How much did you save driving your electric car last year?

monster

100 kW
Joined
Jun 17, 2007
Messages
1,410
Hi i saved £1800* (2400$) last year by driving a leaf24 instead of a diesel ford focus.

Is this the highest or can anyone top that?

*My number includes: taxes, fuel, depreciation, electric but not insurance or mainance. I assumed they were the same for both cars.
 
We got a great deal on a new Spark EV two years ago. After subsidies our total cost was $10,600. It looks like similar used Spark EVs are selling for about $9500. So depreciation was perhaps $300 last year assuming most of it happened the first year. We pay $0.025 per mile for electricity. At 8000 miles per year that is $200. So total cost about $500 last year. Six cents per mile ... giggle....

Our other car, a 2013 Honda Fit would have burned 260ish gallons of $3.50 per gallon fuel or $910. Plus $70 for oil and filter changes. So $980 to run it. Depreciation was apparently $1200 due to Fits being about the best for holding value. Total cost $2180 if we actually drove it. Assumed saving $1680.

If we drove a more typical 12000 miles the Honda would have cost $1450 for fuel and oil for a total of $2650 and we would have saved $2150 using the Spark Ev in place of the Honda.

The Honda fit is one of the absolute lowest cost to own and operate available. Our Spark EV crushes it on operating and depreciation costs. On the other hand the Honda has a much better sound system.
 
Was the Honda Fit owned outright or were you still making payments?
Did you sell the Honda Fit, trade it in on the Spark or what?
Do you own the Spark outright, or are you making payments?
Are registration and vehicle license taxes different for the two cars? New cars tend to pay a higher license tax. OTOH, electrics and hybrids might be given a substantial break.

I guess what I'm driving at is that I'm not convinced that just using the vehicle depreciation is a good way to account for the cost of the vehicle and calculate savings. In order to answer the question well, you probably need to be clear about defining what someone means by "save." My inclination would be to add up the actual out of pocket expenses for buying and operating the EV and selling/trading in the ICE - and then compare that to all of the likely out of pocket expenses of keeping and operating the ICE. If you can't point to a net amount of money that you avoided spending, did you really save any money? Note, just because you might not save money short term ( I'm not with my e-bike) does not mean that you won't save in the long run ( I should after about a year and a half).
 
monster said:
Hi i saved £1800* (2400$) last year by driving a leaf24 instead of a diesel ford focus.

Is this the highest or can anyone top that?

Easy! :D Difference in fuel vs. electricity with 30.000 km annually is approx. $3200. Then comes about $320 less in road tax. $500 saved on toll roads. Insurance about $200 less. Service is $650 less. That sums up to about $4870.
On top of that I paid 0% VAT when I bought the car. And no tax for CO2, weight or power. VAT alone would have been $11.660 Other taxes about $12.000

Basis: Fuel prices in Norway NOK 15.50/litre ($8/gallon) 6 l/100km (39,2 mpg) NOK 0.90/kWh (12 cents/kWh)
 
wturber said:
Was the Honda Fit owned outright or were you still making payments?
Did you sell the Honda Fit, trade it in on the Spark or what?
Do you own the Spark outright, or are you making payments?
Are registration and vehicle license taxes different for the two cars? New cars tend to pay a higher license tax. OTOH, electrics and hybrids might be given a substantial break.

I guess what I'm driving at is that I'm not convinced that just using the vehicle depreciation is a good way to account for the cost of the vehicle and calculate savings. In order to answer the question well, you probably need to be clear about defining what someone means by "save." My inclination would be to add up the actual out of pocket expenses for buying and operating the EV and selling/trading in the ICE - and then compare that to all of the likely out of pocket expenses of keeping and operating the ICE. If you can't point to a net amount of money that you avoided spending, did you really save any money? Note, just because you might not save money short term ( I'm not with my e-bike) does not mean that you won't save in the long run ( I should after about a year and a half).

