Do EVs really save you money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but it sure seems to, though it isn't why we got one. We also have solar, so that lowers the cost of home charging. I say it seems to because the only costs are purchase price and electricity, which is pennies whereas filling the gas tank is $50-$100 2-3 times per month, and gas doesn't last as long. We rarely need to fully charge the EV, and rarely drop below 40% -- usually its around 70%, and we keep it at the recommended 80% expect for longer trips.

The difference in time (and money) spent on "car stuff" is something we hadn't anticipated making a difference to us, but the EV to hybrid car ownership experience for us is like the difference between a native plant in the right place compared to an exotic, fussy, non-native in a less than ideal spot - so much more work for the hybrid. Once we got used to the EV, the time spent on little things for the hybrid, like getting gas, oil changes, inspections, maintenance issues, became extra annoying simply because we never have to do it for the EV. So now we fuss over who has to deal with the "primitive vehicle," lol.

You have solar. That wasn’t free and I’m sure you overpaid. So in other words you paid for all your electricity years in advance. Need to factor that into the costs of charging your EV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but it sure seems to, though it isn't why we got one. We also have solar, so that lowers the cost of home charging. I say it seems to because the only costs are purchase price and electricity, which is pennies whereas filling the gas tank is $50-$100 2-3 times per month, and gas doesn't last as long. We rarely need to fully charge the EV, and rarely drop below 40% -- usually its around 70%, and we keep it at the recommended 80% expect for longer trips.

The difference in time (and money) spent on "car stuff" is something we hadn't anticipated making a difference to us, but the EV to hybrid car ownership experience for us is like the difference between a native plant in the right place compared to an exotic, fussy, non-native in a less than ideal spot - so much more work for the hybrid. Once we got used to the EV, the time spent on little things for the hybrid, like getting gas, oil changes, inspections, maintenance issues, became extra annoying simply because we never have to do it for the EV. So now we fuss over who has to deal with the "primitive vehicle," lol.

You have solar. That wasn’t free and I’m sure you overpaid. So in other words you paid for all your electricity years in advance. Need to factor that into the costs of charging your EV.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but it sure seems to, though it isn't why we got one. We also have solar, so that lowers the cost of home charging. I say it seems to because the only costs are purchase price and electricity, which is pennies whereas filling the gas tank is $50-$100 2-3 times per month, and gas doesn't last as long. We rarely need to fully charge the EV, and rarely drop below 40% -- usually its around 70%, and we keep it at the recommended 80% expect for longer trips.

The difference in time (and money) spent on "car stuff" is something we hadn't anticipated making a difference to us, but the EV to hybrid car ownership experience for us is like the difference between a native plant in the right place compared to an exotic, fussy, non-native in a less than ideal spot - so much more work for the hybrid. Once we got used to the EV, the time spent on little things for the hybrid, like getting gas, oil changes, inspections, maintenance issues, became extra annoying simply because we never have to do it for the EV. So now we fuss over who has to deal with the "primitive vehicle," lol.

You have solar. That wasn’t free and I’m sure you overpaid. So in other words you paid for all your electricity years in advance. Need to factor that into the costs of charging your EV.

DP but we had solar panels installed in 2019 and have already recouped the full cost without even accounting for how much electricity we are or aren't consuming and how much that costs -- 30 percent came right off the top as a federal tax credit the next year, and then four years of SREC sales made up for other 70 percent. If you live in D.C., the cost savings from solar are great, if you can afford to buy the system rather than lease it. I now have several months a year where my total electric bill is about $12 each month (for transmission and taxes); the most I've spent in a month since installing solar is $100, and that was in the dead of winter with snow all over the panels for a couple of weeks and frequent EV charging.

Anyway, it costs me about $5 or $6 to charge my car at home from 20 percent to 80 percent based on the price per kWh I pay for electricity. I'm often not paying for that electricity, but since that's the cost of about 2 gallons of gas, I don't really bother calculating my actual cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but it sure seems to, though it isn't why we got one. We also have solar, so that lowers the cost of home charging. I say it seems to because the only costs are purchase price and electricity, which is pennies whereas filling the gas tank is $50-$100 2-3 times per month, and gas doesn't last as long. We rarely need to fully charge the EV, and rarely drop below 40% -- usually its around 70%, and we keep it at the recommended 80% expect for longer trips.

