Brice Burrell said:
I admit I've not followed any of the electric powered vehicle technology. I'd like to know more about the reality of owning one. As for this work van I'd guess it will have a fairly small targeted market assuming it will be pricey. So you get 35 miles cheap on the electric, if you're driving a lot more miles than that a day you'll lose your savings at some point. Their breakdown on the mileage in the pdf could be viewed as misleading. I don't know what it costs to buy/recharge/fuel to see how the numbers play out. I'm sure Via has and they think it's a winner. Like I said above, I'd like to know the reality. Also, if you're like many people that only have on street parking how do you charge it each night?
I can't find any quick details on what size batteries they are using, and that directly affects what it costs to charge/drive it. Let's assume that it has the same battery capacity as a Leaf (24 KWh) even though it has half the range and assume that is caused by the much heavier vehicle.
So our rates here in California are .10/KwH when you charge at night. So to fully charge each day, it would cost $2.40. Monthly that comes to $48 (assuming you don't work weekends).
If you only drive 40 miles/day to your jobs, then you are golden at that point.
But the key thing to keep in mind is that when you ARE burning gas, it is in a power generator, NOT a regular engine which is being used to drive the wheels through a transmission, differential, etc. There is very little resistance on the generator compared to the regular engine. So it's more efficient, and in this case the generator is powering the electric drivetrain in real time (ie, you don't have to wait for the batteries to be charged, you can drive it on drained batteries).
So they state on their site that you are going to average 100 MPG when driving like that. I get 10 MPG on my truck, so that is 1/10 what you would normally spend.
Spend $400/month on gas? Now you'll be at $40.
So you'll still save money when that kicks in.
The only real problem here is the initial cost. At $80K, these things seem too pricey. OTOH, as a professional, you can write them off on your taxes, eh?
I don't think this will be niche (unless the prices is the barrier) as Lutz has been quoted as saying (about the Chevy Volt) "We electrified the wrong end of the business"
Article
Our personal experience, we've had our Leaf for just over a month and my wife loves it. She gets home, plugs it in, and it's charged while we sleep. She likes not having to go to the gas station. And we've gone from $300/month on gas (it's her daily commuter) to just $30 (to charge it).
And the best part..... a couple weeks ago we pulled up to a stop light, one of those great civic designs where one lane merges right after the light (/sarcasm). You know what happened, a punk in an import tuner pulled up in the lane that was about to disappear, figuring he'd blow everyone away through the light. It turned green, I punched it, and *quietly* the Leaf was through the intersection before he got over the line. At first I thought the Leaf's motor was screaming , but then I realized it was the tuner car, revving high to try and get going. [big grin]
As for where to charge it... over the weekend we stopped at the shopping center, and in front of Home Depot, they had free chargers......so you could charge while you get materials! [wink]
