I don’t know why you’re downvoted. This is the reality of it from a pragmatic standpoint. We don’t have decent public transportation, so traveling longer distances necessitates a car for most people. If you don’t live in a metro area chances are you’ve got to drive a decent distance for lots of things, from airports to other services.
And the worst part is that charging for local drives costs as much as gas (because that’s what the free market has determined people will pay) so there’s no savings to owing an EV unless you own a space that you can charge your car off your own home power and not a public one. So if you live in an apartment complex, chances are you have zero access to charging. Your place of employment probably doesn’t have chargers either. We have a PHEV and can charge at home for way less than gas. If we lived in an apartment with no charging I guarantee we never would have even considered an EV/PHEV.
Infrastructure is a huge problem. Property owners and lessees don’t want to invest in chargers.
Until the infrastructure problems are solved EVs have an uphill slog in the US.
And the worst part is that charging for local drives costs as much as gas (because that’s what the free market has determined people will pay) so there’s no savings to owing an EV unless you own a space that you can charge your car off your own home power and not a public one.
As an EV owner, I think you’re not comparing equivalently, here. That 13 gallon tank at 30mpg (a reasonable non-hybrid ICE car) will get you 390 miles.
The Mustang Mach E is right around that average figure you cite of a 71.8kWh pack. It gets about 300 miles of highway range. That’s at 100% battery. The first 10% and last 20% have to put in a lot more power compared to what you get out. It may end up being somewhat cheaper, but not as much as it looks at first glance. Depending on specific regional prices for L3 stations, you may end up spending more on an EV road trip.
Don’t look at MPGe. It’s a bullshit number to try to compare ICE cars with EVs, and it has so many assumptions attached that it’s basically worthless.
It’s not that important, though. EVs are certainly cheaper for the type of driving most people do all the time: traveling less than 20 miles per day going to work and doing errands, and then charging at home. The most common case is optimized, and even if the current relative price of L3 charging never changed, this tradeoff is worth it for most people. You’ll always have a small percentage of people on discussion forums saying they want to drive 600 miles without a 20 minute stop. You’ll also have a much smaller number of people who actually need to do that more than once a month, if that.
I can fill my car for $47 about 2.89 a gallon where I am now and I get about 540-580 miles to that one tank. My last cheap gas car got 400-430 miles a tank so your average for ice car is off for sure.
Ugh. I filled my car last week and it cost me £70 ($87). That car wasn’t even empty to begin with. This is a typical European family car, not some huge truck. Petrol prices in the US are too cheap for electric to compete with.
Fast chargers known as Level 3 — nearly 20 times faster — can top off an EV battery to about 80 percent in as little as 20 minutes. But that typically costs 30 to 48 cents per kWh — a price equivalent to gasoline in some places, as I later found out.
I failed to specify fast/superchargers. Some have reported higher rates to charge than the gas equivalent range using commercial fast chargers.
I don’t know why you’re downvoted. This is the reality of it from a pragmatic standpoint. We don’t have decent public transportation, so traveling longer distances necessitates a car for most people. If you don’t live in a metro area chances are you’ve got to drive a decent distance for lots of things, from airports to other services.
And the worst part is that charging for local drives costs as much as gas (because that’s what the free market has determined people will pay) so there’s no savings to owing an EV unless you own a space that you can charge your car off your own home power and not a public one. So if you live in an apartment complex, chances are you have zero access to charging. Your place of employment probably doesn’t have chargers either. We have a PHEV and can charge at home for way less than gas. If we lived in an apartment with no charging I guarantee we never would have even considered an EV/PHEV.
Infrastructure is a huge problem. Property owners and lessees don’t want to invest in chargers.
Until the infrastructure problems are solved EVs have an uphill slog in the US.
Do you have a source on that because the national average is 0.35¢ per kWh for DC fast charging. That means to completely charge the avarage ev battery (71.8kWh) would cost $25.13. The national average for gas is $3.62 as of today meaning it would cost an average car (13 gallon tank) a whopping $47.02 to fill up.
As an EV owner, I think you’re not comparing equivalently, here. That 13 gallon tank at 30mpg (a reasonable non-hybrid ICE car) will get you 390 miles.
The Mustang Mach E is right around that average figure you cite of a 71.8kWh pack. It gets about 300 miles of highway range. That’s at 100% battery. The first 10% and last 20% have to put in a lot more power compared to what you get out. It may end up being somewhat cheaper, but not as much as it looks at first glance. Depending on specific regional prices for L3 stations, you may end up spending more on an EV road trip.
Don’t look at MPGe. It’s a bullshit number to try to compare ICE cars with EVs, and it has so many assumptions attached that it’s basically worthless.
It’s not that important, though. EVs are certainly cheaper for the type of driving most people do all the time: traveling less than 20 miles per day going to work and doing errands, and then charging at home. The most common case is optimized, and even if the current relative price of L3 charging never changed, this tradeoff is worth it for most people. You’ll always have a small percentage of people on discussion forums saying they want to drive 600 miles without a 20 minute stop. You’ll also have a much smaller number of people who actually need to do that more than once a month, if that.
I can fill my car for $47 about 2.89 a gallon where I am now and I get about 540-580 miles to that one tank. My last cheap gas car got 400-430 miles a tank so your average for ice car is off for sure.
The numbers you provide are not sufficient to say “your average for ice car is off for sure”.
Ugh. I filled my car last week and it cost me £70 ($87). That car wasn’t even empty to begin with. This is a typical European family car, not some huge truck. Petrol prices in the US are too cheap for electric to compete with.
I failed to specify fast/superchargers. Some have reported higher rates to charge than the gas equivalent range using commercial fast chargers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2023/electric-vehicle-charging-price-vs-gasoline/
Are those approximations equivalent for miles traveled?
Yes, even the worst EV for efficiency gets 50MPGe which is double the national average for MPG.
In other words, even in the most expensive to operate EV you would be paying half the cost per mile over driving an average ICE vehicle.
Also the problem is no ev is affordable at all the are double the price.
You are correct I live in a very rural area so i have that exact problem closest electric public charger is 3 hours away.