When do you think you will buy a 100% pure electric vehicle?

[Cloneon]

I'm spending about 6x less on fuel, some months I spend practically $0.00 now so I don't even include those months. Many areas won't have that kind of savings but almost everywhere has some. Maintenance cost is also drastically less in some cases.

Reducing the # of cars you own probably achieves your goals more than EV vs ICE from what you said though. I'm with you on going minimalist, but the winning formula for me to do that is owning just one car that has almost no fuel cost and very little maintenance cost...an EV.

You mean your home electric bill has not increased?

 

[HFCS]

You mean your home electric bill has not increased?

About $30.00 a month total. That's if I charge almost exclusively at home and can't find some free charging around town while I'm out doing things.

Compared to average $5.00/gallon gas where I live it's a massive savings. $200/mo savings easy, conservative estimate.

 

[Cloneon]

My dad's first car was a 1958 Chevy. He bought it in 1964, with ~50k miles (might have paid $50 iirc). At that time, 5 years was about the max expected lifespan. He got ~2 years out of it I think. One of his hs buddies drew a picture of it with the caption "Refugee from a Junk Yard"

When I was in hs (1990) the life standard was about 100k miles and maybe 10 years. Cars would get better than that, to be sure, but you had to really treat them right. 100k miles was Dad's goal, after that it was "gravy".

My current vehicles are:
2006 with 198k miles
2005 with 100k miles (convertible - low usage)
2006 with ~350k miles (odometer stopped at 299,999) that my daughter drives
And the first 2 are the kings of reliability - Jaguar!

I think the expectation nowadays is a car ought to last 20 years and go for 200k miles. At least that is what I'd expect.

So I would say that the average life expectancy for cars has doubled from 1960>1990 and doubled again from 1990 > 2020. In terms of "life expectancy" of new cars, I would say it is massively improved.

The 30% you mention (from a website you didn't select, in fairness) includes all the new cars being born today - so that average is skewed to include all those, and a lot less of the older short lived ones that are already gone. It's like the average age of people, vs their life expectancy when born.

Thanks for your input. For me...
Datsun 240z which was pure junk when I bought it and brought it back from the dead, but it lasted through college, which was all I hoped for. It could have lasted longer because it was a simple in-line 6 and I was able to do all the maintenance on it. But, I was looking for a different type of vehicle post college.
Bought one of the first Caravans, thinking it'd be my road trip vehicle. After 1 year I sold it because I got 30% more than what I bought it for.
Bought a Toyota cheapy pickup truck. Was into hang-gliding at the time. That bugger was reliable, durable, and as plain as could be. But, it got 150k before I started to make good money and wanted to upgrade.
Next up 4-runner. Got 100k on that before an ex disappeared with it. Never heard from her again. No big deal cause I was a beach guy and my motorcycle was all I needed.
Next up Mazda Tribute. It currently stands at 180k and has been demoted to my farm vehicle.
Currently driving a BMW X3. Absolutely dread the thought of it breaking down. Already regret buying it because it has no spare.

As you can see, my vehicle planning was per the lifestyle and need at the time. And early on I never expected or wanted 200k.

But, I'll stand by me original post (and the informative responses). I don't think 30% improve lifespan is worth it when the 'average' maintenance is $5k. As mentioned above I dread the maintenance in the over 100k category.

 

[Cloneon]

About $30.00 a month total. That's if I charge almost exclusively at home and can't find some free charging around town while I'm out doing things.

Compared to average $5.00/gallon gas where I live it's a massive savings. $200/mo savings easy, conservative estimate.

Ok. I stand corrected. Absolutely unbelievable. Do you mind if I ask what EV you have? No worries if you don't want to reveal it. Just curious. Have you priced a replacement battery? I have a friend with a Prius who chose to replace his own battery and it still costed him $5k.

 

[dmclone]

Ok. I stand corrected. Absolutely unbelievable. Do you mind if I ask what EV you have? No worries if you don't want to reveal it. Just curious. Have you priced a replacement battery? I have a friend with a Prius who chose to replace his own battery and it still costed him $5k.

