In most U.S. zip codes, electric vehicles are cost-competitive with their gas-powered counterparts, according to a new study. And regarding emissions benefits of EVs, individual driving patterns matter as much as regional factors like the local electricity mix.
Love my EV. For my use case, it’s great. A couple things to watch out for that factor into cost calculations : Home charging is almost a requirement. Fast charging is almost as expensive as gas (probably because they’ve dialed it in to be so), slow charging is, well, slow. You really have to plan around slow charging.
I just had to renew my tag and my other vehicles were $21. My EV was $255. The logic is, since EVs are paying for tax on fuel to go towards road works, they have to make up for it elsewhere. I’m fine with this, but I don’t drive a lot in a year and $255 is way more than the tax I would have spent for gas. Also, I’m pretty sure gas tax has been suspended in my state. So I’m subsidizing the cost for ICE vehicles. Check your state for rules.
Lastly, (and this may be more impactful for my EV which is kinda performance biased) driving Interstate miles eats up your range a lot more. I used to put the cruise control on 75 MPH pretty much all the time. I’ve found 65-67 is about the break even point to get the miles I should.
The real horseshit about the fuel tax thing is that that gas tax gets suspended all the fucking time, but do I get a break on my road tax too? Hah ha, no, fuck you says the Republicans who implement the fuel type fee and then suspended the gas tax.