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Old 08-16-2011, 06:06 AM
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ajbrown ajbrown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Straz View Post
This data is for a Prius car.

Electric .03 per mile-vs-Gas .09-.13 per mile

How much will the electricity cost? The Prius conversion requires around 300 watt hours per mile driven. To determine how much you will spend on electricity, check your electric bill and see how much you pay per kilowatt hour. Multiply that amount by .3 (that's "point three") to determine your electric cost per mile. In 2006, the U.S. the average cost of electricity was $.0986 (that's 9.86 cents) per kilowatt hour so the cost per mile based on this average would be three cents per mile.

How does this compare to the cost of gasoline? Toyota states the combined (city/highway average) MPG for the Prius is 46 miles per gallon. As of October 2007, gasoline was between $2.37 (lowest) and $3.69 (highest) per gallon. This means the Prius gasoline cost per mile is between $.05 and $.08 per mile. If you drive the U.S. "average" car (based on 2007 CAFE fuel economy average of 27.5 miles per gallon) your gasoline cost per mile is between $.09 and $.13.
Check this post out as it relates to cost for electric "fuel". Maybe elevatorman has done more testing since that post.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...9&postcount=26

Assuming the numbers from the above post are accurate, it costs $1.74 to charge the cart after 70 miles of usage (10 miles/day) which is 2.5 cents per mile. Seems to match up with everything else I have read. Now factor in $200 - $250 per year for batteries and it starts to become a wash IMO. In fact, take care of the battery pack and make them last 4+ years I think electric starts to move ahead.

I live on the edge of wrong, but not sure what I am missing here?

PS. When I return, I will borrow a kilowatt meter and measure my packs exact charge requirements. One pack is 4 years old (6-8v) and one pack is 2 years old (8-6v).

Last edited by ajbrown; 08-17-2011 at 05:23 AM.