I was answering the question asked by the OP "how much did you save last year?".

To address some of your questions: We leased a 2014 Spark EV before buying the 2016 Spark EV. We had a 1994 Accord (DX, manual) with over 250,000 miles on it that we sold to the Bay Area Air Quality District to be crushed when we got the first Spark. We did the detailed analysis you are asking for then. We determined that our $229 lease on the 2014 Spark all costs included meant it cost only $45 per month more than to continue driving the 20 year old Accord. IFF nothing went wrong with the Accord for three more years. Of course at the end of the lease we would not have a car whereas otherwise we would have a 23 year old Accord. ;)

I'll note that when we bought our 2016 Spark EV they could be also be leased for $90 per month. At that price it would have been a net gain of $140 per month over keeping the Accord. We purchased because we wanted to keep the Spark EV more than three years and they were being discontinued.

We bought the 2013 Fit (Sport, manual) new and paid it off in 36 months. We paid cash for the second Spark EV. The $10,600 quoted above was the full cost net of subsidies. That includes all taxes, fees, registration for a year and includes the $7500 federal tax credit and the $2500 CA cash subsidy. It does not include the $500 we got from GM for installing an EV charger nor the $500 we got from PG&E for being just that awesome, nor the fact that the EVA rate plan saves us a few dollars per month for electricity not used in the electric car. Insurance costs are comparable. Annual registration cost is under $200 for both cars. The Spark EV gets a discount on toll bridge crossings and can use the carpool lane.

We still have both the Fit and the Spark EV, we just don't drive the Fit much unless we both need to drive or we need to go more than 80 miles without a fast charge opportunity. So our five year old Fit has less than 10,000 miles on it. We put about 36,000 miles on the two Spark EVs over that time. Maintenance on the Fit has been filters and oil change three times, wiper blades, and an AC recharge, plus the airbag recalls and one other minor recall. If we drove it more, It would have had more oil and filter changes and tires. We just found out that we may need to replace the tires on the Fit in the next year or two anyway due to age. Apparently tires either wear out or rot. Maintenance on the Spark EVs over the same period has been wiper blades, a pair of front tires, and a free firmware update.

If we drove the Fit more we would also be looking at spark plugs, fuel filters, cam belt, valve adjustment, brake pads, and possibly brake rotors and water pump before 120,000 miles. Certainly over $2000. The Spark EV will never need any of these things.

My main point here is that the Honda Fit is a great little car that is fun to drive and has a strong reputation for low total cost of ownership (https://www.autobytel.com/car-buying-guides/features/10-cars-with-the-lowest-cost-of-ownership-131901/). But the Spark EV given the pricing and subsidies we got (or the price of a newish used one) and the negligible operating costs is much less expensive. When we considered the purchase of the second Spark EV we estimated a ten year total life cycle cost of Spark EV and compared it to the same cycle for the Fit. Since no one knows the resale value of 10 year old Spark EVs I assumed it would be zero. I'm sure it's not really zero, but even with that assumption the projected total cost including everything of the Spark EV is about 1/3 the total cost of the Fit over a ten year life cycle. If we drove more it would be even better.

Another observation is that my wife and I haggle over who gets to drive the Spark EV. Even though the Fit is in many ways a nicer car, the brilliant electric drive train in the Spark EV makes up for all of that. Once you get used to one pedal driving and instant silent thrust it spoils you for gas cars.
 
Our EV savings depends on which other vehicle we might have chosen for each trip where we used the EV, so it is not a fixed value. The EV was driven 6263 miles. So if we had chosen one of our other vehicles for those trips the additional cost would have been:

Prius V: $288.72
4Runner: $1134.86
Avalanche: $2479.52

Clearly the EV cannot make some of the trips the other vehicles are used for. It is smaller, has less range, and cannot tow or drive off-road. It is a different tool in our fleet. But the low operating costs and lack of time wasted at the gas station make it the perfect tool for many local trips. Using the EV also has other benefits such as reducing the miles racked up on the other vehicles. If we didn't have the EV many of those miles would go on the Prius, so having the EV extends the life of the Prius, and we would like it to last a long time.

