Bumpyroad wrote:
gotsmart wrote:
MB will just shelve the ICE smart car designs until fuel prices rise high enough again to make them worthwhile to sell.
at what price point do electric vehicles pay off? assuming an average guess on electricity costs vs. a 25mpg car at $2.50?
bumpy
Good morning Bumpy. That is a very good question and I think a lot depends on what you buy, and what kind of deal you get. The best I can do is relate our experience and numbers and go from there. So although we have been driving an EV for a couple years it is a two seater and not practical for everybody so we'll use the Nissan Leaf we recently bought as it is more practical for more folks. A Nissan leaf starts around low 20 thousand dollar point and gets fancier from there depending on where you live (incentives) etc. (US Dollars) A nicely equipped one with Nav and extra goodies will be a little more. Really for the kind of vehicle it is there were no gas vehicles that we would have considered and we checked them out...including hybrids. So for us, there was no "pay out" period. However for something a little more expensive like the Bolt with longer range you would need to figure out how much you spend on fuel per year, how much the power is where you charge, how much you save on maintenance every year, (not much to do on EV's.). Now a Tesla S model is a different story. Keep in mind that people who buy Tesla model S's are buying them in lieu of high end BMW's, Audis, Mercedes etc. They don't buy them just because they are electric, they buy them because they are faster, accelerate faster, more luxurious, better built, handle better, have a better warranty etc etc. Those guys don't care about "electric pay out". Nissan is coming out with new Leaf in the next year. 220 plus miles etc. They will be a little more expensive then the existing leafs which have less range. There are also a couple other companies coming out with 200 mile EV's this year, Hyundai etc. And of course the model 3 Tesla for around 40,000 that has a 250 mile range. Although they will be in production at the end of this year they are pre sold out for the next two years so if you want of those you'll need to put your name on a list with a 1000 dollar deposit.
Before buying an electric analyse your driving habits and your routes and needs and see if it works for you. They are not for everyone. But a test drive might be fun.
I'll post a map of the existing infrastructure in your area but his is probably a little out of date and it changes almost weekly now.
