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:
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Costs relatively more to insure
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Registration cost every year is higher
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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).
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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.
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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!!!
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.