You're comparing apples to oranges. You're talking about how cheap it is to own vehicles with 150k miles. I'm not a Toyota fan at all, I find them boring. With that said, if you're buying a brand new car and want to get the most bang/buck, a Toyota Prius is one of the cheapest most reliable vehicles ever made. They've been making them for two decades now and they've been near the top every year in lowest to own.

 

[HFCS]

Ok. I stand corrected. Absolutely unbelievable. Do you mind if I ask what EV you have? No worries if you don't want to reveal it. Just curious. Have you priced a replacement battery? I have a friend with a Prius who chose to replace his own battery and it still costed him $5k.

I think the cheap cost of charging at home is pretty standard across any model. Nobody in this discussion ever mentions it as more than $40/mo, some as low as $15-20/mo. What does vary is if your local gas is $2.80 or $5.50 so I get why people in Iowa with cheap gas don't see the instant savings as much as I did. There was a period of a few months it was around $6.50 here and I straight up thought there's no way I could ever afford to have a gas car again knowing how cheap it is to go electric at home.

I leased, I don't blame people for being worried about replacing a battery, although part of what drove me to get one EV was I had two gas cars that had massive problems at the same time anyway, one of them a problem an EV would never have. If I did buy I might pay for extended warranty when my warranty is up, who knows if that's smart or throwing away money. I'm sure some would argue both ways.

 

[BryceC]

You call 30% 'massively'? Massively, by my book, would be twice the age. Furthermore, you didn't include the cost of maintenance relative to the value of the vehicle. You'll find that $5k per blue book value, is 'massively' expensive.

Passenger cars went from 7.2 years in 1983 to 13.6 years in 2023. Yeah I’d consider that a. Massive improvement.

 

[wxman1]

Ok. I stand corrected. Absolutely unbelievable. Do you mind if I ask what EV you have? No worries if you don't want to reveal it. Just curious. Have you priced a replacement battery? I have a friend with a Prius who chose to replace his own battery and it still costed him $5k.

It may not be $5k but I imagine it would cost a minimum of $2k to replace a fuel tank.

 

[BCClone]

It may not be $5k but I imagine it would cost a minimum of $2k to replace a fuel tank.

I had to replace one in a kids vehicle. It was around 400-500 to replace. Possibly 500-600.

 

[dmclone]

Sounds like Lamoni will be the next location to get a supercharger in the next few months.

 

[IcSyU]

Ok. I stand corrected. Absolutely unbelievable. Do you mind if I ask what EV you have? No worries if you don't want to reveal it. Just curious. Have you priced a replacement battery? I have a friend with a Prius who chose to replace his own battery and it still costed him $5k.

We didn't even notice our electric bill changing after we got our home charger. Some of that is also the fact that I don't pay a lot of attention to it since it's on autopay.

It was $.10/kWh and we have a 99 kWh battery in our Mach E (roughly 300mi).

 

[simply1]

Are electric vehicles not more expensive than their ice equivalents? I said maybe not in your case since rivian isn’t worried about making money, but for most car brands.

Are you factoring in rebates if the model qualifies?

 

[3TrueFans]

Are you factoring in rebates if the model qualifies?

I don’t know, I didn't think about it too hard.

 

[BryceC]

Are electric vehicles not more expensive than their ice equivalents? I said maybe not in your case since rivian isn’t worried about making money, but for most car brands.

A no options Model Y probably is the cheapest car in its class with the rebates. Probably my next car.

 

[do4CY]

Had too much down time over the 4th and might have talked myself back into the Lightning haha



Did you install the Ford Charge Station Pro, or how do you charge at home?

I already have a 240v outlet in my garage but not sure if I can just plug directly into that, or if I need the hardwired Charge Station.
I also wanted to see if the Tesla Universal Charge Station works. Seems like those are about half the price of the Ford Charge Station.

Then I was also wondering about the Home Backup. Does it really cost ~$15,000 to have this installed/enabled??
For that price I'll just run extension cords throughout my house.

I had put a grizzl-e charger in my machine shed when we got our chevy bolt so I have been using that, it was around $300. We had got that in case we needed to charge the bolt a bit faster but have only needed it a few times when "we" forgot to plug it in. The charger that comes with the lightning would work fine. I had not even looked at it until today but when it's hooked to a 240v outlet it will pull 32 amps which is what I have my grizzl-e at. I can bump the grizzl-e up to 40 amps if I wanted.

