Should You Buy an EV?
Buying an electric vehicle today seems like a no brainer, it’s good for the environment and it will save you money on gas. And that last point seems like a given, gas is expensive, especially these days, and electricity costs cents on the dollar, essentially free - how can you argue with that?! But a few things are missing from that equation, the efficiency of an EV to yield mileage, for one, and the fact that energy prices can move quite a bit. So I decided to run the numbers myself, and see how much more economical EVs can be, and the answer was a bit of a surprise. TL;DR Don’t buy an EV just yet. I made a simple “electric or gas” calculator you can use to find out for yourself. Caveat: I’m strictly looking at the economical (variable) cost of “fueling” a vehicle. This calculation excludes considerations for emissions, environmental impact, tax rebates, maintenance cost, insurance costs, the current price premiums above msrp, and opportunity time cost of charging vs. filling t...