Money saved by buying a hyprid or electric car?

[Anonymous]

I'm planning my next car and wondering:
- Whether people have saved money by buying a hybrid or electric car
- If yes, how much. Was it through buying less gas and/or tax incentives?
- What model you recommend
- Any other tips for someone considering a hybrid or electric vehicle.

I am considering a Prius vs Prius plug in. I don't have a garage. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

My friend was deciding whether to buy a hybrid or not, and after doing the math said that you would have to keep the car for more than 10 years before you made up the difference in the purchase price in gas savings.

[Anonymous]

Either one will be a net loss. A few years from now, maybe it will make sense.

[Anonymous]

The gas savings would be substantial for a plugin, the tax credit is sizable (7500?) but I don't know that a plugin would make sense without a garage.

Using a tesla as an example - a tesla goes about 3 miles/kWh. Dominion charges $0.0247 for an off peak, $0.017 for super off peak kWh. So a 15k/year driver would use $80-$120 in electricity per year. For the same 15k miles it would save 3k over a 20mpg, 2k over a 30mpg, etc.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on lots of factors - your commute/average driving, what car, etc.

I bought a hybrid 4 years ago and I did the math ahead of time.

Based on the stated MPG of the hybrid, stated MPG of my then-current car, old car payment, new car payment... the gas savings alone (I assumed $4/gallon) made up the difference in car payment.
True, gas is <$4 gallon right now, but hasn't always been for the past 4 years, and I routinely get more than the stated MPG. So I figure it balances out, and I'm still coming out ahead. However, if we were doing the math based on DH's commute... it would never pay back as his commute is practically nonexistent.

[Anonymous]

The price of gas is plummeting.

[Anonymous]

We looked for a car that was in our price range (Under $30k), had the best MPG and could fit my DC's upright bass and 3 other passengers. The Prius won. This was 7+ years ago and we have driven 125k miles. So far so good.

[Anonymous]

We have a Chevy Volt, which is all-electric for terms of tax purposes (the engine only comes on if it runs out of battery -- ours has not turned on in at laest 2 months). Depending on your income level, you get $7,500 tax credit on Fed income taxes, and also some from your state -- in MD it's now $3k. So right off the bat, you just saved $10k. Then, GM is discounting the Volts to sell them, and also providing great financing (ours is at 0%).

So the cars are $31-35k, then you get $10k in tax credits. It would be difficult to find another $25k car with similar equipment (nav system, front/rear parking sensors, rear parking camera, 3 years free Onstar). So leaving aside fuel costs, you're already getting a pretty good deal on a car.

Next is electricity. Your office may have a charging station or be willing to install one (it makes them seem more "green"). At DW's office, we negotiated a special rate of $1.50/day for unlimited charging, so we don't even charge at home unless it's the weekend. They were willing to do it because they had 2 EV spaces and no EV drivers in the building. Based on her charging usage, they dont' lose money at that rate anyway.

Now just looking at fuel efficiency for electrics, hybrids, and "normal" cars in general, it depends on your driving patterns. If you drive mostly highway, then a diesel car like the VW Jetta TDI or VW Golf TDI will outperform any fuel-powered Prius. In the city, electrics and hybrids will usually come ahead.

Also at least in MD, you can get a speical sticker to use the HOV lanes with less than the required # of people.

If you're looking at a Prius, note that many of the tax credits and special privileges apply only to the plug-in version. The standard Prius often doesn't qualify since it's primarily fuel-driven with battery power at low speeds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The price of gas is plummeting.

This month, yes. However it's unlikely to be a long-term trend, given the growing world population and gas being a finite resource. Add to that the possibliity of gax tax increases.

[Anonymous]

In DC you save on excise tax if you buy hybrid. So you save a few grand right off the bat. winning.

[Anonymous]

For us, it was a no brainer and we now have two hybrids, a Ford Escape hybrid which is our "big" car for travel and occasional commuting and the Prius which is our local commuting car. We put about 12-15K miles per year per car. I figured that I would save about 250-300 gallons of gas per year for the cars. So around $800-1000 per year in gas about half per car. The hybrids cost around $3K more than the comparable non-hybrids, so around 4-5 years and the hybrids would have made up the cost different. I've had the truck for 8 years and the Prius for 5 years, so at this point, all of the cost savings just goes into my pocket. It was actually less because when I got the truck, we still got over $2000 tax credit (which is no longer applicable). I vaguely remember that I estimated that it took me around 20-22 months to pay off the difference in price at then gas prices. We got some dealer incentives when we purchased the Prius that also made it a good buy at the time. I think I estimated that it took us right about 5 years to pay off the difference in price at the time we bought it.

I love the fact that I have an SUV that can run about 400 miles before a fill-up and then only take about 12-14 gallons to fill and we have a car that can run over 450 miles before a fill-up and then only take 8-10 gallons to fill. I save a lot of money on gas.

[Anonymous]

Odd that no one is discussing the cost of the battery which is substantially more expensive than for a regular car.

[Anonymous]

Probably because they haven't had to replace one yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Odd that no one is discussing the cost of the battery which is substantially more expensive than for a regular car.

Chevy Volt battery has warranty for 8 years, 100k miles.

We never keep our cars that long, but if we did, I suspect the price of batteries will be a lot lower 8 years from now, and will not be far from the price of scheduled maintenance on our fuel-powered car over 8 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Odd that no one is discussing the cost of the battery which is substantially more expensive than for a regular car.

We are 7 1/2 years and 125K in and haven't had to replace the battery yet.