Quote:
Originally Posted by The_bluester
So, basically to equal the "Fuel" cost a regular car would need to do something in the region of 4L/100KM. Even if the price of power doubled there are not too many cars that size which would equal the cost, and that is assuming that the price of petrol remained static. And that is for those who missed the boat on free Tesla charging in perpetuity (Which was inevitable once they got enough units out there)
I have long thought that once there is a commuter car available that had a safe range of at least 300km and around the $50K mark it would become viable even for me with a 140KM round trip to work each day.
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We're still in the very early days of practical EVs, so the price of EVs will keep going down, and the price of energy (especially non-renewables) will keep going up. Simple economics still favour petrol cars at present, but the balance is shifting.
I think we're pretty much at the "tipping point" right now - e.g. the Tesla Model 3 for US$35,000 (which translates to say AU$50,000, if the government doesn't tax it as a luxury car) is within range of a typical household for a full-size family sedan, and would have much lower running costs than the equivalent Mazda / Toyota / Ford petrol-powered car.
When all the global manufacturers get their next-gen EVs on the market in a couple of years, we'll cross that "tipping point" for good. The first models on the market will still tend to carry a premium price (in part, to recoup the development costs, and partly because "early adopters" will be prepared to pay a premium), but give it another 5 to 10 years, and I think we'll all be checking out EVs as a viable option to replace the Camry as our "daily drive".