June 2011 to March 2015, so far….
We purchased our Nissan LEAF in June of 2011 for $23,500 after rebates and tax credits. There is virtually no maintenance, no oil and no gas for this car. Of the estimated 60,000 miles we have driven in the last 3 years and 8 months, 54,500 of those miles have been in the LEAF, 5,500 in our hybrid.
Most people do not realize how practical electrics are but usually, once they think through how they drive, over 90% of Americans would have no problem driving an EV or a PHEV.
Most days I drive our LEAF close to or over 100 miles a day, many times closer to 150 miles. There is usually always a charge during the day as we have a charger at home and the Phoenix area has hundreds of chargers that show up on my navigation system.
Electric vehicles, along with their obvious zero emissions advantage have another amazing attribute. They pay for themselves over time. EV’s are literally the only cars on earth that have an ROI, as opposed to the ever increasing cost of owning and operating a gas car.
A gas car that cost what our LEAF cost us, will need at least double the purchase price over the first 8 years of operation. So you’re not buying a 23,000.00 car at all. You’re buying a 50,000.00 car, much of which goes to the oil companies. Kind of leaves people broke when they need their next car, and the cycle goes on and on for life, until you decide to break that cycle by choosing to drive electric.
The average cost of driving a gas car is now 60.8 cents per mile, (source, AAA).
The average cost of driving an electric vehicle is 3.3 cents per mile, (source, Idaho National Labs), and that does not take into account charging with solar like we do much of the time. Our real cost with solar charging is about 1.8 cents per mile.
Even assuming we paid the 3.3 cents per mile, we are saving 57.5 cents a mile when we drive our LEAF, which is most of the time. That is a theoretical savings of 31,337.50 in less than four years.
Gas, oil and maintenance out of pocket cost for an equivalent gas car would run around 12,000.00 for the same four-year period that we have owned our LEAF. Add back the cost of electricity and miles to operate cost of 3.3 cents and that’s about 1,800.00 putting our overall savings at 10,200.00, almost half the cost of the car. In five years the car will have paid for itself.
When we got our LEAF, Nissan was taking a loss on every car because the batteries cost 16,500.00. We just had a warranty replacement of our original battery, with a new battery chemistry built to hold up better in the heat. The cost of that battery? 6,500.00. That 10,000.00 drop in price in less than 4 years is a result of mass manufacturing economies of scale. They are predicted to drop another 3,000.00 by the time we need a new even longer range battery in 10 years or so.
When we were looking into purchasing our LEAF we had the opportunity to question Nissan engineers at an Electric Car Conference in San Jose. They confirmed the projected battery cost drop and the new improved batteries as battery chemistries improved. Once they did that, I knew we were going to buy our “forever car” as I already knew electric motors tend to last a million miles or more.
When this new electric car revolution restarted in 2011, there were at most a few thousand electrics on the road. That has mushroomed to an amazing 300,000 in the U.S. and over 700,000 worldwide! There were over 120,000 sold in the U.S. in 2014. The growth rate is exponential and destined to take off even more, as more and more of us come to realize how great it is to drive without polluting and without supporting the fossil fuel industries any longer.
The growth of the charging infrastructure is surprising even me, (the ultimate optimist in these areas) with 23,000 EV charging stations installed now, (up from next to nothing 4 years ago). There are thousands more coming from utilities like PG&E in California ($654 million for 25,000 charging stations), Volkswagen ($10 million), Nissan (no charge to charge program), Tesla (free charging for life) and multiple Charging network administrators nationwide. Japan just announced they now have more charge points than gas stations! 40,000 charge points, 34,000 gas stations! The U.S. will have more charge points than gas stations by 2016 if this growth rate continues. That’s hundreds of thousands of charge points. The more charge points, especially rapid chargers where an EV can be charged in 30 minutes, the more electric vehicles.
The great thing about this is the big players like Tesla and BMW are demanding 100% renewables sources for their stations, forcing utilities to comply if they want the business.
Now back to our current reality. Imagine only buying gas a few times a year. That is our reality now. We hope to move to the next dream by replacing our hybrid with a long-range electric as soon as we can so we can be totally gas free for life.
Are we unusual? Not really. We are middle class people who are keenly aware of the political and climate crisis we are in right now. We know that not everyone can afford what we have done and what we plan to do, but things are getting closer to everyone being able to join us. In the meantime, we are compelled to act with everything we have and beyond if need be.
Regarding availability, the used LEAF fleet is starting to build. There is an independent dealership in Phoenix that sells used LEAF’s for 12,000.00 – 16,000.00
For those who can’t get an EV because they only have one car, they can get a PHEV like a Ford Fusion, Chevy Volt, Via Motors Truck, BMW extended range i3. These cars are all electric for 40 miles or so, then the small gas engine kicks in when they need to go on a longer trip. I have a friend with a Volt who has had his car 3 ½ years and he is still averaging over 200 mpg.
We move closer every day to freedom from fossil fuels for personal transportation.
One by one, that’s how this is working.
It’s all about awareness. As my grandson was unplugging our LEAF some time ago he looked up at me and said, “grandpa, why to people put gas in their cars?” I said, “I don’t know buddy but by the time you’re driving, you never will”.
