Initial costs

I bought Tamar, —that is the name of this car,— a long range, RWD, glossy black with black interior, vegan leather, WeatherTech® floor mats, trunk shelf, panoramic roof screen, console trays, and level two wall EVSE, —a.k.a., wall charger,— for US$42k, out the door. My car note is US$600+, and I pay about US$850 per month including insurance.

This is less than most luxury ICE vehicles. That being said, it is much more costly than a Toyota Corolla. One person suggests that I could almost get an Audi A6 or Q5. (Not quite true). That brings us to the next issue.

Fuel

Gas prices are rather volatile, but, in the final year of owning my Toyota Camry, It would cost about US$40–US$60 to fill up its 16 US gallon (60 l) tank, (about 340 mile, or 547 km range). If I charged Tamar at a SuperCharger®, it would cost me less than US$10 (about 330 mile or 531 km range). If I paid FPL to charge at home, it would cost less than US$5.

As it stands, I do not pay FPL; FPL pays me. I have PV Solar on my roof at home. I generate my own electricity.

Regular maintenance

In 30,000+ miles, (48,000+ km), I have done five tire rotations, (every 6,125 miles or 9,800 km), and refilled my windshield washer fluid a few times. In an ICE vehicle, I would have done the same. In addition, I would also have done six oil changes, and one brake pad change, and possibly other regular maintenance.

Due to regenerative braking, the brake pads on a BEV lasts about 144,000 miles, (232,000 km). It is only used on very hard breaking, which occurs infrequently.

Repair Costs

A BEV power-train has a battery, an electric motor, and an inverter. None of those devices are likely to go bad under normal use. The only part which is under any physical stress is the motor, and it is over-engineered so as to handle regenerative braking The motor is capable of taking the vehicle to over 200 MPH, (321 km/h), but is software limited to only 125 MPH, (200 km/h). The extra beef is to allow rapid deceleration in an emergency, and to not have to rely on friction brakes..

With BEVs, there is no hot fluids being pumped around the engine, where 5,000 explosions occur every minute, high pressure to low pressure, tubes, hoses, belts, and gaskets, all to control pistons with piston rings, above which are valves, cams & cam shafts, fuel injectors, spark plugs, ignition coils, and a starter coil, which is attached to an alternator. Below we have the piston shaft and the oil pan.

All of that does not include the transmission, all it's parts, and the radiators to cool all the fluids, air intake system, exhaust system, and drive shaft. All these parts are either under stress, tension, or heat, or a combination of two or all these conditions, creating the possibility of likely failures.

This makes the BEV far more reliable than an ICE vehicle, and less expensive to repair from an unlikely failure.

TL;DR

Indeed, in five years, even with a Toyota Corolla, driven only 12,000 miles, (20,000 km) per year, the TCO would exceed that of Tamar. For a comparable ICE vehicle, the TCO would exceed Tamar in about 2.5 years, or 30,000 miles, 50,000 km).

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Case study

In 2001, Beijing won the bid for the 2008 Olympics, but it was conditional on improving the air quality. The politicians had asked the scientists why Beijing was so polluted. The answer?

1. ICE vehicles burning petrol
2. Coal burning power plants

They asked the scientists what can be done about it. The solution?

1. Immediate ban on ICE vehicles in Beijing
2. Replace them with BEVs
3. Shut down Coal power-plants A.S.A.P.
4. Replace them with Wind Turbines and PV Solar power-plants A.S.A.P.

Why BEVs and not HEVs, or PHEVs? Absolutely zero tail-pipe emissions. Why not H₂FCEVs? They were not ready for prime-time in 2001. H₂FCEVs are very efficient, consuming H₂ and producing H₂O. However, H₂ production and distribution is not a very efficient process. It will have a greater carbon footprint than a BEV. Why Wind Turbines? They are the ultimate least expensive way to produce electricity and the penultimate fastest way to get a power-plant online. Why PV solar? They are the penultimate least expensive way to produce electricity, and the ultimate fastest way to get a power-plant online.

By 2008, Beijing was rated one of the cleanest cities in the world. They went from in 2000, producing 20 GWh of PV Solar energy to 150 GWh in 2008, and from 590 GWh of wind turbine energy to 13.1 TWh. China is the world's largest producer of renewable electricity in terms of total volume.

