I have now owned my new Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (EV) for exactly one month. Assuming one month\u2019s data is enough to make a reasonable estimate of the costs (and savings) that I am incurring, I am pleasantly surprised at how cheap it is to own an EV.<\/p>\n
To begin, I sold my seven-year-old (completely paid-for) Volvo station wagon before getting the Leaf, so my basic economic analysis will compare getting the Leaf to keeping the Volvo. Also, I chose to lease the Leaf for 39 months, so I\u2019m only going to make the calculations for that case.<\/p>\n
Cash Up Front<\/b>: I sold the Volvo for $7,000, so that was my working capital. The down payment, tax, tags, and license for the Leaf was $5,350. I am also in the processes of installing a 220V charger (the Leaf comes with a 110V charger, which has been working just fine, but I want the faster charging) at an estimated cost of $2,000. Thus my estimated out-of-pocket cost is about $350.<\/p>\n
Cost of Driving the Volvo<\/b>: I had been averaging about 16 \u2013 18 mpg for my normal (mostly city) driving with the Volvo. At the current pump price of $3.60\/gallon (I buy low-octane gas), this gives $0.20 \u2013 $0.22\/mile operating cost. Maintenance costs are hard to estimate, but assuming nothing major were to happen with the Volvo over the coming three years, I\u2019d probably spend $250\/year on just the standard maintenance (oil changes and filters and the like). This adds another $0.025\/mile, so I\u2019ll just say $0.235\/mile as my working figure. Obviously, I\u2019m purposely ignoring the reliability difference between a new car and a 7-year-old car here, since I really only want to compare a gas car to an EV, not an old car to a new one. Another way to look at it: I doubt the residual value of the Volvo after driving it for another 39 months would equal the major maintenance costs I would likely incur during that time.<\/p>\n
Cost of Driving the Leaf<\/b>: In my first month, I drove 790 miles, and averaged 3.5 miles\/kWh. In Austin, the cost of electricity is currently $0.129\/kWh. This makes the electricity cost per mile = $0.036\/mi. There are no maintenance costs on the Leaf until the 36 month scheduled maintenance, and in particular there are no oil changes.<\/p>\n
Cost Savings<\/b>: Comparing the per mile costs, I am saving about 20\u00a2\/mile driving the Leaf over the Volvo. For my 790 mile month, that translates into $158 (money that I am not spending at the gas pump and for oil changes).<\/p>\n
Net Cost of the Leaf<\/b>: My 39 month lease has a monthly payment of $291. Subtracting the net $158 savings, my actual cost of switching to a brand new EV is $133\/month. Thus, my total net costs are:<\/p>\n Frankly, I\u2019m shocked at how cheap that is. I can\u2019t think of many new cars I could buy\/lease for that price. Now add this to the fact that driving the Leaf is really, really cool and really, really fun. It has been a very good choice for me.<\/p>\n A Hypothetical Case<\/b>: Suppose instead one were driving an SUV that got 13 mpg, and you drove a little more \u2013 33 miles per day (1000 miles\/month). Assuming all other numbers presented above were valid, you would actually SAVE $10\/month by leasing the Leaf. Of course, if the price of gas goes up, the economics become even more compelling.<\/p>\n So there you have it. The Leaf makes a lot of sense. Of course, it assumes that you are a two-car family with a lot of short-hop city driving (where an EV excels). But that is probably a majority of car owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have now owned my new Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (EV) for exactly one month. Assuming one month\u2019s data is enough to make a reasonable estimate of the costs (and savings) that I am incurring, I am pleasantly surprised at how cheap it is to own an EV. To begin, I sold my seven-year-old (completely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}