Post a pic that makes you LOL
- Thread starter Green Jello
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Ha! One of my best childhood memories was when I discovered some small engines simply had pipe thread for the muffler and we had bins of pipe and fittings being on a farm. Made some cool sounding lawn mowers, rototillers, etc
KC3KNM
Probably Wrong
KC3KNM
Probably Wrong
How much did you spend on gas during the lifetime of that $25,000 battery?
That's a great question, and I got super curious so I decided to do the math and find out how much you'd spend on gas over the lifetime of the battery.
I just googled "lifetime of electric car battery" and it claims 15 to 20 years, but I know from friends at work it's closer to 10 before the range is so low you pretty much have to replace it. Perhaps batteries made recently have a longer lifetime than those made 10 years ago?
Assuming 15 years (and a few other assumptions) I'll compare the two. How much would I spend on gas in 15 years? Google (I know, not the ultimate source but it's back of hand calcs anyway) said the average miles driven in a year is about 15,000. 15 years * 15,000 miles per year = 225,000 miles. It also says the average miles per gallon is 24.6. 225,000 miles/24.6 mpg = 9,146 gallons (used during the lifetime of the battery).
$25,000/9,146 gallons = $2.73/gal
So if gas is cheaper than $2.73 then the battery is more expensive.
If I use 10 years on the battery instead of 15 then the price of gas has to be $4.10 before the battery is cheaper.
Obviously the fluctuating price of gas and unknown battery life make this comparison difficult, but I don't think the price of each is as far apart as I assumed they would be. As they make more batteries the lifetime should increase the the price of them should decrease, so I'd guess the price of the battery v gas will get further apart. But this calc doesn't factor in the price of the electricity to charge the battery for 15 years either, so there's that. I'm sure factoring that in will make a big difference.
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One thing that ought to be factored in here is maintenance costs on an ICE car vs. an electric car. I don't know the specifics but I'm pretty sure electric cars require a lot less maintenance.
Oh, there's a LOT more to consider when comparing ICE v Electric, I was just curious about the cost of battery v gas that was asked. There's also the environmental impact (ICE emissions v mining for battery minerals and burning coal to provide electricity to the grid), the cost of upgrading infrastructure to handle additional load of more electric cars, etc.
Maybe I should have replied in a new thread instead of taking this one off topic. Apologies to all.
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Gotta factor in the politics of it all, too, unfortunately. September last year the UK was approaching the break even point Click here, as of lately, the gas car is cheaper per mile Click here. Obviously this varies based on where you're at, but it's the reality of things to come with that whole energy supply/demand thing!