Vehicle Operation Differential Variable Cost Analysis
2013 Leaf 4.1 miles/kwh; $0.12753 per kwh; maintenance 0; $0.0311 per mile aggregate
2013 Prius V 43 mpg; $3.32.gal; maintenance 0; $0.0772/mi aggregate ($0.0461/mile more than EV)
1998 4Runner 17 mpg; fuel $0.1953/mi; maintenance 0.017/mi; $0.2123/mi aggregate ($0.1812/mi more than EV)
2004 Avalanche 2500 12mpg; 0.277/mi; maintenance 0.15/mi; $0.427/mi aggregate ($0.3959/mi more than EV)

(tires, insurance and depreciation not included)
 
Alan B said:
2013 Leaf 4.1 miles/kwh; $0.12753 per kwh; maintenance 0; $0.0311 per mile aggregate

Spark EV is rated at 4.4 miles/kwh, but we usually do better except on cold days. This summer we have been averaging 4.7 miles/kwh.
 
-dg said:
<snip>
Another observation is that my wife and I haggle over who gets to drive the Spark EV. Even though the Fit is in many ways a nicer car, the brilliant electric drive train in the Spark EV makes up for all of that. Once you get used to one pedal driving and instant silent thrust it spoils you for gas cars.

Wow. Thanks for all the details. Much appreciated. I'll have to take some time and go over all the detail more carefully. But the upshot for me was that if you could purchase the Spark all in for less than $11,000, then that is a great long term value - especially since I see the starting list price of a Spark was around $26,000.
 
Alan B said:
3 year old high-end Leaf was 9700 (from 37K), and the DMV and insurance is much lower than a new vehicle. Lots of ways to save $ on EVs.

More difficult for me since:
1) I'm already frugal on car expenditures (no new cars, no payments, etc.)
2) I've already reduced the one place I can really save (gas expenditures) by commuting about 80% of the time via e-bike.

I'm having a hard time making the case for replacing the remaining 20% with an electric car. But I accept that my situation is atypical.
 
I had a similar situation. Then I retired and my trips changed dramatically. Most trips now include two people, or involve things that are not easily carried on the ebike, or are 20 miles each way and involve freeways (tennis classes, practices, and matches). So it was either up the mileage a lot on our ICE vehicles, or get a new tool.

Since the Leaf, and the use-case shift, the ebikes sit a lot. Driving the Leaf on the freeway, in the dark, in the rain, etc is a better solution.

For a while I was recalled to do some work. I commuted with the Leaf. It was very nice. The ebike wasn't quite as good since I had lost my base of operations at work where I had safe storage and charging. As a temporary worker I didn't have such a good setup for the ebike.

Occasionally I could use greater range than the Leaf offers. But a new EV is a bit more than I want to spend, and it is getting time to get a new diesel tow vehicle, so the Leaf may have to suffice for awhile.
 
I used to have a 55mpg diesel. If anyone here swapped a 30mpg fossil burner for their EV then they would win i think. I do 20k miles too tho.
 
I have a 2012 Mitsubishi i-miev that I bought used for about $9K back in July 2015. I don't really have anything to measure total electric consumption but I can list some generalities here.

I use this car for mostly commuting to work for 32 miles round trip Monday through Friday plus I drive it on weekends and evenings for in town errands.

My electric bill is between $20 to $30 higher every month from recharging the car.

And my previous commuter car, a 2007 prius which we still have, was costing me $30 in gas every Friday on the way home from work. This was just before gas prices plunged in 2016 due to all the fracking that was going on although prices have returned to those levels recently.

Total annual miles are 11k for the i-miev but 17k for the Prius back then.

