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Deleted member 4210
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This is kinda humorous that Clean Technica is saying Consumer Reports finally 'agrees with them'. (personally I'm often skeptical of both but for different reasons - they pretend to be 'objective' but both seem more like shills for their own particular agendas.)
cleantechnica.com
Generally not a bad take on the ownership costs. Though I think CR and even Edmunds TCO (which seems more realistic, than anything put out by CR), tend to exaggerate some areas more, and understate other areas. For example, my insurance numbers are NEVER as high as theirs. Depreciation is a crap shoot. It can be bad, or really really bad. Re-possession and these stupid long car loans heavily skews depreciation numbers IMHO. Until this year, I swore off of new for a long time. But used car prices have gotten ridiculously high too. Even with the rental car companies supposedly getting bad (bankrupt ?) due to Covid 19, there has not been any 'glut' materialize for used car market at all. Loads of new cars sitting in lots and shopping malls though.
And this 5 year Cost of Ownership model really is sort of bogus, especially these days as new car prices keep skyrocketing about as bad percentage wise as health care costs do, with the AVERAGE car ownership well exceeding 11 years. Those days of people flipping cars every 2 and 3 years are long gone.
What happens in the first 5 years, other than massive depreciation drop, seems like a very warped picture to say the least which makes these comparisons of EV to ICE trend toward the heavily manipulated side of the 'math' equation. Lots of people now consider buying pre-owned 5 and 7 year old cars without batting an eye in terms of what reliability and maintenance costs will be. The notorious rust heaps of yesteryear are fairly rare. (thankfully - as my 2011 Highlander Hybrid with 145K is running long and strong, with still great (for a heavy SUV) 28 mpg mileage in urban travel. Toyota is reporting getting regular occurrences of 300k on their hybrids .... simply stellar... and that includes the battery life, which they recently upped their battery warranty to 150k miles. Batteries in hybrids are beating engine lives, where actually their frequent/short charge duty cycles are harsher than full EV's. Toyota has got this down to a science in terms of longevity.)
First cost on EV's still has a LONG ways to go (come down), before they become a meaningful part of the overall vehicle population.
Its nice to see these articles. E-bikes aren't far behind in terms of continually longer battery lives, and better improvements, with anticipated 'trickle' down in technology improvements from the EV auto industry.
Electric Cars Cost Less To Own — Consumer Reports Agrees With Us - CleanTechnica
Nowadays, any of the most advanced, most competitive electric vehicles on the market should easily outperform their gasoline-powered class competitors while costing less (unless you drive very little). Consumer Reports agrees.
cleantechnica.com
Generally not a bad take on the ownership costs. Though I think CR and even Edmunds TCO (which seems more realistic, than anything put out by CR), tend to exaggerate some areas more, and understate other areas. For example, my insurance numbers are NEVER as high as theirs. Depreciation is a crap shoot. It can be bad, or really really bad. Re-possession and these stupid long car loans heavily skews depreciation numbers IMHO. Until this year, I swore off of new for a long time. But used car prices have gotten ridiculously high too. Even with the rental car companies supposedly getting bad (bankrupt ?) due to Covid 19, there has not been any 'glut' materialize for used car market at all. Loads of new cars sitting in lots and shopping malls though.
And this 5 year Cost of Ownership model really is sort of bogus, especially these days as new car prices keep skyrocketing about as bad percentage wise as health care costs do, with the AVERAGE car ownership well exceeding 11 years. Those days of people flipping cars every 2 and 3 years are long gone.
What happens in the first 5 years, other than massive depreciation drop, seems like a very warped picture to say the least which makes these comparisons of EV to ICE trend toward the heavily manipulated side of the 'math' equation. Lots of people now consider buying pre-owned 5 and 7 year old cars without batting an eye in terms of what reliability and maintenance costs will be. The notorious rust heaps of yesteryear are fairly rare. (thankfully - as my 2011 Highlander Hybrid with 145K is running long and strong, with still great (for a heavy SUV) 28 mpg mileage in urban travel. Toyota is reporting getting regular occurrences of 300k on their hybrids .... simply stellar... and that includes the battery life, which they recently upped their battery warranty to 150k miles. Batteries in hybrids are beating engine lives, where actually their frequent/short charge duty cycles are harsher than full EV's. Toyota has got this down to a science in terms of longevity.)
First cost on EV's still has a LONG ways to go (come down), before they become a meaningful part of the overall vehicle population.
Its nice to see these articles. E-bikes aren't far behind in terms of continually longer battery lives, and better improvements, with anticipated 'trickle' down in technology improvements from the EV auto industry.
