One Year's Cost Savings

3126 Views 11 Replies 9 Participants Last post by KenC, Jan 14, 2017

DBMoore

Discussion Starter · Jan 13, 2017

I am within a week of the 1 year anniversary of the purchase of my Volt. As I organized my year's expenses in preparation for tax reporting, I took the opportunity to compare my energy costs this year compared to last. In an entirely unscientific manor I can report simply that my gasoline costs are $1695 less, my electrical costs are $590 more, for a net savings of $1105. Not alone enough to justify the premium for a new Volt over a similar compact ICE car, but certainly noteworthy, significant and worth shouting about. Considering I bought my Volt used for about what I would have paid for a comparable used ICE car, i definitely come out ahead. Add in the fun of driving an EV and the cost savings are gravy.

Details:
13,000 miles driven
Old car got 20 MPG on premium
Electricity costs me $0.16/kWh

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Elemental

· #2 · Jan 13, 2017

Funny you say this. My background is Fleet Management. You are looking at a small nugget of savings and things to consider.

Fuel - Yeah, you spent less, but you can allow better plan future costs. Gasoline is just too unpredictable. One terrorist attack could make it double overnight.

Maintenance - Oil changes, Brakes, things like that. Less expense.

Lifetime of the vehicle - The car will likely last longer than its gasoline powered counterpart because motors are really stout, and it using less much less. You can keep the car longer as its lifecycle is extended.

Time - How much time do you spend at a gas station, or putting on brakes, or having maintenance does. Time is a non renewable commodity that you cannot measure how much you have left.

The ownership, when looked at holistically is the best automotive value going.

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KenC

· #3 · Jan 13, 2017

My fuel savings was $77 over my hybrid. I spent $267 on electricity for 7625ev miles at 4m/kWh and 14c/kWh. $136 on gas for 2750 gas miles at 40mpg at $2.08 a gal. That totals to $403. My prior hybrid would have spent $480 on gas, so I saved $77 on fuel.

Other expenses like oil, brakes, etc., the same.

Time savings were 12 gas station stops, at about 15 mins a stop, including going to a station, so 180 mins, or 3 hrs. I suppose that's where I saved the most, since time is valuable.

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Elemental

· #4 · Jan 13, 2017

KenC said:
My prior hybrid

What prior car did you have?

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hellsop

· #5 · Jan 13, 2017

Elemental said:
What prior car did you have?

One that gets about 43 MPG, apparently. Which is, IIRC, bang-on for the whole fleet of Priuseseses.

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khalfyard

· #6 · Jan 13, 2017

My Cost of Ownership for a few years.

I live in Toronto, Ontario so things are pretty flat (and traffic-heavy), so most EVs tend to get superb range -- except for Jan-Feb where temps can get really cold. (Click the images below to view them in large size!)

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Elemental

· #7 · Jan 13, 2017

hellsop said:
One that gets about 43 MPG, apparently. Which is, IIRC, bang-on for the whole fleet of Priuseseses.

You can't put a price on strangers, family
And friends making fun of a Prius. Volt is worth every penny I
Such a case.

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2VoltFamily

· #8 · Jan 13, 2017

Elemental said:
You can't put a price on strangers, family And friends making fun of a Prius. Volt is worth every penny I
Such a case.

absolutely agree

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mike100

· #9 · Jan 13, 2017

I saved $260/mo on gas compared to my mustang which is pretty much the payment for my Volt. More importantly, would be the (after tax credits) $7000 investment into my solar system, but I'm saving at least $300 a month on not paying for electricity or gas, so the return/break even is coming quickly.

Mostly, I just keep reinvesting the tax returns and state rebates back onto my solar or car note so the initial out-of-pocket was pretty modest.

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express_wagon

· #10 · Jan 13, 2017

DBMoore said:
I am within a week of the 1 year anniversary of the purchase of my Volt. As I organized my year's expenses in preparation for tax reporting, I took the opportunity to compare my energy costs this year compared to last. In an entirely unscientific manor I can report simply that my gasoline costs are $1695 less, my electrical costs are $590 more, for a net savings of $1105. Not alone enough to justify the premium for a new Volt over a similar compact ICE car, but certainly noteworthy, significant and worth shouting about. Considering I bought my Volt used for about what I would have paid for a comparable used ICE car, i definitely come out ahead. Add in the fun of driving an EV and the cost savings are gravy.

Details:
13,000 miles driven
Old car got 20 MPG on premium
Electricity costs me $0.16/kWh

Considering what I paid for the Volt, a similar ICE isn't any less. After all rebates and discounts, the Volt cost me $16,305+TTL. For $16k, the choices does not have the similar tech and content to the Volt. This car is a deal!

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bjrosen

· #11 · Jan 13, 2017

Here are my numbers. I've done 8407 miles in my Volt so far, 4608 were electric. Gas cost $2.39/gallon, electricity cost 21.4 cents/KWh, according to Volt Stats I've average 42 MPG, they don't give a number for MPKWh only the useless combined MPGe but I've generally been getting 55 miles per full charge. so I'm using 3.82 MPKWh. My old Chrsler 300C AWD Hemi got 14 City, 20 Highway, I'm using 16 MPG as the typical MPG. The Volt cost me $474 for 8407 miles, the 300C would have been $1255.

Miles Cost MPG,MPKW Cents/Mile Cost
Volt 8407
Electric 4608 21.4 3.82 5.60 258.18
Gas 3799 239 42.00 5.69 216.18
474.36
300C Hemi
Gas 8407 239 16 14.94 1255.80

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KenC

· #12 · Jan 14, 2017

That's my Lexus CT200h. I got 45.0mpg.

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One Year's Cost Savings

DBMoore

Elemental

KenC

Elemental

hellsop

khalfyard

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