So, fuel wise if I take the worst case with the i-miev and calculate $30 per month the annual cost is $360 or about 3.2 cents per mile whereas, the Prius annual cost was $1560 or about 9 cents per mile.

The only other difference is maintenance. The i-miev has only costed me a set of tires whereas, the Prius has used a lot of oil changes and a few smog checks plus some tires.
 
Alan B said:
4.7 is very good, I think the Leaf is a bit larger, and the hills and freeways here drive it lower. I do better on surface streets, but 4.1 is overall. On the freeway when the traffic gets thick and speeds go down the efficiency goes up. :)

I agree freeways are range killers. But, if you limit your speed and do a little light drafting and don't hit headwinds you can do pretty well. I just drove our Spark EV from East Oakland to Gurneville and back, 178 miles round trip mainly on 580 and 101 and averaged 5.1 miles per kwh. Setting the cruise control for 65 helped a lot as did hitting some traffic to lower the average speed.

On the way the fast charge location I used on the way up was closed. There were alternate locations but I like a little adventure. S[ark EV is rated for 83 miles range new, ours is two years old. I drove the whole 86 highway miles without stopping. Car reports using 98% capacity for propulsion and 1% for climate control. The last 3 miles were a bit tense as the range estimate went to 0 and then stopped showing numbers at all.
 
5.1 mile per Kw is really good for a car with a 0.326 coefficient of drag. Just for comparison the older Leafs are 0.28 but my i-miev is 0.35 which is terrible. It's shaped like a tiny minivan but still has the same drag as some SUVs and trucks. :shock:

Since i-mievs don't come with any real way to measure consumption I'm thinking about installing a Cycle Analyst. The one that works on electric motorcycles. I wonder how hard that would be. :?:
 
edcastrovalley said:
my i-miev is 0.35 which is terrible. It's shaped like a tiny minivan but still has the same drag as some SUVs and trucks. :shock:

Cd is how draggy a shape it is compared to it's frontal area and is independent of size. So your imev at 0.35 is not so great in a relative sense, but it will still have a lot less drag than a bigger vehicle with the same Cd.

CdA (drag area) tells you how large something is and how draggy the shape is and is better for comparing different vehicles :)
 
edcastrovalley said:
5.1 mile per Kw is really good for a car with a 0.326 coefficient of drag. Just for comparison the older Leafs are 0.28 but my i-miev is 0.35 which is terrible. It's shaped like a tiny minivan but still has the same drag as some SUVs and trucks. :shock:

Since i-mievs don't come with any real way to measure consumption I'm thinking about installing a Cycle Analyst. The one that works on electric motorcycles. I wonder how hard that would be. :?:

It helps that the Spark EV is a small narrow car so the frontal area is not large. It also helped that the wind, temperature, and traffic all cooperated. We sometimes see 5.1 around town, but it was pretty exciting to see it hour after hour on the highway.

The cycle analyst idea in the i-miev is an interesting idea, and not technically complex, basically you would need to add a shunt or locate the existing shunt and then calibrate the CA-3 to match. But, you would be dealing with high voltage DC which really requires understanding it and the correct practices and precautions. I would be very afraid of this as I know enough to understand that it is wickedly lethal, but not enough to be confident about working safely and producing a safe result. The CA-3 is a nice device, but I don't know that it is designed for 400 volts. I'd need to be sure of that before trying it, or to know that it would never see 400V.
 
Punx0r said:
Cd is how draggy a shape it is compared to it's frontal area and is independent of size. So your imev at 0.35 is not so great in a relative sense, but it will still have a lot less drag than a bigger vehicle with the same Cd.

CdA (drag area) tells you how large something is and how draggy the shape is and is better for comparing different vehicles :)
Ahhh, good to know!
 
