29-03-2022, 12:03 PM
Buy no fuel and go electric? An acquaintance was boasting the other day about how, with his new electric car, he'd never have to visit a fuel station again, so we ran the figures. The £44,000 he paid for his family-sized buggy would have bought two I.C. cars with the same space (and twice the range). i.e. the owner of the I.C. would have £22,000 to spend on fuel before reaching cost parity. At £7.50 per gallon that's 2,933 gallons which, at 45 m.p.g. gives 134,685 miles or, at 8,000 miles a year, 17 years of motoring. While diesel engines regularly run to over 200,000 miles and more, would his electric car battery last 17 years? Of course, if he could withstand the social disgrace, one of these would be even better https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/sandero-stepway.html and motored for over 50 years for the same outlay (well, in theory....)