A simple analysis goes a long way...

www.phoenixmotorcars.com
100mph
150 mile range
10 minute recharge
Extremely long battery life (the batteries will still be alive when the car becomes junk)

$44,000 for an all electric SUV
Lets say a typical SUV costs $30,000
=$14,000 extra to own an all electric vehicle.

The average American drives 12,000 miles per year.
Say you own the car for 8 years.
Say the average gas SUV gets 20mpg.

You will burn 4800 gallons of gas over 8 years.
At $4/gallon, that is = $19,200 in gas.
YOU ARE CRAZY if you think gas will be $4/gallon over the next 8 years.
More realistic numbers are $5 (low) - $7 per gallon.
At $5/gallon, you will spend $24,000 on gas.
At $7/gallon, you will spend $33,600 on gas.

How about the all electric car?

National average for electricity is 9 cents per KWH. If you plug in at night, the rates are usually much cheaper (5 cents per KWH). Some cities even have special rates for electric cars (2.5 cents per KWH). But lets use the 9 cent average.

This car has a 35KWH battery. That means it costs $3.15 to charge the battery for a 150 mile trip. 96000 miles / 150 miles per charge = 640 charges * $3.15 per charge = $2,016 worth of electricity.

Cost of ownership of gas powered SUV for 8 years (average 12k per year)
$30,000 purchase + ($24,000 to $33,600 on gas) = $54,000 to $66,600

Cost of ownership of electric powered SUV for 8 years (average 12k per year)
$44,000 purchase +$2,016 on electricity - $46,016

And of course, the price of oil is only going to go up and up and up long term. So the price of electric cars will continue to come down, while the price of owning a gas powered car will continue to go up. So these numbers will only get more favorable as time goes on.

Of course you should adjust the numbers for your driving habits, but unless you drive some small amount (like less than 5,000 miles per year), you will save a lot of money owning an all electric car.


The two largest developers of hybrid cars have been Toyota and Honda. The two most successful car companies over recent years have been Toyota and Honda. There is obviously a correlation here. The big three have done little to nothing towards the development of plug in hybrids/all electric cars. I really hope the Volt is successful. Now lets see Ford and Chrysler step up to the plate. People wonder why they are losing billions of dollars and laying off tens of thousands of employees. Design a successful plug in hybrid or all electric car, and you will see these automakers doing better.