Friday, November 16, 2012

The Cost of Driving

One cool feature on the Honda Fit EV, is that it shows me the average Miles per kWh that I am getting.  Currently, I get about 4 miles per kWh (if I didn't use Sport Mode so much, my efficiency would be higher).

Where I live, I am charged 6 cents per kWh of energy usage.  If, for instance, I want to visit my grandmother who lives about 25 miles away, I would make a round trip of 50 miles.  That trip, considering my average driving efficiency, would cost me 75 cents.

Compare this to my other car, the VW Jetta Sportwagen (No, it isn't a TDI, but I wish it was!).  My Jetta has been averaging around 23 miles per gallon.  The gas price today for 87 octane is $3.84 per gallon, so the trip would cost me $8.35.  That's $7.60 more than the EV, or in other words, over 11 times more expensive!

To extrapolate, if I drove both vehicles 12,000 miles, and didn't factor any other costs like maintenance (which hurts the Jetta more than the EV), I would pay $2,003 for the Jetta's fuel (@23 mpg), and $180 for the EV's electricity.

Let's take it a step further.  Let's assume that I keep both cars for 7 years, which is average for a lot of Americans these days.  With all other factors kept constant, I would end up spending $12,764 more on the Jetta than the EV (fuel alone).

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