About a month ago I bought a used electric car as complement to our gasoline-powered family car. We live deep in the French countryside and virtually all our day-to-day rides are within 25km of home, and we drive about 1500km/month, not including long drives.
By my calculations we're saving about 150€/month on fuel, while the car itself costs 230€ including insurance and charging, so we basically get a second car for 80€/month, and lower the maintenance costs and depreciation on the gas guzzler. Other benefits are near-zero maintenance (no oil change, less brake wear), zero registration cost, a quiet and fun ride, and zero pollution!
For our situation an electric makes perfect sense! I'm actually looking forward to trading our first car for an electric, once it becomes economically viable.
In addition some electricity providers will sell you "green electricity", meaning they'll commit to buying the amount you consume from renewable sources.
Or even better: commit to build renewable capacity to cover their customers to avoid that the “green” energy is simply taken away from the power mix of everyone else
Most of the plants are quite old, and will cost a ton to renovate (~50B euros for the "Grand Carenage") or close.
They also represent a growing risk as they get older.
There is also the well known issue of waste management.
Right now, it's actually more expensive per kWh produced.
Also as it's backed by a well established nuclear industry, there is an important nuclear lobby which slows down renewable energy sources development.
This industry is slowly dying (Areva had to be bailed-out basically a few years ago, and abroad, the bankruptcy of Westinghouse comes to mind), not the best horse to bet on.
Is it better than coal plants? probably, but it's far from a silver bullet.
To go back to electric car (and electric transport in general). One thing I rarely see discussed is the necessary increase in electricity production that a full switch to EV would require. How much bigger the output of electricity will have to be? 30%, 50%?
Right now, given the really small proportion of EV, it's just a blip, but on a massive scale?
The fuel price is the difference between Europe and the US. I don't think I've ever spent 150€/month on fuel in the car I commute in, despite it getting terrible mileage (~12L/100km) due to its age.
while my fuel costs are nothing close to the poster you responded too, in the US my commute is 54 miles and my Volt in mild to warm weather gets this easily on one charge. I have not added gasoline to the car since I bought it in March 2017.
While I do work at home a lot I have saved a tank of gas every other week while never having to worry about range anxiety as the range extender will cover me.
Are you married? Have kids? Good luck with one car.
If you don’t, you won’t be living in an urban environment when you do, because you’ll want your kids to have a good education. You also won’t have money to waste on Uber.
We have an SW car and an e-powered cargo bike, and that’s enough. 2 little kids, and I play in a band. And we do live in an area where you have to have a vehicle. It’s doable. I mostly use one of the bikes to commute (either to the train, 4km away, or 2nd office, 3km away).
By my calculations we're saving about 150€/month on fuel, while the car itself costs 230€ including insurance and charging, so we basically get a second car for 80€/month, and lower the maintenance costs and depreciation on the gas guzzler. Other benefits are near-zero maintenance (no oil change, less brake wear), zero registration cost, a quiet and fun ride, and zero pollution!
For our situation an electric makes perfect sense! I'm actually looking forward to trading our first car for an electric, once it becomes economically viable.