Electricity cost more than gasoline these days.

A "near miss" is better than actual hits, where people die in the production and consumption of fossil fuels.

Besides, today's nuclear "waste" is tomorrows nuclear fuel.

It seems figuring out what to do with the byproducts of nuclear power generation is a much simpler problem than what to do with the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

I don't think fission is perfect, but it's less bad than many alternatives, and solving the associated problems is more likely in the near future than solving the problems of fossil fuel consumption.

 

An indoor, olympic sized pool is easier to monitor and contain than an 84 acre area of coal ash.
Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill - Wikipedia

With the political will, we could be recycling the spent fuel rods into more fuel. With coal fly ash, there really isn't anything really useful we could do with it. The industry wants to do things like increase the amount of the heavy metal laced stuff we already mix into school carpeting, or use as fill for golf courses.
Fly ash - Wikipedia

The nuclear power industry can produce 2500 tons of spent fuel a year. The coal industry produces 52 million tons of fly ash a year; reuse still leaves 28 million tons to deal with.

 

pickey picky pickey . . . .

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I don't know if driving on ev mode makes sense financially for the Prime in Southern California. Just looked at my Socal Edison bill and it is around .21/kwh (including all charges) since it will stay on tier-3 consumption

Given that you can only charge 60% of the 8.8kwh battery according to some on this forum, you will spend $1.11 to drive 24 miles or 51.7 mpge (based on $2.39/gallon I just filled up this morning at Costco). This is worse than driving it on hybrid mode without plugging in.

I honestly don't know where the 130mpge come from, unless they use tier-1 electricity price (around .10/kwh) to do the calculation.
Basically, you have to be a really modest electricity consuming household, that means consumption of under 288kwh/month to take advantage of the prime

 

Electricity cost has nothing to do with MPGe. MPGe is energy equivalent, not cost equivalent.

 

Driving on electricity can vary greatly in price.
Most people in the U.S. don't have tiered pricing.
Cost per kWh vary from free to ~$0.40/kWh depending upon utility and special rates.

The average U.S. cost right now, as I recall, is $0.13/kWh.
For some, the cost is free as they have paid for solar panels

 

Thanks. I just looked up and everthing is based on the 34kwh = 1 gallon given by EPA.
So at $2.39/gallon, my electricity cost has to be below 7cents/kwh to break even.
The advantage of buying the Prime right now is the tax rebates + HOV sticker for the next 2 year
The disadvantage is the higher cost + 1.9% interest.

 

I think your math is still off.
If electricity were 7c/kWh you could get 34kWh for $2.38. 34kWh will move a small electric car about 130 miles.
So if a gas car got you 130 miles, you would indeed be breaking even with electric costs.

If the gas car gets less than 130 miles/gallon, you come out ahead with electricity.

 

And that's one of the main reasons that we got solar. btw, gas in our area is aleady back up over $3/gallon & rising.
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I am rusty on the exact numbers but I feel you are looking at it correctly.
At current low gaso prices, don't look at it for fuel cost savings in your specific situation.
You have the other incentives, and many opting for plug-in want the power pep quality of EV drive, and many want to make an eco-statement on energy choices.

As for me, owning a Prius hybrid is currently my thing, but I am pragmatic, if I get a bunch of incentives I needed like HOV (which i do not in Va.) I'd go for it.

 

I posted a break even chart IN THIS THREAD! Page 4.

 

How long do you think that is going to last?

 

Lee Jay's chart is correct on page 4. My math is off. But it is still expensive to buy the Prime vs regular probably for California.

Basically, I am trying to justify my impulse purchase of a gen-4 two months ago instead of waiting for the Prime lol

Also, 4-seater is also a turn-off

 

No problem there. Buy what you like.
It is important to have accurate facts if facts are what you are using to base your decision on
Cars tend to be more of an emotional purchase.
So where facts are important, there is an emotional component as well.

 

This equivalence is a trap, useful only if that gasoline could be converted to mechanical or electrical energy with 100% conversion efficiency. None of our automotive engines can come anywhere close to that, throwing off your comparison.

 

And this is still using the method of converting everything to dollars for comparisons sake. Sometimes the $$$ makes no difference.

 

Almost. It's not probably bad for California. It's bad for you for the particular month. Others that use well under Tier 3 electricity due to solar panels or low consumption will benefit from EV driving. Blame the electric company for purposely obfuscating your electric rates.

For example, in summer months where peak rates are higher, it costs me more to charge than to use gasoline. However, in winter months with lower cost tiers, it costs more to use gasoline.

 

Gas here in Florida is $1.99 a gallon and I'm paying 13 cents a kWh. Both are cheap so it doesn't bother me

 

Drive on EV until gas kicks in, then charge immediately to full with a Kill-A-Watt device (if it can handle a load). Then we can kinda figure out the real mpge of the Prime. I wonder if anybody has attempted this

 

Kill-a-watt is only for 120v. L2 - 240v is almost 13% more efficientvthan 120v charging. Why stack the deck against electricity ?

just be glad you're not in tier 4. That's where SoCal Edison really makes you grab your ankles. And that's what most of our juice was being charged at many years ago prior to solar. It sure feels good to have SCE paying us instead. The check they send us helps pay for the Natural Gas

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