Gas prices on Tuesday hit another record under Joe Biden.
Inflation rates are outpacing wages and gas prices are through the roof.
Out-of-touch Democrat Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow bragged that she passed “every single gas station” in her brand new electric vehicle and it didn’t matter “how high gas was.”
“On the issue of gas prices, I drove my electric vehicle from Michigan to here last weekend and went by every gas station and it didn’t matter how high it was,” the Democrat said during a senate hearing on Tuesday.
Do I need to add anything to make you comprehend how little a shit they give about you?
She failed her IQ test.
Indeed she did. Some faint glimmering of insight may happen when she sees her increased electric bill, and the increased kWh rate on it as a result of higher fuel prices charged to utilities.
Electric cars may have a point, but immunity from inflation is not one of them.
HOW much gasoline could we buy, even at current pricing, for the purchase price of that electric car? Be sure to factor in at least one replacement of it’s batteries, which apparently will set you back more than half of the purchase price . Lets estimate- Car @$ 79,000 battery pack @$39500 = $118500. Divide by $5.49 ( average price of a gallon of “Regular” around here ) equals 21584.699 Gallons could be bought. At 31 MPG ( average MPG of a Subaru we have) that is 669,125.66 MILES!!!
Economically, -what an enormous rip-off. Even with a “low-priced” electric, say ,$ 50,000 or so ( many Full-size PU trucks are $4700+ ) it’s still a massive rip off. Do the math. the Chinese reputedly still use coal burning locomotives for cryin’ out loud.
I wouldn’t include the cost of the car in your math, whether gas or electric, you still have to purchase something. Cost of ownership is what you need to look at, and for me the big one is the intangible metric of “usability”. My post below, range is important to me. I drive a lot from Detroit to Cincinnati (~240 miles), and the new F-150 lightning with the base battery pack would not make it there on a single charge. Add in cold weather, and I’m guaranteed to have a forced stop to charge each way. Speaking of cold, if you were in an EV stuck on I-95 last winter in VA, you froze to death.
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Where EVs have the advantage is less mechanical parts, no fluid systems, so therefore, theoretically should have less maintenance costs. If all you do is commute, an EV might make sense. For anything else, the negatives outweigh the positives. And back to cost of ownership, if you are the type of person who likes to buy and pay-off your vehicles (keep for 5+ years), the battery replacement charge is definitely a consideration. I wouldn’t say they are $40k, but I’ve seen $15K-$25K, and that is alot of gas you can buy while not having a car payment.
Even a used Tesla is pushing $40K. And, that is a 2013 model, which means the batteries are probably approaching end of life.
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However, you are correct, including the cost of the vehicle in the comparison is a bit disingenuous. However, it is a factor, and a used 2013 four door sedan (equivalent to the 2013 Tesla I mention above) will run you between $15K and $25K depending on the make/model/features. The $10K+ difference in price must be included. The differences in cost between new vehicles is even more stark. A new Tesla 3 is more than $50K, but the equivalent Corolla/Camry is less than half that.
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Lifetime of the vehicle is also a factor, unless you are one of those “new car every three years” people. I am currently in year 27 of driving my car. That means I paid slightly less than $1000 a year for the car. And, I still do not think I got my money’s worth out of it. Will your electric car (or the batteries) last that long? Doubt it. What will a battery replacement cost you? Somehow, I think replacing the 4.0L Jeep engine in my car will set me back a lot less than replacing the batteries in my EV.
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What really started me thinking on this was the You Tube clip from a fella in Finland whose Tesla
apparently needed a new battery pack , at half the cost of the car! He wasn’t in a position to shell out so much long green ( which would be more now, with Brandon’s I didn’t Do it Inflation ), so he made of short “film” of rigging it with explosives and blowing it up.
On the point of being disingenuous- no mea culpa. No attempt to mislead intended. Point is, IF I were to take my current vehicle ( a 2019 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab ) to any dealer with EVs on the lot, I would find 2 things 1) I would naturally get a kick in the groin low-ball trade in offer, and 2) the EV would likely be priced at or above MSRP- so a loose/loose for the consumer – might even work out in losses to be virtually the same as walking in with only my checkbook and nothing for equity. For maintenance, yeah, no oil changes. Currently synthetic oil under normal conditions is good for in excess of 6,000 miles. I have always done my own, so no mark up over what the parts place gets. Tires, chassis, suspension, driveline- all still require upkeep. Somehow think a background as an electrician might be helpful. Buying a used EV strikes me as buying a problem with a short fuse- the previous owner bailed out for some reason, and with an unknown amount of time, just as with most used cars that were not fleet vehicles ( and therefore, likely maintained per warranty requirements ) you will learn why. Just Sayin’ . Those batteries ARE expensive, at half the cost of the car and not as easy to change out as the one or two most of us are used to- Not today, thanks.
Sad to say she represents my state. The average cost of an electric car is $54K or so? Even with subsidies, most people can’t afford a $600, $700 a month car payment. And the ones that are cheaper, they are so small they barely work for anything other than commuting to work and back.
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My fam sticks with Ford or GM products; I’m partial to the F-150… the new Lightning F-150 is available with 2 battery options, 1 with 230 mile range and another larger battery with 300 mile range. The latter is only available on higher trim packages getting closer to $70K . The smaller battery is only good if you commute or buy the truck for a work site. I would never take a long trip in that vehicle.
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I’ll stick with my ICE F-150 and 34 gallon fuel tank. I can go 600-700 miles on a tank and then 15 minutes later, do it again.
I filled two generator gas cans yesterday for $4.499 a gallon. Today, that same Valero is $4.799. Thirty cents per gallon in one day.
We made the decision to buy a hybrid when Toyota first came out with them. While I had some people arguing about buying them for environmental reasons, ours was purely financial.
At the time my wife was commuting around 80 miles per day. The cost of the Prius was about $10k more than the equivalent car that was just gas powered.
I plugged the numbers into the calculator, at $2.00/gal and 45mpg it would cost $3.55 per day in gas vs $2.00/gal and 25mpg costing $6.40 per day. This meant that we would be saving $2.85/work day.
Over the course of a year, this would be around $740 in savings. Add to that our fun trips for another 10,000 miles (trips to visit parents added up) for another $355/year.
This gave us a savings of around $1000/year. At the end of 5 years, we sold the vehicle. They Prius held its value much better than the other cars we were looking at.
Over the course of those 5 years we came out ahead. For our second Prius we did even better because I ended up with a 160/day commute 4 days a week with a 650 mile commute every weekend for almost 6 months. After which my wife had a 140 mile per day commute.
You have to do the math and you have to make a decision that works for you. Today it costs about $0.20/mile in gas vehicle and $0.11/mile in a hybrid.
Of course nobody talks about the cost of electricity going into those EV. That adds up as well.