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Dennis Moo

Vinnie -

Not too sure about the math here. By my calculations, regular maintenance for a typical low end gasoline-fuled car (equivalent perhaps to this low end electric car) is going to be around $40 every 10K miles for oil, and $200 every 30K miles for an overall tune up - the oil etc. services seem to be much more like $0.01 per mile for gasoline-powered cars. I'm not sure that the electric car you're comparing to is really going to prove to be maintenance free, as there is little history to go on (as compared to the VERY predictable costs of gasoline-powered cars) - electric cars also have motors, transmissions, brakes, windshield wipers, tires, etc.

Additionally, the gasoline-powered car, at about 30mpg, would be about $0.13 per mile, and of course there would be essentially no limit to the distance you could travel per trip, no scrimping on radio or air conditioning, able to travel up hill without losing speed and with a top speed in excess of the speed limit in every state, and I'm guessing that crash survivability (and repairs costs) are much better for the gasoline-powered car.

This electric car that can travel (slowly) on a highway is priced around $30K, according to the article. This compares to a Smart Car, the most similar gasoline-powered car to this electric car, which is priced at around $13K. That $17K difference in price would pay for well over 150K miles' of gas and maintenance.

Depending on how you value your life, this could be the most expensive cheap purchase of one's life ...

vinnie mirchandani

Dennis, as you say we are in the early, hype stage so EV economics will likely not be as compelling. But compared to back in the days of old Henry (Ford) we are in a different ball game today...

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