Plugless...or is that being heretical?

i notice they don't tell you how much the charging losses are, and thus, how much more per year you'll be spending on electricity. and how wasteful it is for anyone driving ev who is concerned about power production and the environment.

 

comment deleted

 

thanks! how do i do that?

 

Well, if we use 10% loss with the Volt able to use about 13kWh for a full charge at my 22 cents/kWh rate here on LI it would be an additional $104 for the year over current L2 wired plug in charging.
Not great, but for the PIP it would be much less.

I'm not big on spending extra just for convenience sake- I've done a lot over the past few years to keep my electric bill down ($175/month) and can't see spending $2.5K (upfront install cost) plus another $100+ per year for something "easier" than what I already have.

 

10% would cost me about $25./year or about 175 kWh. now look at it in reverse. if everyone were driving ev and using inductive charging, we could reduce electrical use with one simple move, switch to hard plug in.

 

I'm already almost "plugless" because I don't consider it worth much to plug in.
I'm waiting for the roof-rack solar-charger and battery-pack. Does one exist yet?

 

yup. in fairytales.

 

Oh Greg.

 

I might stoop down to pick up a quarter, but it hardly seems worth the effort to plug in the car for the benefit of half a liter of fuel.

 

Is 67% electric worth plugging in?

 

I'm only using 20% of my EV, and it's still worth it to me. I won't pay for it, obviously, but it's worth it. I was getting 51-52 mpg without the plug-in. Once plugged in, I get 67 mpg. I do a lot of freeway. I will plug in.

 

I estimate I've saved about $550 on 37,000 miles now, and I'm only at 33% EV. That is a lot of quarters.

 

Yep! I have saved about $1200 in 20,ooo miles, at 64% EV.
I think it is worth pluging in. Cha Ching!

 

A bicycle would have saved me about a million dollars if that's all I ever used.
I'm still glad I drove.

 

lol....

 

In ~2.5 years:
13339 EV miles
7418 HV miles
saved: 250+ gal of gas (~100 gal per year)

Hardly worth it? Nope, very much worth it.
If everyone in the US and Canada saved 100 gal per year that would be 35 billion gallons of gas.

Yes, it may not be "worth it" every time. But collectively it is worth it.
It is the WHOLE POINT of a plug-in.

Mike

 

The whole point of a bicycle is to use no gasoline.
Ever.

 

I ride my bicycle about 8-10k miles per year, much more than we put on our PIP. Riding gives me a lot of time to think about things that are inconsequential: My favorite fuel is a bagel. At 30 calories per mile, 240 calories per bagel and a bag of 5 for $1.29 on sale, my per mile fuel cost is about 0.0322. When burning Clif bars, my cost goes up to 11 cents per mile. Then add tires ($80 for 4k miles), cassette ($100 for 4k) and chain ($40 for 2k.) Bikes don't last forever, and replacement of frame, components and wheels adds about 10 cents per mile. Total? 20-28 cents per mile. Yikes. The PIP is cheap in comparison!

Then I wonder how much of my food cost is actually fossil fuel-driven. Anyone have good info?

BTW: I do stop and pick up quarters that I find on the ground while riding. Subtract that from the analysis.

 

The gears are turning...
How about a pedal-powered Prius?
Infinite MPG.

 

So, Greg, in other words...you really meant plugging in isn't worth it for you, correct?