WashingTone-Locian Wrote:
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> Who killed the electric car? American consumers,
> who don't want the fucking things.
Well, watching that documentary made me thing all the Hollywood elites would buy up thousands. Chevy sold 305 Volts last month.
The problem with the Volt and other fuel efficient cars like the Prius, is that once you factor in the premium you'll pay for the car over something like a Honda Civic or a Hyundai Sonata, you'll never break even on the purchase price unless gasoline goes up to $8 a gallon. And even then you'll only break even if you own the car before the price goes up, because naturally, once it goes up you'll pay a higher premium for the car.
Quick check of Edmunds and
http://www.theactualmpg.com for the data below:
Prius 1 = $22,800 (base model, no options) 46.00 MPG
Elantra - $15,811 27.50 MPG
Civic = $16, 348 29.05 MPG
So, just to compare the Civic, your fuel costs will be about 1.58 % higher. If you drive 12,000 miles and gas is $3.50 a gallon:
Prius costs = $913.04
Civic costs= $1,445.78
So you saved $532.74 on gas. But you paid $6,452 more for that privilege.
So without even calculating the lost opportunity costs for that $6,452 premium, you would have to keep the Prius for over 12 years to make it a better deal than the Civic @$3.50 gas.