Is an electric vehicle (EV) more expensive to operate than a gas powered one?

I have a Jaguar I-Pace and own a company specializing in EV charging station installations and maintenance.

It costs me ~$11 to charge my EV from almost 0–100%. It gets 200–230 miles on a single charge. I have 26,000 miles on it and have had to have no maintenance done.

EVs have significantly less moving parts than a gas engine vehicle and brakes last longer due to regenerative braking which also adds range to the vehicles.

There will likely be an increase in electricity costs over time but this can be helped through the installation of solar panels.

EVs and solar have the ability for people to actually become energy independent. We don’t have the ability to do that with gas cars.

@SquirrelEStuff Won’t that mean that the price of solar panels will increase significantly?

@seka

At this point, the price of everything is going to decrease due to continued devaluation of the dollar.
However, you buy solar panels and they last for 25+ years, so you’re essentially locking in prices unless government regulations change to impact that, which is entirely possible.

@SquirrelEStuff But at what point do solar panel’s pay for themselves?

@chyna

That depends on a number of factors such as location, roof pitch, azimuth, shading, size of system and consumption. Typically 5–7 years for efficient setup.

Also, if solar panels can produce as much as home consumption including EV, as gas prices rise, ROI becomes even faster.

In a not ideal setup on a home, it can take much longer to receive ROI on solar, but then you should look into community solar programs.

The short answer is “no.”

The article compares a hybrid with one of the least efficient EVs on the market. First, hybrids are a terrible choice. The smaller batteries are constantly going from 100%-0% which fatigues them quickly. Most EV drivers will go from something like 80% – 50% on a regular basis. This is the “happy place” for batteries and they essentially degrade very slowly if charged this way (they don’t like going too low or too high regularly). I’ve had my Tesla Model 3 for nearly 4 years and have only lost about 5% of my max range over that time. Long term data shows that it’s a very flat decline over time and I expect to still have over 90% of my max range after 10 years.

The problem with hybrids is their batteries will degrade and are expensive to replace, also they’re heavier and have all of the same maintenance requirements of a gas car too. They’re the worst of both worlds. The only maintenance expenses I’ve had is buying new tires, refilling the windshield wiper fluid and replacing some dirty air filters. Compare that with oil changes, transmission fluid, spark plugs, timing belts, radiators, fuel systems, O2 sensors, exhaust systems, drive shafts, clutches, and on and on… The article completely ignores these very real costs.

I just checked my app, and it’s estimating I’ve saved $71 over the past 30 days on fuel costs alone. We haven’t been driving as much lately, and that savings would go up with more miles driven. When I was commuting daily, I was saving over $200 per month in fuel over my previous vehicle (which was a gas hog).

I would say an EV is the right choice for >85% of Americans. If you’ve got a 200+/ mile daily commute. Live in an extremely isolated rural area far away from any charging infrastructure, or only have one vehicle and you take >500mi road trips many times per year, then I think a gas car is probably still the way to go for pretty much everyone else. Otherwise, EVs are a much better choice.

Something else to consider in regards to EVs.

As more EVs come online, there will be investment needed into our grid.
On the other hand, as more and more EVs are plugged into the grid, a massive storage grid is being created.
Right now, there is something called Demand Response, in which facilities such as manufacturing plants can manually turn off non essential loads during times of high demand on the grid, and by turning off power, they are paid to do so by grid operators.
A facilities natural inclination is to want to turn on a generator rather than turn off power, but EPA does not allow emergency generator use for things such as demand response.
However, since batteries do not produce emissions, they can be used for demand response. In the near future, you will likely be able yo have your EV plugged into the grid, and since EVs now get 200–400 miles of range, and most people only drive 40 miles a day, you will be able to go on an app, and allocate a certain amount of miles to the grid if needed, and get paid to do so.

EVs and renewables have the ability to create a type of grid security and stabilization that most cannot imagine right now.

There is a huge problem with Solar power and our grid. Solar causes massive instability with the grid because it’s very difficult to keep constant. The grid does not like abrupt changes. The good news is that if we do use EVs and battery banks like the Tesla power wall as a buffer this largely takes care of the issue. I personally cannot wait until EV prices come down enough for me to bite. They’re just not there yet. I’m still a little skeptical of the long-term life of some of the batteries too but time will tell with that. I’m keeping my 12 year+ old vehicles as long as I can to hopefully avoid buying any new gasoline powered vehicles.

Times 50.

I get confused when people talk about hybrids and EVs. I have a Camry hybrid that’s not a plug-in, yet the other commenters are talking about hybrids that they plug in.

All I know is I only buy gas maybe once a month, and when I fill it it tells me I have around 600 miles. It’s never needed maintenance other than the ordinary oil changes. I did need a battery shortly after I got it, but it was still under warranty; the price was around $800 I believe. I probably paid too much for it ($34,000), but I don’t know how to negotiate, it was a top of the line XLE in 2015, and I wanted navy with a sunroof. The only Camry they had on the lot was exactly what I was looking for and it came off the production line on my birth date, so I figured it was meant to be. Silly, I know, but what the hell.

In my honest opinion, an electric car will save you LOTS of money! Until you trade it in, that is. It will probably need new battery(-ies) that will be expensive.
It seems as though the life span of the batteries might be about ten years. It could cost as much as $15,000 to replace those batteries, so the savings over gasoline will catch up to the electric car owner then.
And the trade in value may be questionable, at best. Will the car be worth buying new batteries for when it is 10 years old??
As I said, in my honest opinion.

This says nothing of the dangers of electrical fires in these electric cars. At the beginning of this year, 2022, 153,000 GM cars were recalled for electrical fire issues. The same reason 500,000 Hyundai and Kio cars were recalled.

And then there is the limited range of these cars…

The United States Post Office just ordered an entire fleet of vehicles, made to last 30 years, with only gasoline engines. Seems the technology is still too new to order up all electric vehicles…

@kritiper “It will probably need new battery(-ies) that will be expensive.”

You keep repeating this, but were is your data? All of the aggregate data I’ve seen is that modern EVs with legit battery management systems in them have batteries lasting way longer than most car engines. As for the expense, replacing a battery pack at 300k-500k miles is a lot cheaper than replacing transmissions and engines.

And for fires, Tesla has 1 fire for every 205 million miles driven, the national average is 19 million miles per fire. In other words, your Tesla is more than 10 times LESS likely to be in a fire. (I know there are other EVs than Tesla, but it’s the brand I’m familiar with, with lots of data out there now).

You’re just talking crazy.

@kritiper And then there is the limited range of these cars…

You must be referring to plug-ins. The full hybrid engine has a much longer range.

@gorillapaws Not enough data has ben collected to prove your point. Electric car technology is still /just too new. Reports I see on TV news stations confirm what I said above.

@smudges I was referring to all-electric cars, not hybrids.

In regards to battery replacements, battery recycling and repurposing is going to become a very big industry and people will most likely receive money in exchange for battery replacement. Another consideration is many EVs have a 100kwh battery pack. Even if it loses 50% capacity, a 50kwh battery pack is still very large and can likely be used for home or business battery backup.

Congressman Thomas Massie, a Republican, is actually the greenest member of congress, drives a Tesla, has solar panels, and has an old Tesla battery pack as battery backup for his house.