I have to agree with Grant. While I'm all for saving energy, the math these people use, even if accurate, still fails to take a lot of the upstream costs into account, especially the cost of generating the electricity necessary to charge the thing.
I have to believe that if this is factored in accurately, an electric car, coupled with the high cost of battery technology, is still far more expensive from a cost per mile than one running on fossil fuels. That being said, if solar costs could ever be brought into a manageable range, if you lived in an area where solar made sense and you could generate your own power, maybe, just maybe, it might approach a realistic cost. It's unlikely to happen in our lifetime, I believe, so that's not something I'm counting on. I think the best place to put our development dollars is to raise the corporate CAFE standards. If Detroit is forced to develop more efficient cars, and I believe they can, electric vehicles won't stand a chance of being realistic unless something spectacular would occur with battery technology. Where's that 100 MPG carburetor when you need it? <grin> Dan On Feb 26, 2012, at 9:35 AM, G Mann wrote: > Well,,,, good for them.... but it's still wonky math. > > Ok.. so electric costs are .12 cents average.... Let's factor in the cars > cost of $46.000 and divide that by the "projected" service life of the > battery, plus battery replacement costs for service life of the car [got > any idea how many miles this car will go?] , THEN amortize that true cost > [plus any gasoline used, don't forget] into each mile driven. > > I don't have those numbers to run with because of all the "hyperbole green > spin" but my engineering gut tells me it will come in high for "cost per > mile driven". > > Now let's take a real hard look at the true emission profile. More than 80% > of electric generation is done via coal fired plants, which although not in > your green car back yard, are none the less emission factories belching > 24/7 into the "carbon footprint" so you can plug in your "green car" and > hide your emissions by using a clever hyperbole that the 'car didn't do > it".... Well. it does. For every hour you are "plugged in" and every hour > you are driving that car, the power grid must "stand ready" with electric > to "refill your tank [battery]" Better add that to the math also to get a > real picture. > > This is getting long and it is a long equation. Bottom line, oil was > chosen because it was cheap, quick, easy, and "clean enough". As an energy, > it has dominated for all those reasons and will continue despite "stimuli > by government" for most of my remaining lifetime. > > Grant... > > On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 6:15 AM, Gerry Archer <arche...@embarqmail.com>wrote: > >> Gerry wrote: >> I sent the Fox News article to a friend who has owned a Volt for 3 or 4 >> months. This lady is a medical research tech and her husband is a >> microbiologist. Both are dedicated to extreme accuracy so I wouldn't >> question their math. >> This is her reply: >> >> "Thanks for sending. When I read over a DOLLAR per kwh I knew something >> was wrong with the article. We pay about 10 CENTS per kwh and snopes said >> the national average is about 12 cents. It costs us about a dollar to >> charge the battery vs $18 in article. We go 45 to 50 miles for a dollar >> charge up, not 25 miles for $18. Somebody made up some atrocious math. You >> can go down to 25 miles per charge if it is very cold or you go very fast. >> We drove the car about 400 miles last week without charging and averaged >> about 45 mi per gallon because is was mostly on gas. On battery alone then >> charge up at night and never use gas we get almost 100 mpg equivalent." >> http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/chevyvolt.asp >> ----------------------------------------------- >> >> Eric Bolling (Fox Business Channel's Follow the Money) test drove the Chevy >> Volt at the invitation of General Motors. >> >> For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles >> before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine. >> >> Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the >> battery. >> So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is >> approximately 270 miles. >> It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. >> Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of >> 14.5 hours. >> 270 miles in 14.5 hours would be < 20 mph average speed. >> >> According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. >> It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.The cost for the >> electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what I pay >> for electricity.I pay approximately (it varies with amount used and the >> seasons) $1.16 per kwh.16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the >> battery.$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate >> the Volt using the battery. >> >> Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine only that gets 32 >> mpg.$4.00 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.125 per mile. >> Gasoline prices would have to rise to $23.68/gal to break even >> (assuming the cost for electricity -–to charge the Volt’s batteries –- >> remained unchanged). >> The gasoline powered car cost about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000. >> >> So we are encouraged to pay 3 times as much for a car >> that costs more that 7 times as much to run >> and takes 3 times as long to drive across country. >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
