On Tuesday, November 4, 2014 3:22:13 PM UTC-5, Vandy Terre wrote:
On Tue, 04 Nov 2014 10:58:00 -0800, SMS
wrote:

Thanks to high electricity prices and low gas prices it now costs less
per mile to run our Prius Plug-In on gasoline than on electricity.

Miles per Gallon: 45
Price per Gallon: $3.00
Cost Per Gasoline Mile: 6.67¢

Miles per KWH: 4
Price per KWH: $0.324 (no joke!)
Cost Per Electric Mile: 8.10¢

A Tesla is about 0.5 KWH/mile so at the same electricity cost it's far
more expensive than a gasoline powered vehicle.

The problem is the high electricity cost in my area. In areas of the
country where the electricity cost is half the price then it'd be
break-even for the Tesla, and a savings on the Prius. We are not big
electricity users since A/C is rarely needed here, and the water heater,
furnace, and clothes dryer are natural gas. But we always end up in the
top tier for electricity usage ($0.32445/KWH) which starts at 201% over
baseline.

The tremendous advantage of a plug-in hybrid, or all-electric, in
California, is the carpool lane access with a single person. And due to
state and federal tax credits, and factory to buyer incentives, the
Prius Plug-In was the same price as the gasoline-only model, and Plug-In
came with navigation and several other features. The carpool lane access
is really nice even though I don't really agree with the idea that
single occupancy vehicles should ever get to use the carpool lane; OTOH,
every additional vehicle in the carpool lane means less vehicles in the
other lanes so there is some benefit to everyone.

This is true for the moment, but what about the
future? Why not set up a solar powered recharging
station for your vehicle? Yes, there is the high
expense of the solar panels but those panels can
also help reduce the household power bill.

Great idea. Sink another $45K into a solar array to
charge the electric car that's already cost prohibitive.
And the only reason that solar electric is marginally practical
at all is that it's heavily subsidized by the rest of the poor
saps out there so that the hippies can put them in.


Expences will constantly rise given time. Going
solar now might save a true fortune in the future.

Sure sink big $$$ today so that if energy costs more in 2030,
you'll be ready. Remember when Jimmy Carter and the experts told
us we were running out of oil in the 70's? How well did that
work out?



BTW, there are small solar panels that can be
stuck on the inside of the vehicle window, then
plugged into a cigarette lighter to help charge a
vehicle battery while parked for the day.

I'm sure that's good for going at least a few blocks.