Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Ward
Not a question of "if" IMHO, it's simply when.
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Look guys, I agree. I just don't think the economics or infrastructure are there yet, well not to my satisfaction anyway.
Let me explain, I'll use the car maker MG since they make both one of the cheapest petrol, the MG3, and cheapest EV, the MG4 available in Australia. Very similar vehicles.
The MG3 sells for $18,990, the MG4 sells for $37,990. Similar cars but the EV costs $19,000 more.
The $19,000 saved will currently buy 11,875 litres of fuel for the MG3. The MG3 gets 6.7L/100km, call it 7L/100, so the 11,176 litres can give you 159,000km of petrol powered travel.
In other words, if you are paying nothing for your electricity you will have to travel 159,000km in the MG4 before you break even on the purchase cost over the MG3.
On service costs, for a 40,000km/24 month service for the MG3 it is $323. The 40,000/24 service for the MG4 is $296. Not much of a saving.
Battery life is another cost. MG say to expect a battery lifetime on average of 10 years and the replacement cost of the battery is currently $10,908. Now I have no idea what the ICE lifetime is on the MG3 but I would expect at least 15-20 years if you take care.
Now, again, I do think I'll be driving EV in the future, but I'll need better supporting infrastructure and longer life, lower cost batteries, or a massive hike in fuel costs before that happens.
Chris.