Sparky

Electric Vehicle Project: Driving Costs

So what does it cost to drive this vehicle? The answer is not much...it comes to about 12 cents per mile. Here's how I figured that:

There are two elements to this calculation. First I consider the cost of my batteries, then I consider the cost to charge them.

Battery Cost:	$1800.00
Number of Expected Charging Cycles:	1000
Battery Cost per cycle:	$1.80
Miles per charging cycle :	22 (My roundtrip to work and back)
Miles per Kilowatt-Hour :	2
Kilowatt-hours per charging cycle:	22/2 = 11
Cost per killowatt-hour:	$.07
Charging cost per cycle:	$.07*11 = $0.77
Total "fuel" cost per cycle:	$2.57
Cost per mile:	$2.57/22 = $.1168 about 12 cents/mile

So am I saving anything (compared to an ICE)? Well, gas is now costing $3.25 and more around here. My Chevy Blazer gets about 15 mpg costing 21.67 cents per mile.
Right now I am saving about 10 cents a mile. That's $11.00/week, $572.00/year. If gas drops back to $2.00/ gal the fuel cost to drive the blazer is only 13.33 cents/mile.
So you might think well that's not enough to justify doing the conversion.

Here's the rest of the story...It comes in the maintenance of the vehicle. No more oil changes, no more coolant changes. No water pumps to replace, alternators, starter motors, or clogged fuel injectors. Oil and coolant leaks are things of the past. There are no gaskets to fail or exhaust systems to fall off. I could go on, but you get the idea.

The bottom line is that it is more than just the fuel cost. It is the overall cost of operating the vehicle. And I am not at the mercy of the oil industry.

Sparky, The Electric Vehicle (EV)

Electric Vehicle Project: Driving Costs