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jotm | 3 years ago

Where does the math work out? In much of Europe, charging instead of fueling is around 2x more expensive per KW of useful energy and that's with diesel/petrol being 2 Euros/Liter.

And we're not even getting into the reduced range, availability of (fast) charging stations, availability of electric work vans, the cost of EVs, cost of repair/batteries, etc.

Right now for the vast majority of people, EVs are frankly, ridiculously unaffordable.

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rootusrootus|3 years ago

> Where does the math work out?

I cannot speak for Europe. But in the US, gasoline is $3.51/gallon, electricity is $0.166/kWh. The average car gets 24.2 mpg. The average EV goes 2.9 miles/kWh. The average miles per year driven is 14263. So the average EV driver will spend about $100 per month less on fueling.

But there's a lot of variability to that. You can buy a Chevy Bolt for $26.5K, it consumes 3.44 kWh/mi, and in Portland you can charge at night for $0.042/kWh. The lifetime fueling cost is less than one average new car payment.

A quick google search suggests gasoline is approximately twice as expensive in Europe, electricity three times as expensive, and miles driven about half. The fueling cost will be much closer, but the EV still comes out ahead.