 miles alongside a market price of gas of $3/gal before I would break even. I DO NOT expect to break even by going EV.
We ENJOY the nearly silent electric vehicle experience, and my wife has a 12 mile each way commute. She never buys gas. She likes it.
Not all choices are 100% economic.
But if the replaceable battery model were to take off, I think it would start in the freight industry, on dedicated lanes, where a company like Pilot pairs with a freight hauler like Hub Group.
It would work.
We can disagree.
“AND I have to amortize the cost (higher) of buying the electric model of my chosen sedan, AND amortize the cost of the degrading battery.”
You do, of course, pay off the battery in either case. But the problem is that most owners don’t realize that anymore than they amortize the cost of the engine. So, as long as the fiction of not having to amortize the cost of the battery can continue, the apparent cost of driving will seem much lower than a gas vehicle. But triple the cost of ‘filling up’ because the battery depreciation has to be included, and now the apparent per-mile ‘benefit’ is gone and people will bitch that their charge-up costs as much as gasoline would cost.
In the end, they’ll see it in resale value regardless...as seen here:
https://www.endurancewarranty.com/learning-center/finance/electric-vehicles-declining-resale-values/