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> Average lifespan of an ICE car is around 14.8 years. For an EV it's 22.2. Citation definitely needed for those figures. There are no mass market EVs that are

by jjav 4y ago

> Average lifespan of an ICE car is around 14.8 years. For an EV it's 22.2. Citation definitely needed for those figures. There are no mass market EVs that are 22+ years old, let alone old enough to make their average lifespan be 22.2 (which obviously implies some EVs lasted a lot longer than that). > So buying or keeping a used corolla is pretty much guaranteed to leave you with less money after those 20 years. That's clearly not true in the absolute. Might be in some cases. For instance my parent has a 1998 Corolla which works perfectly well and requires minimal maintanance. There is no conceivable scenario where it'd be cheaper to buy a new EV vs. just keep driving the old car.

throwawaaarrgh 4y ago
I meant to say on average. Add up the fuel and maintenance for that corolla over a 20 year period, plus its initial sales cost. The EV is cheaper over 20 years. If they barely drive it and nothing ever goes wrong, they should still be spending several thousand a year on fuel and regular maintenance tasks, on average, over time. If they aren't then either they aren't doing the suggested maintenance or aren't driving it much at all, or both. The EV uses cheaper fuel and its maintenance cost is significantly lower. Again: the initial cost of the EV is greater. It's the cost over time that is lower, because ICE vehicles cost more over time. Even taking a used car into account, its average cost over time is greater.
- jjav 4y ago
  > It's the cost over time that is lower, because ICE vehicles cost more over time. Even taking a used car into account, its average cost over time is greater. A person looking to buy a new car today, you're mostly right in that their total lifetime cost will be less if they buy a new EV today. Mostly though, not everyone, since there are ICE cars cheaper than EVs and for someone who drives very little it'll take a long time to recover the initial price difference. But for people who already own a car it's a very different equation. The old car is already owned, so buying an EV is a huge expense unlikely to ever be recovered by reduced operating costs. Such as the example above of my parent. Were they to buy a 40K EV, it'll take easily 40 years to break even compared to simply keep driving the old Corolla. Nowhere near worth it.

by jjav 4y ago

throwawaaarrgh 4y ago

I meant to say on average. Add up the fuel and maintenance for that corolla over a 20 year period, plus its initial sales cost. The EV is cheaper over 20 years. If they barely drive it and nothing ever goes wrong, they should still be spending several thousand a year on fuel and regular maintenance tasks, on average, over time. If they aren't then either they aren't doing the suggested maintenance or aren't driving it much at all, or both. The EV uses cheaper fuel and its maintenance cost is significantly lower. Again: the initial cost of the EV is greater. It's the cost over time that is lower, because ICE vehicles cost more over time. Even taking a used car into account, its average cost over time is greater.

jjav 4y ago
> It's the cost over time that is lower, because ICE vehicles cost more over time. Even taking a used car into account, its average cost over time is greater. A person looking to buy a new car today, you're mostly right in that their total lifetime cost will be less if they buy a new EV today. Mostly though, not everyone, since there are ICE cars cheaper than EVs and for someone who drives very little it'll take a long time to recover the initial price difference. But for people who already own a car it's a very different equation. The old car is already owned, so buying an EV is a huge expense unlikely to ever be recovered by reduced operating costs. Such as the example above of my parent. Were they to buy a 40K EV, it'll take easily 40 years to break even compared to simply keep driving the old Corolla. Nowhere near worth it.