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A lot of the operating cost advantage will disappear when attempting to use an EV as an Uber vehicle, though. Most EVs cost more than an ICE-powered vehicle and

A lot of the operating cost advantage will disappear when attempting to use an EV as an Uber vehicle, though. Most EVs cost more than an ICE-powered vehicle and take longer to "fill up" when at the end of their range - so, for large portions of a day, you will have a more expensive asset deprecating in a parking lot as it charges its batteries. I'm not sure that this is enough to actually make an EV more expensive to operate than a traditional car as a Uber vehicle, but I do think that it's worth pointing out that the workload of an Uber vehicle is enough to move a car out of the operating window that is usually used to support statements like "EVs have half the per mile operating costs as an internal combustion vehicle".

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago
If the vehicle currently isn't in revenue service then it's not "operating." If it's not operating, then it's not contributing to operating cost. The time to recharge the batteries is variable overhead, not operating cost. I get the point you're trying to make, but I don't think it's valid.
- sjm-lbm 8y ago
  Fixed costs are a component of operating costs. I'm an engineer (at least by education) so I might have these terms slightly wrong, but I think the correct way to say this is that EVs have higher fixed costs and lower variable costs - and both of those are part of operating costs. FWIW, I'm not representing this as a full analysis, just pointing out that "EVs are cheaper to operate when driven by someone as a daily driver" doesn't necessarily mean "EVs are cheaper to operate as an Uber vehicle".
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- rtkwe 8y ago
  Considering an extreme example: for a car that can only do 1 trip then requires a day of recharge clearly the operator is losing out on a lot of potential revenue. That is a real cost and should be factored somewhere when comparing against another vehicle which can recharge quickly between trips. Part of operation is the maintenance required to do the work and at the very least any time spent charging above the average alternative (refueling an ICE car) is losing the operator the average wages they'd have earned operation for that long.
martinald 8y ago
Agreed. Also in London at least at lot of the vehicles are being used in multiple shifts, which makes this problem even worse. Eg: Driver A does 9am-6pm, then drives the Prius to Driver B, who does 6pm to 3am, which leaves not enough time to charge.
URSpider94 8y ago
This is why fast DC charging makes a huge difference. There are a number of car service fleets using Teslas (e.g. the Schiphol Airport taxis in Amsterdam). When you can re-load 200 miles in 30 minutes of charging, the driver can recharge the car over their lunch break.

HeyLaughingBoy 8y ago

If the vehicle currently isn't in revenue service then it's not "operating." If it's not operating, then it's not contributing to operating cost. The time to recharge the batteries is variable overhead, not operating cost. I get the point you're trying to make, but I don't think it's valid.

sjm-lbm 8y ago
Fixed costs are a component of operating costs. I'm an engineer (at least by education) so I might have these terms slightly wrong, but I think the correct way to say this is that EVs have higher fixed costs and lower variable costs - and both of those are part of operating costs. FWIW, I'm not representing this as a full analysis, just pointing out that "EVs are cheaper to operate when driven by someone as a daily driver" doesn't necessarily mean "EVs are cheaper to operate as an Uber vehicle".
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
rtkwe 8y ago
Considering an extreme example: for a car that can only do 1 trip then requires a day of recharge clearly the operator is losing out on a lot of potential revenue. That is a real cost and should be factored somewhere when comparing against another vehicle which can recharge quickly between trips. Part of operation is the maintenance required to do the work and at the very least any time spent charging above the average alternative (refueling an ICE car) is losing the operator the average wages they'd have earned operation for that long.

martinald 8y ago

Agreed. Also in London at least at lot of the vehicles are being used in multiple shifts, which makes this problem even worse. Eg: Driver A does 9am-6pm, then drives the Prius to Driver B, who does 6pm to 3am, which leaves not enough time to charge.

URSpider94 8y ago

This is why fast DC charging makes a huge difference. There are a number of car service fleets using Teslas (e.g. the Schiphol Airport taxis in Amsterdam). When you can re-load 200 miles in 30 minutes of charging, the driver can recharge the car over their lunch break.