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Gas is down to $3 and electric $12/kWh, with the state now charging electric vehicles higher registration fees yearly to offset the gas tax savings. There's lik

Gas is down to $3 and electric $12/kWh, with the state now charging electric vehicles higher registration fees yearly to offset the gas tax savings. There's likely small savings every year, but we're talking almost $20K price difference, maybe $12K with federal (and no state) rebate, you aren't going to be breaking even. Plus fun fact: My insurance would go up a lot with a Model 3 from my current vehicle, 25% more a month. Why? I have no idea, but I'm guessing higher write-off or repair costs.

deleted 6y ago
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Hamuko 6y ago
The Model S was at least notorious for long and expensive repairs if you got into a crash. Not sure if that's the case for the Model 3 but Model S insurance rates are most probably high because of that.
- the_duke 6y ago
  Still the case for Model 3/Y. Repairs can take months due to lack of spare parts.
elihu 6y ago
I think you mean 12 cents a kWh? (So, a 60kWh battery can store $7.20 of electricity. Charging isn't perfectly efficient, so more like $8 to fully charge.) Let's say you can go 200 miles with that $8 of energy, that's 4 cents a mile. Let's say a gas car is 30 miles per gallon of $3 gas, or 10 cents a mile. Over 200,000 miles, that's $20,000 for fuel, versus $8,000 of electricity in the EV. Seems like the total cost of ownership just about breaks even with federal rebates, and ignoring maintenance costs (generally expected to be higher with the gas vehicle) and ignoring that paying the cost up-front for an EV removes the potential for that money to accrue interest (which favors the gas vehicle). I'm hoping the EV costs continue to fall until we get to close to parity in terms of vehicle purchase price. This can happen either by battery prices falling, or for people to adjust their expectations and accept shorter range, or for the need for large batteries to become obsolete due to electrified roads that let you charge while the vehicle is still moving.
theshrike79 6y ago
Am I understanding this right? You're saying that gas is $3/gallon and electricity is $12/kWh? Over here gas is around $7,50-$8 per gallon and electricity is around $0.05/kWh. A 100km drive in an EV costs around 2€, while in a petrol powered car the cost is 8.5€ for a low consumption car. No wonder Americans drive huge cars with no regard to consumption :D
- holoduke 6y ago
  Which country do you live? Here in the Netherlands we pay roughly 20 dollar cents per kWh and 10 dollars per gallon
- sib 6y ago
  I am 100% certain that ($12/kWh) is a typo. Even in CA, with some of the most expensive electricity, it's about $0.20 - $0.25 / kWh...
dreamcompiler 6y ago
Electricity costs an average of $0.12/kWh in the US, not $12. It varies between about $0.083/kWh in Washington state to as much as $0.40/kWh in parts of Hawaii.

deleted 6y ago

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Hamuko 6y ago

The Model S was at least notorious for long and expensive repairs if you got into a crash. Not sure if that's the case for the Model 3 but Model S insurance rates are most probably high because of that.

the_duke 6y ago
Still the case for Model 3/Y. Repairs can take months due to lack of spare parts.

elihu 6y ago

I think you mean 12 cents a kWh? (So, a 60kWh battery can store $7.20 of electricity. Charging isn't perfectly efficient, so more like $8 to fully charge.) Let's say you can go 200 miles with that $8 of energy, that's 4 cents a mile. Let's say a gas car is 30 miles per gallon of $3 gas, or 10 cents a mile. Over 200,000 miles, that's $20,000 for fuel, versus $8,000 of electricity in the EV. Seems like the total cost of ownership just about breaks even with federal rebates, and ignoring maintenance costs (generally expected to be higher with the gas vehicle) and ignoring that paying the cost up-front for an EV removes the potential for that money to accrue interest (which favors the gas vehicle). I'm hoping the EV costs continue to fall until we get to close to parity in terms of vehicle purchase price. This can happen either by battery prices falling, or for people to adjust their expectations and accept shorter range, or for the need for large batteries to become obsolete due to electrified roads that let you charge while the vehicle is still moving.

theshrike79 6y ago

Am I understanding this right? You're saying that gas is $3/gallon and electricity is $12/kWh? Over here gas is around $7,50-$8 per gallon and electricity is around $0.05/kWh. A 100km drive in an EV costs around 2€, while in a petrol powered car the cost is 8.5€ for a low consumption car. No wonder Americans drive huge cars with no regard to consumption :D

holoduke 6y ago
Which country do you live? Here in the Netherlands we pay roughly 20 dollar cents per kWh and 10 dollars per gallon
sib 6y ago
I am 100% certain that ($12/kWh) is a typo. Even in CA, with some of the most expensive electricity, it's about $0.20 - $0.25 / kWh...

dreamcompiler 6y ago

Electricity costs an average of $0.12/kWh in the US, not $12. It varies between about $0.083/kWh in Washington state to as much as $0.40/kWh in parts of Hawaii.