On 11/13/2010 9:22 PM, RickH wrote:
On Nov 13, 5:35 pm, "
wrote:
On Sat, 13 Nov 2010 14:33:01 -0800 (PST), RickH

wrote:
Can someone help me, I'm trying to win an argument at work Monday
morning...

At 15 cents per killowatt hr, a charger running on a 220 volt branch
drawing 16 amps continuously for 5 hours will cost how much?

$2.64, assuming a purely resistive load.

The above dollars divided by the expected 40 miles (on all electric
drive) should tell me how much money per mile it will cost to use up
that electricity (or coal in my area) as motion.

$.066

The remaining 280 or so mile range of the car will be on all gas from
the measly 9 gallon tank at a supposedly (probably overrated) 33 MPG.
So I can figure out that the dollars per mile running on gas will be
approx 10 cents a mile at $3 gas prices here.

Your gas is expensive.

I'm just trying to figure out what the electricity costs on a per mile
basis for a 40 mile charge will be here. 40 miles is being too kind
considering that in cold weather GM says you may only get 25 miles out
of the charge. Or even lose half the charge while you sit in work
with the car sub-freezing outside.

You'll "save" about three cents a mile, at least until the state figures out
another way of taxing you. That's, of course, also ignoring the initial cost.

Our gas is as cheap as anywhere, but gas taxes high.

GM says 25 to 50 miles, but I would think the terrain and temperature
would play a large role.

The up-front sticker premium cost for the vehicle itself still cant be
re-couped in a reasonable lease or years of ownership by the amount it
is saving. But I did think the power would cost more than $2.64,
thats not too bad. Basically you are getting the energy output of a
gallon and a half of gasoline (in this car) for that $2.64 worth of
electrons. It's just that 5 hour thing and all the losses going from
mining, to shipping the coal, to the coal burn, to generator, to
batteries that the system as a whole is essentially wasting at each
energy modality change step.



IMHO, right now, plug-in electrics are in the stage of 'if you have to
ask, you can't afford it'. Let the rich yuppies buy them for the first
five years, and pay for the ramp-up and beta testing. Early Adopters
always end up paying twice what the normal person a few years later
pays. We are just now getting toward end-of-design-lifespan on the Gen I
Hybrid cars, and I have to wonder if the cratering sales of those is
related to real-world promises not kept about range and durability, or
simply to the sky-high costs to play.

--
aem sends...