I am a California resident.

I am going into analysis paralysis and it’s making me crazy when I sit down to decide if I should go with an ICE car or an EV. HELPPPPPP!!!

Sure ICE vehicles cost more in fuel and maintenance, but EVs have some other costs as well:

  • Costs relatively more to insure

  • Registration cost every year is higher

  • Opportunity cost: a $40k EV is generally compared to a $30k ICE car in terms of break even in 5-6 years. But people rarely mention the opportunity cost of spending the extra $10000. That $10k can make you around $1k each year if invested (subject to market risk ofcourse).

  • Supercharging is still not cheap: while still being 50% cheaper than gas, its not cheap. I see 50c/kwh near my area. And not everyone has a home to charge.

  • Rate of depreciation: All cars depreciate. But some loose value faster than others. My personal feeling is EVs depreciate faster than ICE. Simply because the tech is growing so fast. The argument for ICE is that there will be less demand for ICE in future due to increasing EV market share. So, little conflicted on the right answer here

I don’t know if am the only one who is unable to see the savings in EV (long term). Am I missing something?? Can eV owners share their perspective?? HELP ME come out of this shit and just book a carrr!!!

  • flyfreeflylow@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Mine cost less to insure than the car it replaced. Car insurance varies a lot though. If you only checked on insurance for one type of EV, such as a Tesla, check others as well.

    Registration is more, but not enough to amount to much.

    Opportunity cost: Don’t buy a new car until you’re ready to replace your current car, whether it’s an EV or not. Set a budget before you’ve selected a type of car and stick to your budget. Now you’ve removed the opportunity cost. Or lease.

    Supercharging will never be cheap. For me charging at home IS cheap, and what I do all 95% of the time. How well the economics of that work out is highly dependent on where one lives.

    Depreciation: If this really concerns you, then either lease or keep your cars longer. All cars are depreciating assets.

    Am I missing something??

    Lower maintenance costs. No oil changes, no transmission fluid changes (in most). This basically makes up for the higher registration.

    I can go 3x as far on $1 worth of electric than I can $1 worth of gas.