Here is a simple comparison of electric vehicle versus gasoline
vehicle cost per mile.
Gasoline vehicle
Gasoline cost: $2.36 (EIA average for U.S. as of 3/13/06)
Average vehicle mpg: 22 mpg (DoE 2002 data)
Cost per mile: 10.7 cents
Prius gasoline mode: 45 mpg (Actual Atlanta in-town performance Jed's car)
Cost per mile: 5.2 cents
Electric vehicle (or plug-in hybrid)
Electricity: 8 cents kWh
Electric vehicle consumption per mile: 0.3 to 0.5 kWh (Wikipedia and
other sources)
Cost per mile: 2.6 cents to 4.0 cents
Plug-in Prius while running as purely electric vehicle, cost per
mile: ~2.6 cents *
* The plug-in Prius will be an efficient electric vehicle because it
is lighter than a pure electric vehicle. This is because the battery
pack is smaller. That limits the range. A pure electric vehicle
carries enough batteries to go 100 to 200 miles, whereas the plug-in
Prius will only go 20 to 30 miles before the battery runs out and the
onboard ICE powers the car normally. The assumption is that most
commuters only go ~30 miles per day, so they will use mostly
electricity. (At high speeds the plug-in vehicle will require both
electricity and the ICE, so the cost will be a little higher than 2.6
cents/mile.) If you forget to recharge a plug-in, the only penalty
will be that the cost of travel jumps up from 2.6 to 5.2 cents per
mile. With a pure electric vehicle, if you forget to recharge the car
stops and you are stranded.
With older model electric vehicles the cost of the batteries over the
life of the car was a major additional cost, but the latest batteries
such as the ones in the Prius are expected to last 200,000 miles, the
life of the car, and they are cheaper to start with.
- Jed