Direct Savings

Manufacturing parts and labour costs for an electric motor is far less than that for an ICE. Parts costs for the battery used to be very high; they were retailing at about US$20,000 initially. They now retail for about US$2,000, and falling; far less than the parts and labour for a typical transmission.

If that is the case, why do most BEVs cost more than their comparable ICE vehicles? Although the modern SoC computers do cost more than the traditional OBD II computers, and although the labour costs to programme them is greater than of the OBD II, the real reason for most BEVs costing more than the comparable ICE vehicle, is that they are not really comparable. The BEVs tend to have far more features than their ICE counterparts.

No-frills BEVs are available outside the US for the equivalent of about US$4,000 to US$18,000, depending on range and features. The biggest thing keeping prices high in the US is the old adage of supply and demand. Currently, the supply is a lot lower than the demand. In Mexico today, one can find both Chinese and Mexican brands of BEVs being sold at lower equivalent costs than what is available in Canada and the United States

Health savings

One of the most notable things which happened in Beijing was a vast reduction in hospital and doctor visits. These were not just in relation to pulmonary diseases, but cardiac diseases and others. Aside from direct savings in health expense, there is also savings from lack of productivity loss.

Environmental savings

Need I say more? I do? Okay. I will. It will be quite a lot so it gets its own article. The TL;DR is that there is real monetary costs, as well as innumerable costs

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Power-train efficiency

The first HEV took vehicle mileage from about 24/28 MPG (city/highway) to 52/46 MPG. The Prius was fueled with petrol, just like any ICE vehicle. The difference is that the locomotion was mostly provided by an electric motor, while the ICE mostly just produced electricity, running at its most efficient RPM.

Indeed, an ICE as a power-train is only about 17­–24% efficient, but as a power-plant, it is about 30–55% efficient. However, an electric motor is about 85–95% efficient as a power-train. Simply put, using an electric motor power-train is always better than an ICE, releasing fewer GHG and particulates.

Emissions control efficiency

If a BEV needs to get a charge from a coal, oil, or natural gas burning power-plant, is it not still using fossil-fuel? Yes, but we do have three things still in favour of BEVs.

1. These power-plants are far more efficient than ICE power-trains, and far more efficient than small-engine power-plants.
2. Emissions are occurring outside of the heavily populated urban areas.
3. Centralised emissions are easier to mitigate than distributed emissions.

1. We are still using considerably less fossil fuel.
2. Emissions are having a much reduced effect on health concerns.
3. It becomes easier and less expensive to keep particulate emissions out of the air.

But this does beg the question, does it need to get a charge from a fossil-fuel power-plant? No. No it does not.

Fuel distribution efficiency

Electricity is distributed through a static distribution network of cables and transformers. it does not matter how much or how little is used, the distribution costs are fixed, including environmental costs. Any other costs are really dependent on what type of power-plant is being used.

As power-plants become more efficient, moving from coal, oil, and natural gas to hydroelectricity, geothermal, and nuclear, to tidal energy, wave energy, PV solar and wind turbine, the BEV becomes even greener.

Petroleum is distributed by petroleum, though pipelines which leak, trains which derail, and trucks which crash. Furthermore, they are needed more with increased consumption. Very little has been done to make petroleum more efficient, and what has been done has only made marginal improvements.

Resource mining efficiency

Mineral resources are limited. There is only so much in the earth, and then it is all mined. This is true for petroleum minerals, as well as minerals needed for EV batteries, and PV solar panels.

The difference is that once the almost exhausted petroleum minerals are refined, distributed, and consumed, it is gone forever. The minerals used for EV batteries and PV solar panels are still available in large amounts, and are all easily recycled. They will not have to be mined indefinitely, but can be recycled indefinitely.

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Noise production

Luxury cars have gone through hoops to mitigate engine noise. The muffler system is just not enough. Making mufflers more efficient, makes the engine less efficient. To muzzle the engine noise even more, they add sound-absorbing materials on the hood interior, behind the firewall, and under the floor carpeting.

With BEVs, there is no significant engine noise at all. …And no exhaust.

Heat production

There is no significant heat production.

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