I got 200,000 miles on the brakes of my 5 speed 2006 Toyota Corolla. And it had the original clutch when a totaled it at 230,000. ICE vehicles are much more reliable now.
I was thinking about the complaint that many non-EV owners have about the time it takes to charge an EV. Everyone I know who owns a BEV has a home charger.
So I sat down and figured out how much time my wife and I spend charging our BEV vs fueling our ICE car. Here are the results for a one-month timeframe:
Ice car, filled up at Costco once a month:
Waiting in line at the pump: 3 to 7 minutes.
Inserting CC and selecting octane: 1 minute
Inserting hose and filling tank: 5 minutes
Removing hose, capping tank & getting receipt: 1 minute
Total time spent fueling ICE car per month: 12 minutes
BEV charged at home 10 times a month:
Walk over to charger, remove cable from charger and plug into car: 30 seconds
Walk over to car, remove cable from car and return to charger: 30 seconds
Total time spent charging BEV : 20 times 30 seconds = 10 minutes
When I asked my wife which job sheâd rather do, she replied, âare you kidding? I HATE waiting in
line and pumping gas at the filling station! How hard is it to plug our car in?â
BTW: Most sources estimate that well over half, and as many as 85% of BEV owners charge at home.
In eight years of BEV ownership, I have never needed to charge away from home. Thatâs probably something like 4 times per week x 50 weeks per year x 8 years, so 1,600 charges. I just plug it in at the end of the day and its ready in the morningâŚ
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How do your insurance premiums compare to the ICE vehicles you replaced?
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I replaced a 2012 Sonata 2 years ago, so I donât have the insurance for it.
But our 2017 Hyundai Santa Fe ICE car is $254 and the 2022 Volvo XC40 BEV is $294 every six months. Both are low miles driven, (under 10K mi.), full coverage for both, the Hyundai bluebooks a lot less than the Volvo.
My first EV was a 2015 Leaf and the insurance cost was no different that the Camry that it replaced. My second EV was a Tesla and the insurance is much higher, but I have nothing to compare it against. I suspect the cost is driven by the amount of complex parts that would need to be replaced in an accident. There are cameras and sensors everywhere on the car, so there is no such thing as just replacing the front or rear bumper. On the positive side I figure I have saved somewhere in the neighborhood of $17-18k in fuel costs since 2015.
I just ran across this podcast today. It gives a fairly unbiased 28-minute explanation of the fits and starts of the governmentâs push for EV adoption.
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Very interesting. Thanks.
One thing I had not considered, is the Repubs apparent dislike of Bidenâs various incentive plans, and if in the WH, might cancel them.
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