Fat hurts wrote:
Flagpole wrote:
Yeah, that's an ok graphic, but you still have to lay out the cash intially, and it is STILL not apples to apples.
Apples to apples would be the Kia Soul EV for $35,000 vs. a Kia Soul gas for $16,000. 5 year cost is still lower for the gas car, PLUS you don't have to worry about where you can plug in PLUS you can take it on long trips whereas the Kia Soul EV gets just under a 200 mile range per charge.
Again, I'm all for electric vehicles, AND I like to own cars for 10+ years, so when you do that, the EV is even better on the overall cost scale, BUT AGAIN, there are too many things that keep a person from buying them today.
1) Initial cost (some low-level income earners simply can't qualify for a $35,000+ car loan). Yes they can buy a used EV, but then again, that's not apples to apples.
2) Not everyone can easily plug them in. LOTS of people live in apartments these days, and plug in stations are just not available to all of those people (some, but not the vast majority).
3) Still limited range. Yes, OK for tooling around town, but people want to drive further between charges.
When initial cost is less, when charging is more widely accessible, when range goes up to at least 400 Miles for most of them, and there are more models to choose from, that's when you will see a bigger move to those cars.
You shouldn't buy a new car until you are ready to buy a new car. So I'm with you there. You shouldn't get rid of a perfectly good car just to get an EV. That's bad for the environment too.
Your Kia Soul is not apples to apples. The cheapest Kia Soul gas is MSRP $17,490 and that is a stripped version with manual transmission. The Kia Soul EV does not come stripped. Its MSRP is $33,950. But you get a $7500 tax rebate, so the real price is $26,450. If you add state rebates, the price goes down even more. So the EV version is actually about the same as the comparable gas version. And when you start buying gas and oil changes and repairs you end up with a total cost of ownership that is far better for the Kia Soul EV. (And don't forget, the EV is safer.)
The graphic that "Total Cost of Ownership" showed is actually a much better comparison than what we have both done with the Kia Soul. The reason it is better is because it does show "Total Cost of Ownership", which is really the important factor when considering cost.
Your objections for #2 and #3 are going away fast. When I bought my EV in 2017, there were only three models that went over 200 miles on a charge. Now there are more than 10 with even more coming out for 2020.
(Oh, and you don't want to drive 400 miles on a charge. Do you really want to go 6 or 7 hours without a bathroom break?)
1) Fat Hurts, you are preaching to the choir on the goodness of electric cars. There are reasons (as I have clearly stated) that they are not the majority of purchases yet.
2) You can get a new 2020 Kia Soul for $16,000 and even under -
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=521831041&zip=90034&referrer=%2Fcars-for-sale%2Fsearchresults.xhtml%3Fzip%3D90034%26listingTypes%3DNEW%26sortBy%3Drelevance%26incremental%3Dall%26firstRecord%3D0%26marketExtension%3Don%26modelCodeList%3DSOUL%26makeCodeList%3DKIA%26searchRadius%3D25&listingTypes=NEW&numRecords=25&firstRecord=0&modelCodeList=SOUL&makeCodeList=KIA&searchRadius=25&makeCode1=KIA&modelCode1=SOUL&clickType=listing3) My #2 and #3 objections have to go away more before people start buying them en masse.
4) Do I want to drive 6-7 hours without a bathroom break? Damn straight! I also don't want to have to wait 30 minutes for an 80% charge either.