-dg said:
The cycle analyst idea in the i-miev is an interesting idea, and not technically complex, basically you would need to add a shunt or locate the existing shunt and then calibrate the CA-3 to match. But, you would be dealing with high voltage DC which really requires understanding it and the correct practices and precautions. I would be very afraid of this as I know enough to understand that it is wickedly lethal, but not enough to be confident about working safely and producing a safe result. The CA-3 is a nice device, but I don't know that it is designed for 400 volts. I'd need to be sure of that before trying it, or to know that it would never see 400V.
That's a good point. The CA might not be built for that kind of voltage. Plus, I don't know if I'd want to work around that kind of live voltage. Maybe if I work on the other side of a contactor but then the CA might not record charging data. The car has been trouble free enough anyway. My biggest worry is that it gets plugged in. :lol:
 
Not a pure electric, but almost, sort of. I mostly drive my 2013 PluginPrius whenever possible, I always have the rear seat folded down, usually the front passenger seat out also! When I do carry a passenger they sit in back, with plenty of legroom due to the missing front seat, like a limo. It can carry a surprising amount of cargo, and I do all the time, average round trip into town and around is about 30 miles, with a 1200' descent (going) and an equeal climb coming back. My place of business is 13 miles from home, and I easily make that in the pure e mode, except for the usual brief ICE warm up time, which is in case you need ALL the power right now, the ICE shuts off again once it's warm. I average up to 900 miles per gallon on the drive down into town, if I stay on the 45 MPH route, if I hop one I-15 for 8 miles, and go 75, about 2 or 300 mpg.

Coming back, about 60 mpg, as the battery is empty and I'm climbing the mountain. I recharge at home off my grid tied solar, and I still have a large excess credit every year. I also have grid tied solar at my place in town, but don't charge the car there as I need the power to build up as a credit during the winter so I can once again heat my building for free (radiant floor heat and electric boiler).

I live in cowboy country, where if you ain't driving a pickup you get looked at weird. My white Prius gets me called out when I pull it into the local watering hole and park among the quad cabs and flatbeds. So I point out I saved enough money on that day's trip into town to pay for the first beer, and the second (round numbers, draft Bud) this is something they can relate to. Every now and then, if I am doing some heavy hauling in my 1 ton flatbed, (15 mpg, it stays parked mostly, I sure as hell don't use it to haul my skinny ass into town) I'll stop by in that, just to show them I'm not a girly man. Once I parked my 54,000 lb crane truck in front, that shut them up for a while. I tell people, after a long day operating, and worse, driving Miss Piggy through town, all 10 speeds and Jake braked, air horns and all, getting maybe 3 mpg, I like to jump into the Prius and take a break. I don't crunch the #'s too hard, but I bought it used, it is a joy to drive, has a great sound system, and saves me at least 5 bucks every trip into town. I also drive, when I need to only, an older RAV4, which I call the Gas Hog, as it only gets 28 mpg. A 100% EV is in my future, but right now the Prius, being also good for long road trips (64 mpg is about my average tank full on a trip) is a decent compromise. I NEED an EV to use up more of my excess stored PV energy, seriously.
 
edcastrovalley said:
That's a good point. The CA might not be built for that kind of voltage. Plus, I don't know if I'd want to work around that kind of live voltage.
Another alternative is to see if you can read the CAN bus and find the data you want there. Since that is a fairly rare car it may be hard to find the information to decode it though.
 
craneplaneguy said:
Not a pure electric, but almost, sort of. I mostly drive my 2013 PluginPrius whenever possible, I always have the rear seat folded down, usually the front passenger seat out also! When I do carry a passenger they sit in back, with plenty of legroom due to the missing front seat, like a limo. It can carry a surprising amount of cargo, and I do all the time, average round trip into town and around is about 30 miles, with a 1200' descent (going) and an equeal climb coming back. My place of business is 13 miles from home, and I easily make that in the pure e mode, except for the usual brief ICE warm up time, which is in case you need ALL the power right now, the ICE shuts off again once it's warm. I average up to 900 miles per gallon on the drive down into town, if I stay on the 45 MPH route, if I hop one I-15 for 8 miles, and go 75, about 2 or 300 mpg.

