Well, not unexpectedly, gas is on the rise. On Feb 3, I paid $1.939 for gas. I should have brought gas cans with me. It wasn't bad enough that gas eventually went up 44 cents for the short month of February but its already gone up 30 cent for the month of March and its only 2nd. Ya, that means my fill up today was at $2.679! In December, I predicted gas would be back at $3.50 a gallon by the 4th. Now thinking I should have said Memorial Day...
Well, the benefits of a new car really manifested itself this month when my Corolla did something with the piston on the front driver's wheel which caused me to have to get that fixed along with the bearings that cost me $728.95. This probably adds another year on to my TCO payback time. But at least it pushes back the time at which my fuel costs adds up to 50% of my total TCO for the car which I had predicted would be the end of 2016 at just under 10,000 miles a year. On the LEAF?? a few round trips to the Moon would be shorter...
Either way, the Corolla went 919.1 miles for a cost of $60.82 in fuel or 6.6 cents per mile. FYI; today's fill up was over 8 cents. Yep, cheap fuel is fading fast! The LEAF went a bit further at 977.5 miles for a cost of $18.61 or 1.93 cents per mile. I did do two short L3 charge ups at Oly Nissan so for first time in a few months, used public charging. But did so mostly so I could drive 70 mph since it I already knew it would be both a late night and very early morning for work and any additional drive time simply did not sound inviting.
Other than that, a lot of excitement has been generated over the thought of 200 mile EVs from several manufacturers including rumblings of possible new blood aka Apple in the mix. Competition is a good thing and the more the merrier although I see little direct head to head and more filling out the niches a bit better. (especially since currently most are being ignored) Another good thing is the emergence of the used EV market. Several online buds have gotten used 2011 and 2012 LEAFs and are enjoying them immensely. A few are seeing battery issues but also several have replaced them under warranty nearly hassle free so all is good for that 85 mile trip.
But a few have gotten used LEAFs at deeply discounted prices hoping that Nissan or someone will offer backwards compatible packs with more range. I think that will happen but the packs will still be limited by the physical size so not expecting a very large increase. Maybe 25% over the original range at least for now. What I also don't expect is for Nissan to be leading this charge. Apple's role as a new player in the game, is still as yet undetermined. The only thing we know is that Apple has grabbed a bunch of engineers from Tesla for "something." Speculation is for the "i-Car" but that might not be where they are headed. There are several areas Apple could integrate themselves in the EV World without actually building a car including BMS, self navigation, etc.
But time will tell since Apple is currently silent on the topic. But as an innovator who does not actually build a lot of their hardware, if they do do a car, who will make it? China? That is why I think they will simply build something related to cars we simply cannot live without
I don't know much about the electric vehicles, but I think it would be awesome to skip the fill-ups and never have to worry about loud exhaust! Saw some videos of the Tesla cars, man are they fast! You really put a target on costs for driving, makes me think I haven't paid close attention to how I spend!
ReplyDeleteAbraham Yates @ Apache Oil Company
Yes it is very nice to not have to stop at gas stations! I do have a gasser besides my LEAF that I don't drive very much but still visit the gas station just over once a month and yes, stopping for gas is a hassle!
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