Making Electric Cars Cheaper Than Gas Cars
A U.C. Berkeley study found that Americans want something like their cell phone plan for electric cars. If they don’t have to worry about their batteries, then most Americans would prefer electric cars.
If the customer is always right, then more of the automakers planning electric cars should be looking at battery leasing; with battery swaps available for long-distance travel. Customers would own the car, but pay a per-mile charge to lease the battery.
Here’s how this would make EVs cheaper than gasoline cars:
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Electric cars would be cheaper than gas cars
The study proposes that if battery prices are excluded from the upfront cost of the car, (the way ongoing fueling costs now are excluded from the upfront cost of a gasoline car), and with the $7,500 electric vehicle credit, EVs would have lower upfront cost than gas cars.
The monthly cost to rent the battery and pay for charging it could be 13 cents lower per mile than gas cars per mile. Consumers will buy and own their car and subscribe to energy, including the use of the battery, which would be charged by the mile driven.
Winners and losers
To build the infrastructure for battery charging and swapping systems over the next few decades, would cost $320 billion, the study found. (Or to put that another way - there’s $320 billion to be made in building this new infrastructure, bringing $320 billion into the economy. )
Savings to the economy would amount to health-related savings of $205 billion, as less vehicle pollution reduces the incidence of asthma and other respiratory diseases. (Or put another way; health related industry profits would fall as fewer people buy inhalers and so on.) So, there are winners and losers.
Vehicle-related emissions would be reduced 62 percent (from 2005 levels), provided electric vehicles are powered by clean sources of electricity, the study found. Current oil imports of 3.7 million barrels a day from the Middle East and Venezuela would be eliminated.
Price is an important factor. In the long run electric cars will save the driver much more money but most people look at the up front benefits first.
People say we should be happy that electric cars are competitive with ICE driven cars and buy them. Let the manufacturers recoup their upfront costs quickly and make the investors happy.
I will buy one when I get the benefit.
Various points to consider:
Electric cars should be far more simple that ICE types. Consequently cheaper
The electronics for variable speed drives are nothing new as industry has used them extensively for years.
The replacement for the petrol stations (meaning charging points and power generation) can be done.
Fuel or energy source for the new power plants required to support electric cars - imported or local gas/oil/coal/solar - what will it be?
Building up the electric grids to handle the additional load (replacing petrol stations) is a big deal - otherwise your neighbors may well bring down the neighborhood transformer/distribution.
Quick charging means massive delivery over a short time when done for many cars - the delivery system has to be ready.
At a local green technology expo, I asked asked a dealer if a particular EV had a battery that was easy to replace or swap out. He instantly went into attack mode, proclaiming how you’d never need to touch the battery “for the life of the car”. So I guess that means that when the battery dies, the car has ended its life.
What ever the design, the newer cars must be able to do the things we take for granted:
What about hills??? how does this factor into the equation.
Snow, this will drag the car down and less mileage.
Heaters in the winter, AC in the summer.
can this cars pass other vehicles???
Entering into traffic, sluggish moving ??? put that into the equation ???
These questions haven’t appeared, much less been answered, I know this is a new frontier, but you can’t go into a dark room and not stub your toe.
Thank You.
The biggest problems are always the same. Electricity generation overall causes more pollution than cars. So far, little has been really done to address this. Solar and wind will only replace the extra electricity needed. If the Obama statement about ‘clean coal’ is any indication, the status quo will be preserved, leaving most of our energy coming from one of the least efficient and dirtiest sources. These issues are either ignored or confused, like the deliberate confusing of ‘energy’ and oil. Oil is NOT an energy cost, oil is TRANSPORTATION cost, unless you actually have fuel oil heat.
Randy@ “can this cars pass other vehicles???
Entering into traffic, sluggish moving ???”
Electric cars actually have more torque than gas cars, so passing cars, going up hills and getting through snow won’t drag them down - look at this video for example:
http://gas2.org/2009/01/05/electric-car-plows-4-feet-of-snow/
You are thinking of NEVs, those speed-limited golf carty EVs…
Susan, The big fallacy in your argument is that all we have to do to stop importing oil from enemies is to open the production of oil from our own reserves, which are now the largest in the world. We could be producing gasoline to retail for less than 75 cents per gallon and putting many people to work. The myth of global warming is now being attacked by approximately 30,000 scientists, over 9000 of whom have PhDs in the weather sciences. They are debunking the Al Gore cabal which seems to only allow agreement. It is only when none of the costs of the electric vehicles are covered with taxpayer funds that they can be considered to have equal costs. The inclusions of government rebates to buy and use these vehicles only shows that they are not competitive in real terms. Then too we have the reality that most of the internal combustion engines used for current vehicles are less polluting that the large electric producers. Of course this could change if we could get over our unreasonable fear of nuclear energy power. The problem here is the fascist government that is trying to force us into its preferred way which is based on false or no science.
A number of years back, I saw a reference to a bus company that used swappable battery packs. I think it was in LA, but can’t find any reference on the intertubes…
Seems like a concept that’s come around again. Can it be done affordably, though? That’s the question…
“Can it be done affordably, though? That’s the question…”
Yeah, affordability versus speed to market. It seems that most EVs will not use swappable batteries: iMiEV, Volt, etc but it is what’s slowing them - worrying about warranties etc
Swapping the entire vehicle sounds easier?