Plug In

                                                                 Have fun! 

EVs are fun. And quick. And they come in all shapes and sizes. They’re quiet, stealthy almost. You can hide in plain sight and spring into action. Your primitive hunter-urge maybe…with the electric go pedal. Silently sneak up on an unsuspecting victim and then warp-speed away when the light turns green, the other guy left in the dust and wondering. “What was that?”

                                                                Save money!  

•  Initial purchase: The median price for new vehicles in 2023 is about $49,000. There are some quite capable electric cars with 200-mile range now available for about $30,000. Substantial Federal and State incentives bring the actual out of pocket to less than that. That’s a bit of your tax money you can take back...and feel good about it. 
• Maintenance: Federal Government vehicle data shows ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) costs are about ten cents per mile, electric vehicle, six cents. The Government Confirms Obvious: Electric Cars Cheaper to Maintain Than Internal Combustion Vehicles (motortrend.com)  
•  Energy: When crude oil is $85/barrel, we pay $3.75 at the pump. In an ICE car going 12,500 miles a year at 25 mpg, goodbye $1,875 for fuel. With electricity at $.25/kWh, your electric car driving 3.5 miles/kWh will give you those 12,500 miles of service for $892.
• With back-of-the-napkin precision, and a "wag" on depreciation, your car might be worth 20% of its original value at the end of 10 years. Your modest EV that cost you $25K after incentives would be worth $5K (20K gone to depreciation). If you paid $49,000, residual would $9,800 (39.2 gone to depreciation) 

                      10 years                         ICE             EV 

                               Depreciation   $39,200         $20,000 

                               Maintenance  $12,500         $7,500   

                               Fuel                  $18,750         $8,920  

                              Total Expense  $70,450       $36,420  . 

                               Add it up. Save money. $34,030   

The neighborhood saves a bundle!

• Not mentioned above, but important and usually overlooked, or intentionally hidden by the guys who want you to keep buying gasoline, is the negative cash flow for places that don’t produce it. Connecticut loses approximately $11,000,000 a day. (Four million gallons imported at $2.75/gal.) For Massachusetts, on the order of $16,000,000 leaves the state’s economy every day to buy gasoline. Stupid...or what? If you don't have to do it. 
• An EV can go about 3.5 miles on a kilowatt-hour of electricity, more than 25 miles on 8 kWh. At $.25/kWh, that’s $2.00. But half that cost is for stuff (like wires and storm repair crews) other than the natural gas that produces the juice. Only about half, $1.00, leaves the state’s economy to buy fuel, instead of $2.75 (for gasoline). EV power is about a third as expensive to your economy as gasoline! Say what?... Almost three times as expensive to the state's economy? Yes! 
• If all that daily imported gasoline was replaced with electricity, Connecticut could save a couple billion a year. Massachusetts even more. A ton of money would stay home in your own state’s economy.

                                                                   Save the earth! 

Battery electric drive for everyday transportation is low-hanging fruit for getting a handle on our greenhouse gas problem. Low cost, probably even a less-than-zero net cost strategy, that can be implemented now...with modest investment. 

Roadways are a big, important piece of existing infrastructure. Alternative ways for moving people and goods may ultimately be better but putting them in place, on the scale required by the climate change mandate, will take time. Rail is expensive and takes decades to build. For now, we have to use our streets and highways. A switch to BEVs will significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Because...

The basic physics, (thermodynamics) and other factors compound to make the ICE car terribly inefficient, 15% a likely real-world number. Electricity is way better, maybe 80% efficient in a car, when all the losses are counted. Even if you charge the battery with grid power from natural gas, your trip will contribute a whole lot less CO2. Less than half. Of course, charge with renewable energy and you can feel good about zero into the air. 

GHG-caused global warming will impose burdens on multiple future generations, not the gift we want for our grandkids...and their grandkids. We must do this.  

                                                                 Have Fun! 

                                                               Save Money!  

                                                              Save the Earth!