You’d need to look at the costs on a case by case basis.

For me, no, an EV would not save money but my use case doesn’t fit very closely to the average car owner. I don’t drive all that many miles in a year, live in a cheap gasoline area and my current vehicle is averaging 43.7 mpg over its life.

By the time I add up the cost of trading/selling my current vehicle for an EV, plus the substantial insurance increase, plus the loss of income from selling my excess power back the electric company through net metering it’s a money losing proposition. And this isn’t even looking at depreciation, increased tire costs or registration fees.

But if you drive the average distance people drive, live in a higher gasoline price area and can charge at home most of the time

Assuming a rate of return on the market of 10% is a little ambitious. You’re more likely to be around 5%. Also the depreciation piece being a matter of your opinion is gonna throw off any calculations you’d make. Supercharging also won’t be your sole method to charge as more and more chargers are popping up everywhere. There are a lot of different variables at play here but I think my main question for you is, do you want an EV? This post almost seems like you’re trying to talk yourself out of it. This is your car, and if you have the means to choose you should get something that you’d like and be comfortable in as opposed to what’s the best investment.

I was paying about $200 per month for gas. Now I pay about $60 for electricity for the same miles. Insurance is higher, but I’m still ahead by $100+ per month. With all the government incentives my EV6 price was comparable to an ICE with the same features.

I didn’t buy a new EV to save money overall, but it is less expensive over 5 years than buying a comparable new ICE.

40k vs 30k? Isn’t it at least 50 vs 30?

Many people say insurance is about the same as their last ICE, that how ours is not much difference than anything else. You have to get a quote on your own policy to know the actually cost anything else is just random guessing.

Registration can be more depending on the state but it’s often in place of gas taxes to make it fair for other drivers. If not EVs would be driving on the roads without paying their fair share of gas tax.

Charging at home is always cheapest, when your paying to fast charge on a public charger that company has to make money on charging and equipment.

If you feel EVs deprecate so much faster then of course buy a used one, let someone else take the loss.

We have driven about 23k miles this year, we would have spent over $4500 in gas in 11 months. According to the power bill our EV charging usually accounts for $70-80 of energy use for 2 months.

Do they save money? Probably depends on how much you drive and where you charge.

If the cost is your only criteria for a car, buying a new car of any type is probably not the way to go.

There are benefits beyond just cost when it comes to EVs, they’re nice to drive with instant acceleration, they don’t vibrate or make noise like ICE cars, if you have home charging it’s very convenient to charge at home and you don’t have to remember to leave home early to fill the car.

Supercharging is the exception but the norm. You should be using your home charging at the lowest TOU rates. Even in CA it’s about mid 20 cents per kWh not 50. In some other states it’s sometimes under 5 cents.

Supercharging should only be there just to accommodate road trips. Yes this doesn’t work if you live in apartment buildings or other places where access to home charging is limited. This is why EVs aren’t recommended unless you can set up charging in your garage.

And not everyone has a home to charge.

Concerning whether an EV is practical for you or not in your purchase decision, it doesn’t matter whether everyone has a home to charge or not, it only matters if you can setup a charger at home or not.

In some situations, you do not even have to purchase a charger, a few automakers will provide one for you if you purchase their EV or depending on who your electric utility is or where you live, you can get rebates from your electric utility or state for setting up a home charger.

OP you are the only one not seeing the long term savings. Sadly you are missing out. Something else you’re missing out on is there is free charging. And that if you have an EV you get a lower rate on your electric bill. I”m saving over $700 per year. Being a California resident you could have gotten a $15,000 in cash rebates and tax credits for buying a new EV like I did. Sadly your waiting means you just missed out on a $!,500 from the government. If you keep waiting you will lose out on thousands more.

Look around and buy what you want and can afford. I’m in ohio and an ev saved me a significant amount of money. I had a city car and loved it, bmw i3. I now have a bigger less efficient ev, etron,and it will save me less money over my last ev, but still much less than an equivalent ice.

My insurance costs are similar to ice, but I do pay the extra registration fee. It’s probably a larger fee than the equivalent gas taxes.

In California it sounds like EVs are not as obvious of a choice as electricity can be expensive. If you don’t have a place to charge and you drive a lot, the a hybrid or phev can save almost as much as an ev.

I mean you need to provide more details on where you live, your annual mileage, the price of fuel v electricity there, the vehicles you are comparing, home charging situation etc.

I ran the numbers on Corolla hybrid vs a Bolt in Ontario,where the difference between gas and electricity prices are steeper than most of the USA.

Through fuel/oil change savings, the Bolt paid for itself in 8 years x 15k km. I estimated that less break changes on the EV where roughly equivalent to less tire wear and cheaper insurance on the Corolla.

However to protect against depreciation I want to lease the Bolt, which makes the payoff closer to 10 years.

Then I’d also have to pay for a charger install at my rental. And my 550km road trips 3-5x annually would be difficult with my family in the Canadian winter. And any major repairs would be more expensive in the Bolt. And Corolla is better equipped. And then factor in the opportunity cost of paying more upfront for the Bolt. And boy is 500 mi of all-weather range nice (570 in the summer). That’s one 5 min pit stop every three weeks or so.

So in short, buying an EV for my use case would not be cheaper, and would be pretty inconvenient in comparison to a Corolla. If I drove 25k+ km a year I might reconsider. What’s your situation?

The EV math works much better if you mostly charge at home and have solar panels covering your electricity use. My “fuel” cost for my Bolt is essentially zero.

Others have mentioned new/used as a big factor. The problem there is that if you shop for a 3-4 year old EV, you are limited to the models that were being made 3-4 years ago, and the technology they had. It’s going to take time for manufacturers to build out their offerings and for game-changing technologies like vehicle-to-grid two-way charging to become standard. Then add 3-4 years for all of that to become available in used EVs.

Based on your “personal feelings” and your ability to make 10% on your investments I have to agree that you should never ever buy an electric car.

Depends.

A Bolt is probably one of the cheapest vehicles to own.

I personally have a Rivian truck because I have to have a truck. I need 4x4 and to be able to tow well. After tax rebate, I paid about 67k. Looking up a similarly equipped Tundra, it’s a hair over $60k and based on MPG, by 100000 miles i’ll have paid $15000 in fuel. So that’s $75k total and I didn’t even pick a premium trim.

So yes, it is possible EVs can save you some money - but at worst they are within the same cost. I care about clean air tho so at that point its a choice. I don’t feel very guilty driving an 800 hp 4x4 super truck when I’m charging it off my solar. I would feel a little guilty driving a 20 mpg 4x4 truck everywhere and the fuel costs would kill the fun anyway.

It’s way cheaper for me. My EV is a commuter.

EV $65 a month to charge at home. Ice $300-400 a month just for gas.

Insurance went down $100 a month for EV over ice commuter

Registration is more because it’s 7 years newer.

Time wasted at gas stations a week for ice was over 2 hours of I went to Costco.

Soon charging will be free once my solar gets turned on.