Listening to NPR talk about the Republican presidential candidates talk about getting back to $2.50/gal gas and President Obama saying that isn’t going to happen, I wondered about the cost of an all-electric tank of gas.
This all depends on developing battery technology that would support long-range driving and improvement in recharge times (or some sort of battery pack swap out system) – the Chevy Volt has an EPA estimated range of 35 miles electric-only and the Tesla Roadster claims over 200, but some question that assertion.
So, assuming technology works out the kinks of range and recharge, how much would it cost to “fill up” an electric car to drive 350 miles (guesstimate at average range of gas-powered cars)? At current rates, electricity runs consumers somewhere around $.10/kWh. The Chevy Volt range estimates are based on a 36 kWh/100 miles calculation and the soon-to-be-released Tesla S hovers around 25.
Using the less generous Volt calculations, it takes about 126 kWh to go 350 miles. At $.10/kWh, that would be about $12.60 in electricity to fill your tank. It would take almost 12 gallons for a 30mpg car to go the same distance. At a generous $3.50/gal, that is about $42.00 for a gas car to go the same distance.
When you add in that electric cars don’t need spark plugs, hoses, belts, oil changes, or muffler work, the maintenance costs should be considerably less (or at least less frequent) over the lifetime of an electric vehicle.
So why aren’t we putting our full weight behind converting to an all-electric fleet of cars in the US rather than arguing over whether and where we need to drill and who can keep gas prices lowest? It will probably take a good 20 years to fully covert, but it seems like a no-brainer. The sooner we start the sooner we get there and get to stop worrying about gas prices.