Do EVs really save you money?

[Anonymous]

EVs are largely a scam. Compared to a hybrid, an EV is worse for the environment (from pollution during battery production and reduced vehicle lifespan even with battery replacements) and costs more money (vehicle price, insurance premiums, cost of electricity, rapid depreciation, etc)

[Anonymous]

The teslas are super expensive to insure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EVs are largely a scam. Compared to a hybrid, an EV is worse for the environment (from pollution during battery production and reduced vehicle lifespan even with battery replacements) and costs more money (vehicle price, insurance premiums, cost of electricity, rapid depreciation, etc)

Hybrids are great. I couldn’t buy a comparably equipped Prius for the amount I paid for my EV SUV. The Prius is selling above MSRP with a long wait list, at least last year.

And the cost of electricity per mile is lower than gas, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. Insurance premiums aren’t a thing - Priuses are also cheaper to insure than Audis, so what? The cost of insurance is based on actuarial risk, not whether it has a battery or not. And I don’t care about depreciation that much, I drive cars long enough it’s a difference of a few thousand dollars over 10+ years. Which, I wish everyone would do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The EV insurance premium is mostly a factor of Teslas having an outsized share of the EV market and being incredibly expensive to insure relative to the cost of the car.

[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.

Why are you so sure they over paid?

I’m looking at a solar system now that will be out of pocket about 40k and save me between 300 and 350 on my electric bill per month. This leads to about a 10% return on my cash investment, double what a savings account is paying right now.

I’m not sure I’ll pull the trigger, but I am keen to understand why solar is, by default, over priced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The EV insurance premium is mostly a factor of Teslas having an outsized share of the EV market and being incredibly expensive to insure relative to the cost of the car.

Because people keep crashing at 70mph while on autopilot.

[Anonymous]

Remember Biden took away the evidence credit to the upper middle class ,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The EV insurance premium is mostly a factor of Teslas having an outsized share of the EV market and being incredibly expensive to insure relative to the cost of the car.

Because people keep crashing at 70mph while on autopilot.

It's because Tesla doesn't bother supplying parts for repairs in sufficient quantities, there are fewer after market parts and a lot of body shops will not touch them

[Anonymous]

Love our team of in electric hybrid SUV. Wil never go back to a gas guzzler.

[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

A Tesla battery can last 10 years. After that, I would replace the car rather than get a new battery.
I think there is a not a huge cost savings, but the convenience of charging at home and not using gas is a big benefit to me, as well as not having to do much maintenance.
I wanted to get a hybrid, but my DH is convinced it's more hassle with both battery and ICE systems to maintain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EVs are largely a scam. Compared to a hybrid, an EV is worse for the environment (from pollution during battery production and reduced vehicle lifespan even with battery replacements) and costs more money (vehicle price, insurance premiums, cost of electricity, rapid depreciation, etc)

None of this is actually true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember Biden took away the evidence credit to the upper middle class ,

(a) If your AGI is over $300,000, you may not really need tax credits to buy cars
(b) If your AGI is too high to qualify for the credit, you can still get it by leasing the car, and most manufacturers are passing the full credit savings along to customers. So lease it, at tax-credit-reduced price, and then buy out the lease if you want. Problem solved.

[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.

Why are you so sure they over paid?

I’m looking at a solar system now that will be out of pocket about 40k and save me between 300 and 350 on my electric bill per month. This leads to about a 10% return on my cash investment, double what a savings account is paying right now.

I’m not sure I’ll pull the trigger, but I am keen to understand why solar is, by default, over priced?

I've got solar (a system that cost about $25,000 to install, yielding about an $8,000 tax credit) and don't even bother calculating how much I'm saving on electricity — the SREC sales alone, in D.C., make it a good investment, worth nearly 20 percent on the installation cost after the tax credit each year.

[Anonymous]

Hybrids pay you back pretty quickly in gas savings.

[Anonymous]

We paid $19k for a one year old EV in 2021. We also have a Volt which almost always drive using electric. Each one we drive around 7k mikes a year. I’ve never figured out if there are any cost savings, but they definitely save me time having to refuel.