EV Irony

"EV's are too expensive and too limited in capability" - Various

I've admitted to myself that I'm not about to plunk down $28-40 THOUSAND dollars on a used Toyota RAV4 EV with nickle-metal hydride batteries and that this nerdy little van is going to be my ride into the world of alternative fuel. I've secured a small loan and an agreement with the seller: $3,500 dollars and he'll deliver it halfway in Virginia. The irony of this, is that I'll be using my 1975 Chevy 1-ton pickup truck that gets like 9 gallons per mile to go get it. My buddy Paul calls it the "Kriegswagon", or War Wagon. Not very efficient.

While I'm working all this into my schedule of family, work and military reserve duty I'm crunching yet more numbers based on parts, batteries, charging costs etc. against the operating costs of an ICE (internal combustion engine). I've had 15 years in the Navy. I use a lot of alphabet soup when I write. The theoretical numbers were verrrrrrry interesting:

My DeLorean gets 22-25 mpg. Pretty good for a 24 year-old car. Assuming I -never- drive it anywhere except to the Metro station and home, that's 28 miles per day, or a little more than a gallon per day. It carries 13 gallons. At my town's current price of $2.50/gallon, that's $32.50 per tank every 1.5 weeks or so. Let's take all the words out of this equation and just crunch numbers:

DMC-12 Annual operating expenses
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$32.50 X 35 weeks (7,000 miles)= $1138.00
Annual tune up: Sparkplugs $47.76
Cap and rotor $19.95, $8.95
Sparkplug wires $59.95
Air filter $7.45
Emissions test $14.95
Oil change @ 3 months $143.64
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Total: $1392.89

EV Annual operating expenses

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BGE charges .07 cents per kWh (kilowatthour) The van's charger draws 3.5 kWh max and takes 6 hours to charge from dead.

.07 cents X 3.5 kWh= .245 cents.

.25 cents X 6 hours= $1.47

$1.47= 35 miles, or one "fill up" (conservatively) so 300 miles (the average ICE range per tank)

300 miles/35= 8.5 "fill ups" at $1.47, which is $12.60 for 300 miles of travel. And

7,000 miles of travel for the year at $1.47 per charge is: $257.25

*component prices from www.delorean.com

These components are not special or overpriced despite the unique nature of the DeLorean automobile. It came factory equipped with a Volvo V6 engine.

Other than a VW TDI Beetle or a Honda Insight, there is no vehicle that you'll travel 300 miles in for only $12.60 cents, or 7,000 miles for only $257.25.

Wait, what about all that other stuff? What about maintenance costs for an EV?

There are none. No oil, no coolant, hoses, belts, headgaskets, smog pump, catalytic converter or other crap. Brake pad? Wheel bearings? Transmission oil? Yes but you'll notice I didn't include that in the costs of EITHER vehicle to keep a level playing field. Also, those systems are infrequently serviced in any vehicle so I don't count them as "annual" operating costs.

The only maintenance a DC series-wound motor requires is new brushes every 10 THOUSAND miles. The new Advance (it's a brand name) DC motors only require brushes every 80 thousand miles. The electronic control systems for an EV have no moving parts and are sealed. They usually live longer than the vehicle itself.

Batteries are another issue and I'll talk about them in a battery dedicated post. Just to soothe your curiosity now, I'll tell you that an ordinary lead acid battery pack will last about 4 years if cared for properly and cost you from $700-$1200 dollars depending on your car's system voltage.