The difference in time (and money) spent on "car stuff" is something we hadn't anticipated making a difference to us, but the EV to hybrid car ownership experience for us is like the difference between a native plant in the right place compared to an exotic, fussy, non-native in a less than ideal spot - so much more work for the hybrid. Once we got used to the EV, the time spent on little things for the hybrid, like getting gas, oil changes, inspections, maintenance issues, became extra annoying simply because we never have to do it for the EV. So now we fuss over who has to deal with the "primitive vehicle," lol.

You have solar. That wasn’t free and I’m sure you overpaid. So in other words you paid for all your electricity years in advance. Need to factor that into the costs of charging your EV.

DP but we had solar panels installed in 2019 and have already recouped the full cost without even accounting for how much electricity we are or aren't consuming and how much that costs -- 30 percent came right off the top as a federal tax credit the next year, and then four years of SREC sales made up for other 70 percent. If you live in D.C., the cost savings from solar are great, if you can afford to buy the system rather than lease it. I now have several months a year where my total electric bill is about $12 each month (for transmission and taxes); the most I've spent in a month since installing solar is $100, and that was in the dead of winter with snow all over the panels for a couple of weeks and frequent EV charging.

Anyway, it costs me about $5 or $6 to charge my car at home from 20 percent to 80 percent based on the price per kWh I pay for electricity. I'm often not paying for that electricity, but since that's the cost of about 2 gallons of gas, I don't really bother calculating my actual cost.

Good job with break even on your solar panels. But you still overpaid for both your panels and your EV.

[Anonymous]

No, but they make people feel good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some EVs include a tax credit for $7500. Did you factor that in?

Also less maintenance -- no oil changes, spark plugs, etc needed.

I tend to keep my cars for about 10 years. In that 10 years, an electric will need a new battery pack which will make up for a lot of the regular maintenance cost difference

Nope not true. All EV batteries have a 7 year warranty(typical gas power cars warranty is 3 years 36k), the life expectancy is for a EV battery is 15-20 years, 1.5% of EV have batteries replaced and battery prices keep falling as production increase.

So you have no clue.

[Anonymous]

A study from the U.S. Department of Energy has shown that the total cost of traditional gas compared to an EV is about 4 cents per mile, and this includes services such as oil changes, new wiper blades, brake pads or most common cost of maintenance, according to InsideHook.
A 4-cent-per-mile difference might sound abysmal, but in the long haul, EVs are more economically friendly when it comes to having a lifetime vehicle.
The average internal combustion engine car today can be expected to last 200,000 miles, according to Car and Driver, which makes maintaining a traditional vehicle about $20,200 and an EV $12,200 — an $8,000 difference.
When it reaches 300,000 miles, the gas cars would cost $30,300 for maintenance and EVs cost $18,300 — a difference of $12,000.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/energy/559971-finally-heres-the-exact-cost-of-owning-an-electric-car/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The most energy- and cost-efficient car you can buy is likely the new Prius, or the Prius Prime.

(The Prius Prime you can plug into a normal outlet, get 30 miles or so of all-electric range, and if you go farther than that, the gasoline engine kicks in and it becomes a regular hybrid.)

As someone who owns the new Prius Prime, yes.

I have visited a gas station just a few times since getting it last summer. Weather depending, I have 49 miles on a charge. 95% of the time its an EV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know, but it sure seems to, though it isn't why we got one. We also have solar, so that lowers the cost of home charging. I say it seems to because the only costs are purchase price and electricity, which is pennies whereas filling the gas tank is $50-$100 2-3 times per month, and gas doesn't last as long. We rarely need to fully charge the EV, and rarely drop below 40% -- usually its around 70%, and we keep it at the recommended 80% expect for longer trips.

The difference in time (and money) spent on "car stuff" is something we hadn't anticipated making a difference to us, but the EV to hybrid car ownership experience for us is like the difference between a native plant in the right place compared to an exotic, fussy, non-native in a less than ideal spot - so much more work for the hybrid. Once we got used to the EV, the time spent on little things for the hybrid, like getting gas, oil changes, inspections, maintenance issues, became extra annoying simply because we never have to do it for the EV. So now we fuss over who has to deal with the "primitive vehicle," lol.

You have solar. That wasn’t free and I’m sure you overpaid. So in other words you paid for all your electricity years in advance. Need to factor that into the costs of charging your EV.