Coming back, about 60 mpg, as the battery is empty and I'm climbing the mountain. I recharge at home off my grid tied solar, and I still have a large excess credit every year. I also have grid tied solar at my place in town, but don't charge the car there as I need the power to build up as a credit during the winter so I can once again heat my building for free (radiant floor heat and electric boiler).

I live in cowboy country, where if you ain't driving a pickup you get looked at weird. My white Prius gets me called out when I pull it into the local watering hole and park among the quad cabs and flatbeds. So I point out I saved enough money on that day's trip into town to pay for the first beer, and the second (round numbers, draft Bud) this is something they can relate to. Every now and then, if I am doing some heavy hauling in my 1 ton flatbed, (15 mpg, it stays parked mostly, I sure as hell don't use it to haul my skinny ass into town) I'll stop by in that, just to show them I'm not a girly man. Once I parked my 54,000 lb crane truck in front, that shut them up for a while. I tell people, after a long day operating, and worse, driving Miss Piggy through town, all 10 speeds and Jake braked, air horns and all, getting maybe 3 mpg, I like to jump into the Prius and take a break. I don't crunch the #'s too hard, but I bought it used, it is a joy to drive, has a great sound system, and saves me at least 5 bucks every trip into town. I also drive, when I need to only, an older RAV4, which I call the Gas Hog, as it only gets 28 mpg. A 100% EV is in my future, but right now the Prius, being also good for long road trips (64 mpg is about my average tank full on a trip) is a decent compromise. I NEED an EV to use up more of my excess stored PV energy, seriously.
My sister has the same car as your's and she loves it.

What happened is about 5 years ago my two sisters and I needed to go to my grandmother's funeral in Portland, Oregon. Having a 2007 Prius, I volunteered to drive and we left the SF Bay Area (with a full tank) and decided to stop somewhere in central Oregon mountains for a restroom break. I didn't really need to top off but did anyway for a total of $6. Once back on the road my sisters each tried to give me twenty dollar bills which I couldn't accept. I just kept laughing as they were trying to stuff twenties in my pockets which, of course, I refused. Later in the trip, one of them with a serious look on her face asked how much the fuel was. They both had a shocked look when I finally confessed. So much for me acting like a big spender.

So because of this, one of my sisters goes and buys a silver Plugin Prius. At first she was using it mostly for dropping her daughter off at a private school on all electric. And then, that spring, they have a big field trip to where else but, the central mountains of Oregon. A few parents volunteered to drive and were reimbursed by some of the other parents. The deal was to turn in gas receipts to the school after returning to from the trip. The Suburban and minivans turned in receipts for around $300 each. My sister's was $35. She didn't even bother to turn it in. Granted, she carried fewer students but, the cost per student was still much lower.
 
Yesterday I had to run into town to Lowes to get 4 16' long 2x4's, 32 miles round trip, mostly interstate at 70 mph. Rather then take the 1 ton Chevy with it's lumber rack, I (as usual) figured the Prius could do the job. Using a lightweight single axle trailer I built some years ago, (no roof rack on the Prius, way too draggy) I made the drive and once back home according to the ScanGauge used .73 of a gallon of gas. When I was merging back onto the freeway, I had some guy in a big jacked up pickup behind me, right on my ass, no doubt thinking "this dweeb in a Prius must not have a pickup truck to be using it get lumber, and is going to be slow as hell." Wrong..... I stomped on it and had no problem quickly reaching the legal limit, I like to counter the Prius rep of being slow and in the way every time I can, even if I take a slight mileage hit! Oddly enough, it's the 1 ton I drive like a little old lady, in a vain attempt to get better then 15 mpg, the Prius I hotrod a bit from time to time. I'm sure driving a pure EV would be similar fun.
 
Back
Top