You can save money by spending a lot of money on a car that will only keep costing you a lot of money in the long term? The libtards are truly low IQ. Saving is a concept they do not understand at all.
Electricity is a cheaper fuel than gas. Plug-in hybrids are a good source of data because the same car literally runs off either. The plug-in Prius gets 55 mpg gas or 4 miles/kWh on electricity. At today's national gas price average of $3.40 you can drive 55 miles, which is 6.2 cents per mile. The national average electricity price is 13.31 cents/kWh, which gets you 4 miles. That's 3.3 cents per mile. Running on electricity in the plug-in Prius costs the same as if gas were $1.83 per gallon.
The plug-in Prius hybrid you speak of has a starting MSRP of $28,220. That means I would have to pay nearly $30K to get one to start 'saving' money. The Prius does not meet my needs for a vehicle so I'd be paying much more to get an electric vehicle that does meet my needs. This is not 'saving' me any money at all because I already have the vehicles I need, paid off, so my costs are maintenance and fuel only. I can more easily realize my losses with my current vehicles because I will not have a car payment, will not have to replace an expensive battery, can do the work I need my vehicle to do and ultimately not have to waste my time charging up the vehicle using a slow method of refueling.
I don't think you got the message in my previous comment.
The plug-in Prius hybrid you speak of has a starting MSRP of $28,220. That means I would have to pay nearly $30K to get one to start 'saving' money.
It has a $4,500 federal tax credit and in California it has an additional $900 credit. Except for today's fucked up "Let's go Brandon" car market, they usually sold below MSRP. I bought the wife one for $25498 out the door in March of this year. After tax rebate and California incentives the price was $19,098.
The Prius does not meet my needs for a vehicle so I'd be paying much more to get an electric vehicle that does meet my needs.
Then it would be stupid of you to buy a Prius when there are other electric vehicles from subcompacts to trucks.
This is not 'saving' me any money at all because I already have the vehicles I need, paid off, so my costs are maintenance and fuel only.
For people with long commutes the fuel savings almost makes the car payments for you. The wife used to drive a Honda Accord and it cost about $300 a month in gas. The Prius costs $30 a month for gas and about $20 a month for electricity. That's $250 a month in our pocket every month. In six years the fuel savings paid for the car.
I can more easily realize my losses with my current vehicles because I will not have a car payment, will not have to replace an expensive battery, can do the work I need my vehicle to do a
You will not have to replace a battery. They are warranted for 150,000 miles, and even then they don't even come close to needing replaced. Teslas still have 90%+ of their capacity after 200,000 miles.
If you don't drive a shitty car it won't need work, gas or electric. I've driven Toyota vehicles for the last 18 years and have never had a single one of them ever need a single repair. It was a shock after coming from Hondas, VWs, Fords, and GMs we'd had before. That's why I'll never go back.
I don't think you got the message in my previous comment.
I got your message, just your message was wrong.
Uh-hu. So what happens to those mileage numbers when you live up in North? Battery performance in the cold is a problem. And if you want to run the heater so you don't freeze too death and/or the window defroster so you can actually see to drive you can cut all those range numbers in half. Or how about down South, running the AC when it's 110-120F outside?
The environmental impact of manufacturing electric cars is higher than IC cars, and there are parts that cannot be recycled and would generate large amounts of toxic waste.
Further, in places that are already having trouble just keeping the lights on (cough, California, cough), what do you think is going to happen to your "pennies per mile", "Electricity is a cheaper fuel than gas." argument, what do you think will happen to the price per kilowatt when everybody starts plugging their cars in? You think they have a problem with brownouts and rolling blackouts now? What happens when people have to face the very real economic choice between running the home heater or AC, or charging the car that night so they can go to work in the morning. You know, so they can pay off the $30,000 loan on that "cheaper" electric car?
So what happens to those mileage numbers when you live up in North? Battery performance in the cold is a problem
It's not enough of a problem to make it more expensive than gas.
And if you want to run the heater so you don't freeze too death and/or the window defroster so you can actually see to drive you can cut all those range numbers in half. Or how about down South, running the AC when it's 110-120F outside?
Not even close. You're too used to driving cars with horrible inefficient A/C compressors and resistive heat. Most decent electric cars use variable speed heat pumps. I only have technical data on the Prius Prime, which draws about 1.5A from the 350V battery (525W) when heating is set to 77°F. You'd have to run the heat for about a 2.5 days straight to run a 60 kWh battery down to half capacity. During a one-hour drive it would only use an extra 0.8% of your charge. The A/C set to 68°F used about the same power (it is a heat pump, after all).
The environmental impact of manufacturing electric cars is higher than IC cars, and there are parts that cannot be recycled and would generate large amounts of toxic waste.
It's true, but over the life of the car the total environmental impact is less because of the efficiency of electrical power. There are some places that use a lot of coal power where the pollution savings are minimal at best, but on average it's overwhelmed by the places that have a lot of hydro, nuclear, wind, or solar power.
Further, in places that are already having trouble just keeping the lights on (cough, California, cough), what do you think is going to happen to your "pennies per mile", "Electricity is a cheaper fuel than gas." argument,
Still holds. California hasn't had a blackout due to a shortage of power in over 20 years. The blackouts they do today are on purpose to prevent downed wires from starting fires. Gas is expensive enough in California ($4.60 right now) that even expensive electricity isn't more expensive than gas. Electricity would have to cost $0.33/kWh overnight to cost more than gas there. Although, utilities are getting smart and noticing that as more people drive electric to save money they are boosting prices to capture those savings from the consumer.
You think they have a problem with brownouts and rolling blackouts now?
No. That only happened one day in the last 20 years, and that was due to a couple shitty natural gas plants that broke down when they tried to fire up for peak load. The last time the rolling blackouts happened was primarily due to Enron's market manipulation.
What happens when people have to face the very real economic choice between running the home heater or AC, or charging the car that night so they can go to work in the morning. You know, so they can pay off the $30,000 loan on that "cheaper" electric car?
The same thing that happens if they're so poor they have to decide between filling the car up with gas or running the home AC.
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