First I would like to clarify the title of these blogs. Hype has two basic meanings: 1) to stimulate, excite, or agitate; 2) to trick; gull (source). Anti-hype refers to the first; there is a lot of excitement going on with the advancement of EVs. I’d very much like to get caught up in it, but I just have too many unanswered questions. How are they REALLY zero-emissions, aren’t the batteries toxic, and how long do they last anyway (all these questions will be addressed in this blog)? With anti-hype I aim to take a step back and reason what makes sense (hopefully with your help; the reason of any one individual, though potentially great, is inevitably flawed), and if all measures out, well then, I guess I can get caught up in the hype as well.
One of the issues with the EV is its gas tank equivalent – the battery. Let’s explore some of the questions I’ve had regarding the EV battery. There is a lot to talk about when it comes to the EV battery, so to avoid producing a mondo post, I’ve decided to split this topic into its own miniseries.
EVs costs less to drive?
Remember The Day?
Have you heard that it costs $.02 per mile to drive an EV? Sounds great right? At $4.00 a gallon, that equates to a 4.00/.02 = 200 miles per gallon vehicle, which is approximately 5 times better than my family’s 2001 manual transmission, gasoline powered Toyota Carolla. With said vehicle, we would be paying 4.00/40 = $.10 per mile (again, a factor of 5). But how are they obtaining $.02 per mile? Let’s run some numbers.
The Tesla Roadster battery can hold 53 kWh of electricity, and can go 244 miles on a full charge (source). Let’s assume the power from the source to the battery is 100% efficient during the charge process (no losses). Also, let’s assume your power company charges you $.10 per kWh (you can use your own utility bill to adjust this calculation). This means it costs you $5.30 to go 244 miles (53 kWh * $.10), resulting in a little over $.02 per mile ($5.30/244 miles = $.02/mile)!
However, the batteries have to be replaced every X amount of miles. This is because the batteries lose charge capacity over time. You could retain the battery longer, but with a shorter driving range (source, read the article for an explanation). Some are curious if this affects power performance; my guess will be…no, but perhaps you could provide some better insight?
Tesla estimates that you’ll want to replace the battery every 100,000 miles and it will cost $12,000. Assuming this cost is correct and is constant, it would cost you $36,000 to go 300,000 miles, which I am going to take to be the life of the car. This mean the battery costs a little over $.01 per mile ($36,000/300,000 miles), totaling $.03 per mile to drive an EV. But along with no need to change the oil, there are other shifts of maintenance fees from an ICEV to an EV, so it depends on what exactly you want to toss into the mix for determining equivalent cost per mile.
Another thing I would like to note is that the gas we purchase has a tax already included. In my home state of Washington, the tax is $.375 (source), plus the federal tax of $.184 (source). If we switch to electric powered cars, the state and federal governments are going to lose out on a lot of revenue (which is supposed to be allocated to civil maintenance?). I’m just going to speculate that the government will want their piece of the pie – and I think they deserve it, assuming the money truly is going to build new roads and the like – and somehow this electric energy will be taxed to keep the balance. But even if a tax boost the cost per mile by 100%, driving an EV would still be cheaper, and likely the price to “fuel up” wouldn’t dramatically increase with time as has been the case with gasoline over the last couple of years.
No comments:
Post a Comment