Enginer kit question

No. The kit will not pay for itself within its lifetime as it is currently priced and engineered. Now, if fuel jumped to > $10.00/gallon, it could pay for itself with the right kind of driver under the right kind of driving conditions.

 

I have done many of these calculations before, but what was determined is, as would be expected, that the return is dependent on the price of gasoline. At $5/gallon the return gets closer to realisticly possible.

For this situation, the 2kw is the only option, due to the 2 days at 6 miles/day. Even the 2kw kit is ever so slightly overkill there. But that is the smallest possible at $1995 (with the owner installing it).

So the math is:
6 electric miles x 2 days/week x 50 weeks/year + 8 electric miles x 3 x 50 x 2 (recharging at work) + 8 electric miles (out of the 206 mile trip) x 4 days/month x 12 months/year x 2 (recharging at destination) = 600 + 2400 + 768 = 3768 miles / year

3768 miles / 52 mpg = 72.46 gallons / year

72.46 x $3.50/gallon = $253.61 savings/year

Subtract $60/year for lost interest on the $2k initial investment, so a net gain of $193.61/year. Or 10.3 years to return the $1995 investment. But if gas is $5/gallon it comes down to 6.6 years, at $7/gallon it is 4.5 years.

If you could stop twice each way during the long trips, you would add 1536 more electric miles/year, for an additional savings of 29.5 gallons/year. That would bring it down from 10.3 years to 6.7 years, but you would have to spend an additional 4 hours / trip waiting for the car to recharge. You quickly realize that recharging time becomes a limiting factor in the ability to drive on electric.

(Also, this ignores the cost of electricity, which at $0.12/kwh would cost $113/year, throwing the rate of return back up to 24.8 years for the initial calculations at $3.50/gallon.)

 

FirstFlight,
Please do not get this (or any other kit) if you are solely looking at it from a financial standpoint. Gas prices are too low, and kit prices are too high to really make it pay off in a short period of time.

That said, if you lived in someplace like Colorado, where you can get the Enginer kit for $750, then it completely changes the proposition. (The pricing is due to State tax credits.)

 

1. You are not likely to get an additional 23mpg unless you do substantial distances in blended mode, which translates to long enough distances at low enough speeds to beat the warm up penalty and gain optimal function.
2. Unless you are really able to milk the system and drive on a completely flat surface at very low speeds with a lot of coasting, you are also not likely to get your 3 miles each way of straight EV. The best I have been able to get starting from a full traction battery (70% of higher) and a freshly charged 4KW kit has been ~ 1.5 - 2 miles of EV @ < 30mph, after which the traction battery is completely drained and has to be recharged, which in my case means the ICE turning over and working hard both to warm up AND charge it.

 

caffinekid,
For EV mode, I have certainly seen results better than what you describe. In fact just the other day I know I had 4+ miles of 99.9 mpg driving around a small town under 35 mph and there was still more left in the stock pack and the kit.

For now, people need to do this because they want to, not solely for huge financial payoff. Things like buying gas less often, decreasing oil dependency, clean air, supporting PHEV technology, the ability to refuel (partially) with clean power, the EV grin, bragging rights, conspicuous green consumption, the cool factor, etc, are more likely to be reasons why I hear people have chosen to install a PHEV system in their car than financial ones.

 

Sorry, I am rewording my post:

I am referring to taking off in the morning with a fully charged Enginer kit and traction battery. The OP is not likely to make his train station commute on EV alone, which means that he will more likely be paying a heavy warm up penalty. His work commute is where he stands to gain any real improvement by using the system. I have been running my system as efficiently as possible and only obtain (at best) 64mpg, which is up from 46-50mpg depending on the weather.

I agree with your reasoning though, only I would add the geek factor as well.

 

If you could take side roads to work (similar distance, slower speeds) it might make sense, but for benefit over 66 miles you'd need to get the 8kwh (maybe 6kwh) kit, and that is a more expensive propsition. I'm not sure why you want to make up the cost in under 2 years. If it is because you like to buy a new car that often, you should know that, with help from an installer, the kit is portable to other hybrid vehicles. So your benefit does not necessarily have ot be relegated to the life of your car. The Enginer site indicates the battery life expectancy to be 6-8 years.

 

Buying a Prius to save money? Hmmmm... That's a whole topic for another post.
I don't believe a Prius will "save money".

 

Petrol is well over $8 a gallon in the UK now, so phev kits can pay for themselves within a couple of years.

 

In the Midwest, gas was under $3 a gallon for nearly all of 2010.
And now it only recently has pushed up to $3.60 a gallon.

That's a far cry from your $8 per UK gallon cost.

 

Is that $8 per imp gallon or US gallon?

 

Us

 

I'm jumping onto this thread because I want to read other people answers, and this contributors are very well informed ones.
I own one of the first Prius PHEV converted vehicles in the USA, since 2006.
Let me tell you that the paid off timing is over 5 years for a well equip PHEV conversion.
Probably your best bet is to save your Tax return money.

 

Doesn't UK pay per liter? So, you guys pay about 130p per liter?