I have no intention to power my house with it so I don't know about the home backup.

In the past week I have been getting better efficiency with it on the highway. I have seen 2.3-2.5 mi/kWh more. I had it above 6 for about a mile of in town driving. With a double axle trailer with a mower on, approx 3600 lbs total, I have been getting 1.4.

 

[do4CY]

Are electric vehicles not more expensive than their ice equivalents? I said maybe not in your case since rivian isn’t worried about making money, but for most car brands.

The Ford lightning I have was less expensive than the gas version f-150.

 

[IcSyU]

Had too much down time over the 4th and might have talked myself back into the Lightning haha



Did you install the Ford Charge Station Pro, or how do you charge at home?

I already have a 240v outlet in my garage but not sure if I can just plug directly into that, or if I need the hardwired Charge Station.
I also wanted to see if the Tesla Universal Charge Station works. Seems like those are about half the price of the Ford Charge Station.

Then I was also wondering about the Home Backup. Does it really cost ~$15,000 to have this installed/enabled??
For that price I'll just run extension cords throughout my house.

We don't have the Ford Charge Station Pro. I didn't see a reason to. In 2 years and 3 months of having a Mach E I can't think of a single time where having more juice would have been necessary for us. Now I don't know all the technical specs of the Lightning battery pack vs the Mach E so maybe it would make a worthwhile difference on the Lightning.

We have a 14-50 receptacle in our garage we use for charging.

When we built our house it was many thousands of dollars to be wired to run our house off a generator like say...the Lightning.

 

[dmclone]

I just ran the numbers and over the last year.

This software has tracked 6,001 miles on a 2023 Tesla Model Y LR.

• Total charging cost $239.78
  • $188.21 at home at .11 per kWh
  • $35.16 at superchargers
• Cost per 100 miles is $4
• Iowa Ev tax is $130

Maintenance has been $2.99 for the windshield fluid. Just had a free rotation at Discount Tire. I expect next years maintenance to also be $2.99.

Total Cost $372.77
Most people drive double that so $745.54

Now if I compare that to my Kia and use that same mileage. 21mpg.

• Total Fuel Cost(same 6,001 miles@$3.27 gallon) $934

One oil change with synthetic runs about $80. I'll assume the Kia is new and not factor in things like a $400 30k miles service

Total cost $1,014
Most people drive double that so $1,491.08

Forgot to add insurance. Both vehicles cost(msrp) roughly the same when new.

2023 Tesla $812/year
2021 Kia $562/year

Updated Total Cost
Tesla $1,557,54 @ 12k miles
Kia $2,053.08 @ 12k miles

Time=In a year, I would fill up my Kia with gas roughly 44 times. Each time takes around 5 minutes. So it took me 220 minutes to put gas in my car.

 

[pourcyne]

Would. Only 7,500 Malaysian ringgits. (shipping another mil, but hey...)

 

[frackincygy]

I just ran the numbers and over the last year.

This software has tracked 6,001 miles on a 2023 Tesla Model Y LR.

• Total charging cost $239.78
  • $188.21 at home at .11 per kWh
  • $35.16 at superchargers
• Cost per 100 miles is $4
• Iowa Ev tax is $130

Maintenance has been $2.99 for the windshield fluid. Just had a free rotation at Discount Tire. I expect next years maintenance to also be $2.99.

Total Cost $372.77
Most people drive double that so $745.54

Now if I compare that to my Kia and use that same mileage. 21mpg.

• Total Fuel Cost(same 6,001 miles@$3.27 gallon) $934

One oil change with synthetic runs about $80. I'll assume the Kia is new and not factor in things like a $400 30k miles service

Total cost $1,014
Most people drive double that so $1,491.08

Forgot to add insurance. Both vehicles cost(msrp) roughly the same when new.

2023 Tesla $812/year
2021 Kia $562/year

Updated Total Cost
Tesla $1,557,54 @ 12k miles
Kia $2,053.08 @ 12k miles

Time=In a year, I would fill up my Kia with gas roughly 44 times. Each time takes around 5 minutes. So it took me 220 minutes to put gas in my car.

Have you really not noticed an effect on brake wear/tire wear driving a vehicle with 2x the gross vehicle weight?