I have been going down a rabbit hole of potentially buy an EV and it’s been astonishing to me, especially living in California, how unattractive it is to buy an EV.
I will give you a few reasons why:
-I have to upgrade my electric panel to support charging -I have to switch to an EV plan through PG&E, which increases my partial and peak kilowatt an hour here is the breakdown of my summer rates (winter is lower by like 10 cents for both plans)
-
E-TOU-C (current plan)
- Peak (4-9 PM): 54 cents/kWh
- Off-Peak: 46 cents/kWh
- Lower rates for usage within Baseline Allowance.
-
EV2:
- Peak (4-9 PM): 59.068 cents/kWh
- Part-Peak (3-4 PM & 9-12 AM): 48.019 cents/kWh
- Off-Peak (All other hours): 27.818 cents/kWh
- Delivery Minimum Bill: $0.37612 per meter per day.
-I have to pay someone to install a wall charger. Got a quote for $1900
-I have to pay an additional $103 a year to register an EV in CA
-On top of all these fees I don’t even qualify for many incentives as as a household we make over 300k which is honestly nothing crazy for coastal California when you factor in living expenses.
With all of these additional upfront costs and insane electric prices how does California expect people to adopt EVs?
I really want to buy one but it seems like more of a statement play and potential car performance play then a smart economic choice.
I did a cost comparison between a used Tesla Model X, a new Ford F-150 Lightning, and a new Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid. Here’s a summary including assumptions and formulas used.
Assumptions:
- Prices: $70,000 for the Tesla Model X, $65,500 for the Ford F-150 Lightning (after rebate), $56,000 for the Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid.
- Annual miles driven: 13,500.
- Gas price: $5.73/gallon, Electricity price: $0.27/kWh.
- Toyota MPG: 31.
- EV maintenance costs are 60% of a gas vehicle’s maintenance.
Formulas:
- Annual Fuel/Electricity Cost:
(Miles Driven / Efficiency) * Price per Unit. - Total Cost (5 Years):
Purchase Price + (Operating Costs * 5). - Total Cost (10 Years):
Purchase Price + (Operating Costs * 10).
Results Over 5 Years:
- Tesla Model X: Approx. $77,797.
- Ford F-150 Lightning: Approx. $78,064.
- Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid: Approx. $73,665.
Results Over 10 Years:
- Tesla Model X: Approx. $85,082.
- Ford F-150 Lightning: Approx. $90,628.
- Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid: Approx. $85,141.
Conclusion: The Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid is the most cost-effective over 5 years, while the Tesla Model X becomes more economical over 10 years due to lower operating costs.
The big unknown for me is I’m fairly confident the Toyota will be working well well beyond 10 years. We’re still yet to see how EVs and the batteries hold up over that period of time.
Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Coming back to the title if we feel the electric rates are at all time highs due to inflation then maybe the cost analysis is off however, I would assume gas would follow suit. I guess it depends at what percentage one would fall or increase over the next 10 years.
I don’t believe the first 3 items are mandatory. For example, I am not in California, but I did not upgrade my electric panel, I plugged the EVSE into an existing 240v outlet, and my power company has no idea that I own an electric car. I also pay an additional $100 a year for EV registration over a gas car. Cali is not alone in that extra registration fee. It does seem odd that there are “state incentives” to buy electric vehicles but the state also charges you more.
I have zero oil changes. I can plan to have a full “tank” every morning if I want.
Looking to the future, yeah, electric will increase, but gas will still be more expensive for most of the country.
For my car budget, I am only saving roughly $1000 a year by driving an EV over ICE, but the initial cost of the EV is $5000 - $8000 more for the EV than the ICE equivalent. So, EV only saves money if I own it longer than 5-8 years, for my use case.
This is the answer. You don’t need a smart L2 charger. Dumb L2 is fine.
You gotta pay for roads.
My understanding for the states charging you more to register is to make up for the road tax they are no longer collecting via gasoline sales. I do think this is an imperfect way to do things because it doesn’t take into account the usage of the vehicle in any meaningful way. I could be driving a few thousand miles a year and I’m paying the equivalent of someone driving 10k+. At that rate, why not just do a flat charge for all cars and forget about the taxes built into fuel?
This unfairly burdens people who do not drive often - for example, retirees on a fixed income.
The state of WA did a pilot project on an odometer tax. This seems like a good compromise, although people who drive often in other states would get a raw deal (i.e., paying gasoline taxes in the other state and odometer taxes at home).
Every tax is unfair to someone. I would prefer many different taxes at low rates (if we could trust the government to keep the rates low).
Exactly. It was a bad deal for me during the pandemic when I was working from home and hardly ever driving.
But then again, the federal government gave me $7,500 of my taxes back and the state government waived about $3,000 in sales taxes on my purchase price so I cannot complain.
Don’t forget to factor in accelerated EV depreciation as well, if we are talking dollars in terms of “investment”. The secondary market on these things is nuts, save for first years of anticipated releases during 2022 like the Rivian. Even that has collapsed though.
Well, that is a factor but hard to pin that down for five to eight years in the future. A related factor is increasing insurance costs. As more EVs go through the claims process, insurance companies will sharpen their pencils and jack up rates due to the threshold of a vehicle being totaled being lower due to depreciation. That said, when it comes time to put down money for a car, I prefer the ride of an EV.
The long term outlook is totally swapped though. You really think people will want used gas cars in 5 years, when most of the market has switched to ev, and operating costs of EVs are much lower?
That EV registration fee most states charge at this point (quick google says 32) is basically a road usage fee to make up for the gas tax we’re not paying in an EV. Historically most states pay for their road maintenance from gas tax revenues, and since EVs don’t pay gas taxes they have settled on an annual fee instead.
That is bullshit. And has been for decades. First, the gas tax only goes for Federal and State HIGHWAY maintenance. If it doesn’t have a little shield-type logo on the sign, it is funded out of the local general fund. Second, the gas tax isn’t sufficient for even that limited subset of road maintenance. Third, taxing gas used to be a good proxy for how much the given vehicle was damaging the road. But that proxy is no longer as relevant as fuel economy has increased. Fourth, even taxing gas was still a good proxy, replacing it with a fixed fee is a poor solution. Granny who drives to church every Sunday is being charged the same as Sally Sidehustle who drives a couple hundred miles a day as part of their Uber/Lyft/DoorDash trifecta.
I pay taxes on my electricity and my house. California takes enough of its share of taxes. Trust me.
We also don’t need to do a California smog inspection with an EV, so it may even come out about the same.
In Minnesota, gas taxes, registration taxes/fees, and sales taxes on cars and car parts pay for only about 1/3 of our road maintenance.
The bulk of road usage fees are paid out of the general fund (mostly regular sales tax, income tax, and property tax).
Perhaps there needs to be a new fee on ICE vehicles to bridge this gaping hole?