UCS: no matter where you live, driving electric saves money, emissions

[tinrobot]

It's easy to understand that, if you power your vehicle with electricity, you don't need to use as much gasoline. But, how much do you actually save, in terms of fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions if you plug in instead of gas up?

A new report, released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists, called "State of Charge: Electric Vehicles' Global Warming Emissions and Fuel-Cost Savings across the United States," gives us a set of answers. In short, UCS looked at emissions and costs for both EVs and gas-powered vehicles and did a well-to-wheel (drilling, refining, burning for gas and mining coal, making electricity for EVs) "apples to apples" comparison and found that drivers across the U.S. would come out ahead with a plug-in car, some more than others.

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/04/16/ucs-no-matter-where-you-live-driving-electric-saves-money-emi/

[Fearless]

1. Glad someone did the study! Bookmark it everyone!

Show it to the fundies who spout otherwise!

[Yo_Mama]

2. Thanks, I am reading the report now

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_vehicles/electric-car-global-warming-emissions-report.pdf

It's rather useful if you are planning to buy an EV, because it tells you important things about getting on the best power plan for EV usage. Also interesting city-by-city estimates of yearly savings and cost-per-mile tables.

Still, the bottom line is that you aren't going to get your money back on these vehicles, so if you are going to buy one to help the environment, the first part of the report is the most important. It shows you how to minimize your emissions depending on the area.

[dmallind]

4. Which vehicles DO you "get your money back" on?

[Yo_Mama]

6. It depends on what you are doing with the car

Also you have to think about your own usage, and as the report explains, figure out how charging will work and whether you can change what you will be charged to charge by changing plans.

A Prius-type hybrid will pay off over the lifetime of the vehicle for most drivers. Not all. If the driver doesn't drive that much, the Mitsubishi vehicle is very good. The Volt generally saves less, but that's because it always burns some gas, I guess. When it is burning gas it is every inefficient, so if you have to drive outside of the range very often, a Prius type car will save you more over time and also result in less emissions. Also if you are in a high-electricity state, the Prius might save you much, much more.

What's so great about this report is that it gives you a way to figure out (beyond just money) whether you will achieve least emissions with a hybrid or a plug-in.

Most people who buy these vehicles aren't concerned just with money - they want to lessen environmental impact. This report gives you tools to make a decision not just based on money but on impact.

Each individual needs to sit down and think about personal usage, figure out the electricity bill issue, and then look at the emissions profile where he or she will be driving to make the best decision.

Obviously, the limiting factor for many people is not having a place to charge an EV - if you live in a condo/apartment type setting, most people have to go with a hybrid because they can't plug in to charge it.

The other thing people need to figure out is what the real range on a plug-in EV will be for that person. If you have to use AC or heating a lot, it may be considerably less than advertised.

[dmallind]

8. I think I'm asking a different question

How does any new car "get your money back" at all? They all lose value, very steeply at first. They all cost money to run, be that 3.5c/mile for the Leaf or 8c for the Prius or 20c for the standard sedan.

I THINK what you're saying is that the ultra economical cars cost more and take a while to "get back the difference" in lower per mile costs, but for EVs that's an impossible equation. Not winning it that is, but doing the equation in the first place. It's also a forced expectation only applied to non-traditional forms of motive power. Does anyone ask how long it takes to "pay back" the difference between an Acura and a Honda? A Lexus and a Toyota? No - we just acknowledge they offer more of what that owner values and move on with nary a hint of CBA.

A lot of idiots start with Leaf = Versa because it's on a stretched version of the platform (although I've never seen anyone compare a Volvo C70 to a Ford Focus even though it's on the identical platform).

Then they make several massive mistakes to compund this. They always take the top advertised mpg of the ICE car (but never the ideal range of the EV) even though that only works at a constant 55mph and the real average mpg is usual 15-20% less. They ignore the 80ft/lb difference in torque (ever get anybody who ignores that for the Volvo/Focus parallel?) which makes the car smoother and more useful in real world situations. They ignore the silent operation that makes every mile far more pleasant. They ignore the extra room, the heated seats and steering wheel and standard nav (they always use the base price Versa as the comparison). They ignore the convenience of avoiding gas stations and filling up at home. They ignore the quarterly oil changes and manifold greater number of likely replacement parts on the ICE.

So assuming that is what you mean by "get your money back", what exactly are you using as the comparison to decide how much money we need to "get back"?

[tinrobot]

9. They also ignore resale value

A base Versa will sell for a lot less than a Leaf when it's time to move on to a different car. Add that difference into the calculations as well.

A Leaf at the standard lease of $369/month will actually cost less than a Versa lease ($220-270/month) when you factor in the the cost of gas/oil ($150-200/month). The Leaf has a higher residual value, so the lease is not proportionately larger.

[caraher]

3. This is important

The "long tailpipe" argument against EVs has a lot of initial plausibility. I was pretty surprised when I worked out for myself that even with the kind of crappy coal-heavy fuel mix for electricity where I am, you still come out slightly ahead on CO2 emissions with an electric car. The argument for EVs just gets better as one substitutes low carbon sources of electricity.

[NNadir]

5. Perhaps the "Concerned Scientists" would do well to open up a scientific journal

once in a while.

Electric Vehicles in China: Emissions and Health Impacts

Being somewhat parochial, perhaps the "Concerned Scientists" - who have always been a little weak on science for my taste - don't regard China as being part of everywhere.

I can't say.

I excerpted this paper in a discussion on another website where I sometimes blog, although I am increasingly convinced by hearing all this glib talk, over something like a decade, that blogging will do nothing, absolutely nothing, to shake people from their fantasies about sustaining the car CULTure.

Some excerpts of the above referenced paper: China Already Has 100 Million Electric Vehicles.

[kristopher]

7. kick