DP but we had solar panels installed in 2019 and have already recouped the full cost without even accounting for how much electricity we are or aren't consuming and how much that costs -- 30 percent came right off the top as a federal tax credit the next year, and then four years of SREC sales made up for other 70 percent. If you live in D.C., the cost savings from solar are great, if you can afford to buy the system rather than lease it. I now have several months a year where my total electric bill is about $12 each month (for transmission and taxes); the most I've spent in a month since installing solar is $100, and that was in the dead of winter with snow all over the panels for a couple of weeks and frequent EV charging.

Anyway, it costs me about $5 or $6 to charge my car at home from 20 percent to 80 percent based on the price per kWh I pay for electricity. I'm often not paying for that electricity, but since that's the cost of about 2 gallons of gas, I don't really bother calculating my actual cost.

Good job with break even on your solar panels. But you still overpaid for both your panels and your EV.

I guess? Not totally sure how you'd calculate overpaying vs. what you "should" pay for something like that. If your point is basically there is no reason to get solar panels or an EV at any price, then sure. Personally, I'm pretty happy getting extremely low-cost electricity, generating something close to the entire amount of electricity my household consumes in a year (even with the EV) + selling renewable energy credits for the next 15 or 20 years or however long the expected useful life of the panels is, and the fact that I've recouped the full cost already makes it hard to see how I could have overpaid.

I agree on the EV, they should be cheaper (and they should make smaller ones). But we needed a second car, and I didn't want to buy one that was gas-powered, so I got what the market offered me for MSRP + a $7500 federal tax credit.

[Anonymous]

The insurance premium for EV is much higher. It offsets most of the gas saving.

[Anonymous]

I'm not buying an EV until I can get a full charge in 5 minutes with the convenience of gas stations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The insurance premium for EV is much higher. It offsets most of the gas saving.

I don't think that's been the case for us, but we went from one car (gas-powered) to two cars (the gas one plus an EV), so I really have no idea what the insurance cost would've been if our second car hadn't been an EV.

If you can charge at home, though, it's very, very cheap to power an EV.

[Anonymous]

We own a plug in hybrid (2024 Volvo XC90 recharge).

We are getting about 1500 miles on a full tank of gas ($50 $55 per refill).

Our insurance went up by $50 a month for the brand new Volvo

Monthly Electric bill increase: $20 - $25

[Anonymous]

I spent 40k on a used EV (with 9k miles) and the last 2 cars I purchased were 50k. I bought a smaller SUV than usual, but was comfortable with the trade offs and happy to spend less but be able to save a lot on opex.

I spent about 1500 to get the charger installed. I drive about 20k miles per year. And I pay 4 cents a mile to charge an EV and about 16+ cents a mile to charge the car that the EV replaced. I also can charge for free several places that I’m parked for long periods - which means I don’t have to charge as much at home. I *rarely* use a super fast charger, which is only about 10-15% discount over gas.

In the first year I will save approx 1400 on fuel. Plus there’s no oil change or other routine maintenance like timing belts, spark plugs, transmission fluids. Which are several thousand on a car over a 150k mile lifetime.

We are definitely saving money. The car and the battery are covered for 6 years from the date we purchased them for unlimited miles.

The biggest risk is resale value in several years if the battery goes kaput or EVs completely die off. I hope the annual opex savings more than pays for that.

If I had purchased the ICE version of my car, yes it would have been cheaper, but it wasn’t nearly as nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I spent 40k on a used EV (with 9k miles) and the last 2 cars I purchased were 50k. I bought a smaller SUV than usual, but was comfortable with the trade offs and happy to spend less but be able to save a lot on opex.

I spent about 1500 to get the charger installed. I drive about 20k miles per year. And I pay 4 cents a mile to charge an EV and about 16+ cents a mile to charge the car that the EV replaced. I also can charge for free several places that I’m parked for long periods - which means I don’t have to charge as much at home. I *rarely* use a super fast charger, which is only about 10-15% discount over gas.

In the first year I will save approx 1400 on fuel. Plus there’s no oil change or other routine maintenance like timing belts, spark plugs, transmission fluids. Which are several thousand on a car over a 150k mile lifetime.

We are definitely saving money. The car and the battery are covered for 6 years from the date we purchased them for unlimited miles.

The biggest risk is resale value in several years if the battery goes kaput or EVs completely die off. I hope the annual opex savings more than pays for that.

If I had purchased the ICE version of my car, yes it would have been cheaper, but it wasn’t nearly as nice.

Insurance went up about what you’d expect going from a 10 year old car to a 1 year old car. I don’t remember the amount but it wasn’t anomalous as if EVs were more expensive to insure or something.