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> I live in an area with mixed incomes and there are lots of regular people in modest neighborhoods with Niro EVs, Bolts, and no small number of Model 3s. The e

> I live in an area with mixed incomes and there are lots of regular people in modest neighborhoods with Niro EVs, Bolts, and no small number of Model 3s. The economics are favorable for the type of people who keep a car for at least 5 years. Without commenting on anything else, I can tell you that what people are buying doesn't have a thing to do with what the those same people should actually buy to be smart with their money. There would be a lot less financial problems in the world if they were one and the same. (I'll go as far as saying that I don't believe purchasing a new-from-the-dealer car ever makes financial sense, no matter how big your wallet is. I'm not sure which forced depreciation scheme is worse: the drop in value of a diamond ring when you walk out the store or the drop in value of a new car as soon as you drive it off the lot.)

rootusrootus 3y ago
That's probably true. There are a disproportionate number of people in very middle-of-the-road neighborhoods with solar panels on the roof, and the ROI on solar in Oregon isn't really awesome. So there's some idealism going on, for sure. But I've run the numbers enough times, and for the people who buy a car and drive it into the ground the EV math is pretty great. At least around here, because 9pm-5am every day and all-day weekends our per-kWh electricity cost is under 8 cents (all-in, including transmission costs, etc).
- ComputerGuru 3y ago
  That's an insane electric cost if it's comprehensive of everything including delivery fees plus taxes and surcharges (i.e. your actual monthly payment divided by total kWh consumed). I'm in Illinois and we are considered to have fairly cheap electricity (and the highest (?) rate of nuclear energy in the States) but even with time-of-use billing heavily biased towards late night and the wee hours of the morning, I still paid net just over 10¢/kWh this past month. (State law mandates the availability of a real-time pricing option by all electric providers in Illinois.) The reason I asked if it was calculable with the simple formula I listed above is that—according to ComEd—my price was 6.809¢/kWh, but that's not taking into account the ~34% of the total bill that's taxes and surcharges.

rootusrootus 3y ago

That's probably true. There are a disproportionate number of people in very middle-of-the-road neighborhoods with solar panels on the roof, and the ROI on solar in Oregon isn't really awesome. So there's some idealism going on, for sure. But I've run the numbers enough times, and for the people who buy a car and drive it into the ground the EV math is pretty great. At least around here, because 9pm-5am every day and all-day weekends our per-kWh electricity cost is under 8 cents (all-in, including transmission costs, etc).

ComputerGuru 3y ago
That's an insane electric cost if it's comprehensive of everything including delivery fees plus taxes and surcharges (i.e. your actual monthly payment divided by total kWh consumed). I'm in Illinois and we are considered to have fairly cheap electricity (and the highest (?) rate of nuclear energy in the States) but even with time-of-use billing heavily biased towards late night and the wee hours of the morning, I still paid net just over 10¢/kWh this past month. (State law mandates the availability of a real-time pricing option by all electric providers in Illinois.) The reason I asked if it was calculable with the simple formula I listed above is that—according to ComEd—my price was 6.809¢/kWh, but that's not taking into account the ~34% of the total bill that's taxes and surcharges.