Think Electric Cars are Expensive? Try Ford’s F-250 Full-Sized Truck
Think paying $100,000 for an electric car is obscene? How about $100K for an F-250?
As much was we covet electric cars like the Tesla Roadster, most of us balk at the $100,000 sticker price. But with gas prices at or above $4 / gallon, the cost difference isn’t as dramatic as you might imagine.
The NYTimes reported last week that if you account for total ownership of a full-sized truck, including insurance, interest, repairs, taxes, and gasoline, a big vehicle like Ford’s F-250 will now set you back $100,000 in the first five years of ownership. Five years is the average amount of time an owner keeps one of these trucks.
Obviously, the average person and automakers alike are noticing how expensive large vehicles have become (GM just announced it would stop making trucks and SUVs at four of its North American plants). Until May, full-sized trucks accounted for 13% of the US vehicle market. They’ve now now plummeted to 9%. Ford’s F-series trucks have been the best selling vehicle annually since 1976, but for the first time in years the top selling vehicle last month was a car: the Honda Civic sedan.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great renewable energy replacement for heavy duty trucks yet, besides incorporating hybrid technology (like GM has done) which can boost fuel economy by 20%, or modifying the fuel system to accept high ethanol blends (50% of GM’s fleet will be Flex-Fuel by 2012).
One thing has been made abundantly clear: the threshold for buying a full-size truck has gone up a few notches. I was shocked earlier this month when my mechanic said he would be downsizing to a Toyota Tacoma for his daily commute. Will he keep the full-sized truck? Of course, he says, because well, he still has a boat and horse trailer to haul around.
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- An Electric Car With Muscle: The 175 MPGe X1 Prototype by Wrightspeed Inc.
- Low Impact Living: Think Hybrid Cars are Too Expensive?
- Goodbye Trucks and SUVs; Hello Gas Saving… Geo Metro?
Sources:
New York Times-
Big Vehicles Stagger Under the Weight of $4 Gas
Detroit Automakers Compete for a Vanishing Truck Market
Photo Credit: Ford
Yes, the cost would work out to be similar. Yet the article ignores the reality that many large truck owners earn a living from their beast of burden. Thus the cost is not so easily compared. Can electric car ownwers make money (directly) using their cars? Many segments of society, including electric car owners, benefit from this hauling capacity, wasteful as it may appear.
I guess my bias comes from living in an area where 99% of F-250s and F-350s are driven around as status symbols and don’t have time to get even the slightest bit dirty between car washes. There’s nothing I appreciate more than seeing one of these vehicles actually hauling something, and although I know people who do haul for a living, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one on the road hauling anything besides a boat or horse trailer.
The problem with battery only electric cars goes beyond initial costs - they simply cannot perform the duties of a modern ptrivate transportation vehicle.
They are not viable cars, no matter how cheap they are. And they certainly are not viable trucks. Comparing apples and oranges is a logical error,
and is not the basis for a valid argument. Nor do electric cars and gas powered vehicles have similar costs structures - electric cars require the replacement of very expensive battery packs long before the car is worn out. These packs usually cost more than an entire gas powered car. It’s obvious that you simply are ignorant of the cost structures of various technologies are aren’t even remotely qualified to give public opinions about the subject.
That’s a nice way of saying that you don’t know what you’re talking about and should shut up before you make an even greater fool of yourself.
@Thomas Gray: I don’t think a hyperbole is a logical error. The point I’m trying to make here is that most people cringe at the price of electric vehicles (even ones that are more modest than the Tesla, like $20-50K) while already paying extremely large sums for their automobiles. Since, like I said, most people only haul their asses around with these trucks, it seems like a reasonable comparison to me.
A truck like this can pull a trailer, do farm work, sustain a local economy with goods and services, deliver food to market, and when in need to pull the high school float on parade day, you’re there.
It’s typical of a site like this that is very singly focused on an agenda to maintain narrow focus. Actually, let’s talk about what an electric car cannot do for a change. Hey, I’m all for biofuels and alternative energy. But energy is needed to sustain an economy. Oh jeez, forgot to mention that battery production for deep-cycle batteries take a lot of energy and resources to produce, not to mention emissions during production… and cost to the retailer. Then try charging the batteries with “green” energy. Good luck considering the majority of power plants still use coal. Keep trying guys.
totally worth it.
I see a lot of construction and pipeline work being done up here in Alaska. Big trucks are popular, people like to be able to haul things around and get stuff done.
I would say that 60 - 75 % of all families own at least one big truck. The problem is that they only use them a few times a year for real work.
My family needed a truck to build our house. We ended up spending 1500 bones to get a 1978 Chevy Silverado. It had plenty torque and carrying capacity to get all our work done. We drove it a few times every summer and parked it where it couldn’t be seen for the rest of the year.
When we finished our work we passed the truck on for 1100. We saved money, Gas, and just felt better about ourselves by saving an old car from a junk yard.
There are hundreds of used trucks just sitting around in Alaska alone… They deserve a better life. New trucks suck.
If people like Clayton would pull their heads from their tightly clinched rear they might understand the situation a little bit better. He goes on about it bothering him SO MUCH that these people are SO worried about how they look and they drive their trucks as “status symbols”. What a hypocritical thing to say. You bash them for being self centered as you go along being a judgmental prick. Do you stalk these truck drivers? How do you know whether they use it to haul or not? Or how often they do? Is it any of your business? Because you saw it driving around one time without a load does that mean they NEVER pull anything? If I have a boat to haul do I need to keep it firmly attached 24/7 as to not offend anyone around me? Or maybe I should get a bumper sticker that states my reasons for owning a truck.. I wouldn’t want anyone to be worried I might not actually need it.
This article is also pretty worthless without giving something to compare the 100k every 5 years to. Yeah 100k is expensive but expensive is a relative term. Expensive compared to what? Give us some numbers from other vehicles so the 100k can actually have some meaning.
And a site dedicated to smarter alternatives shouldn’t be praising GM’s biofuel effort. Ethanol is a fallacy and doesn’t actually provide any real beneficial increase in net energy production. It just shifts the numbers around. If it wasn’t subsidized by tax dollars from the same people it’s supposed to be saving money for, it’s higher cost to produce would have killed it in it’s development stages.
Next time do some research and don’t just regurgitate the press release.
The numbers for all the items listed are bogus.
Gas(70,000 miles at $4 calculated at 18mpg - 14) 15,555 - 2000
Oil changes every 3,000 at $35 — $817
4,000 at most for insurance
The total cost even adding in other expenses is going to be less than $60,000 but an electric car at $100,000 is also going to incur some expenses.
Electricity
Maintenance (grease, tuning, tires, etc)
Insurance
I’m all for electric cars, heck if the volt comes in at around the advertised price I’m planning on buying one. That’s still not a good excuse to inflate numbers to promote something that’s just untrue.
Wow, the Tesla comes with free insurance, interest, repairs, taxes, and electrical power? I didn’t realize that, thanks for comparing them on equal footing.
The Tesla is a fine concept and a great toy. But, a work vehicle it is not. People buy big trucks like F-250s if they need the hauling capacity, towing capacity, off-road use, etc.
Comparing these two vehicles makes any point you had get lost. But, what was your point anyway? That $100K is not too much to pay for a car? Thanks for that.