4th generation coming 2015!

For me, gas would have to get down to $1/gallon for gas to be a cheaper fuel than electricity, if driving a Prius. 50 cents/gallon if driving a car that got average gas mileage.

OPEC is playing a waiting game. If they cut production they would loose prices.
If they maintain production and deal with the pain in the short term, they will push out many oil producers of more expensive shale and tar sands oil.
Once they have bankrupted a number of those guys, they will have a firmer hold on the market again.

Of course, in the mean time it helps economies, hurts Russia and ISIS. So all in all, a temporary, but fairly helpful turn of events.

It will slow EV sales growth, however it won't stop them.

 

Yeah pretty sure OPEC is keeping prices low to make tar sands economically senseless. Tar and shale are not cheap, they were just cheaper than the prices of oil at the time. As that comes down, they will eventually become useless – the amount of money needed to pump out and refine the crude will exceed the amount of money you would receive for it.

I suspect some of the OPEC countries also don't mind reducing ISIS's ability to fund itself.

 

Gas would have to go below $1/gallon to be cheaper than driving a Prius? Or Tesla?

On the site: Your Questions Answered | Tesla Motors - I put in $0.14 electric (which is low) and $2 gas. A 50 mpg car saves $22 per 30k miles. Yeah difference is low, but I just heard a report that electricity is going up everywhere unfortunately. Electric up, gas down...frustrating to plug in now

Perhaps the ultimate answer is the 4th gen 60 mpg+ prius...

 

Sorry, I worded that the wrong way.
I should have said gasoline would need to get down to $1/gallon in order for fueling a Prius to be cheaper than fueling our Tesla.

As I said, this is for me. Electric prices and charging structures vary.
We charge overnight and get off peak rates of 5.7 cents/kWh.

 

Who in this forum thinks they are buying an EV or hybrid with the intention of saving money?

 

Anybody who keeps their cars well maintained for long-term ownership, and is facile with arithmetic.

300k mile ownership
3 cents a mile fuel savings
= $9,000 lifetime savings

 

Add in the extra $ spent and the lost opportunity cost of investing that money and continue the math.

 

20 is too close to 13. I'd go with the 30 miles of EV.

 

For me, the closer the AER is to my typical longest weekly commute, the less important mpg is.
This is exactly why I moved to a 35 mile AER car, although I have since moved on from that as well.

As for what I gave up... I gave up a fifth seat, a little cargo room and about 13mpg. My electric bill went up about $15, my gas bill went down about $70.

 

Add in the interest on the fuel savings to see that you do not have to calculate the capitalization opportunity loss, assuming there is any interest to be had of any significance in this recession environment. Now add in the value of a fuel cost hedge and a carbon taxation hedge*.

The $9,000 is fuel savings is considerably more than the hybrid premium

*If you doubt the latter, look up Goldman Sach's estimate of power utility stock values 10 years from now.

 

Buying not one, but two Prius over the last 10 years is one of the best decisions I've made.
And there is no hybrid premium or extra cost to buying a Prius. Any car that cost more than your baseline vehicle has a premium cost. When will those cars net a return on their cost? Prius does and will..

When did anyone ever expect the premium paid for a Mustang GT , or a BMW or whatever, to be returned in a monetary cost saving way? So why is the Prius held to that standard when no other car is? Fact is those car's premium will cost you even more money down the road . But, Prius can save you money.

So I buy a Prius knowing it's the highest gas-mileage, and one of the most reliable and least expensive to operate cars. Definetly worth the phantom premium..

 

Some of my coworkers often tease me for driving a "boring grandma car". Then they whine about having to spend $50+ on gas every week on their trucks, sports cars, and SUV's.

So any time I hear them complain about having to fill up their car, I politely remind them that my "grandma car" cost me about $1 in gas to get to work (and I live 19 miles away, about twice the distance of most of them w/ the gas guzzlers), and about $25-35 every two weeks to fill up completely. And the cargo room is pretty nice too.

Here's to hoping that the Gen 4 blows us away with even better mpg and faster performance.

 

We've actually paid for ($10.5k) our Gen II in diesel fuel savings not having to drive our F250 daily for the last 2 years. So, *raises hand*, ME!

 

Exactly. Not to mention the savings we incur by not having to contend with routine brake jobs as often, etc.
There are so many cost savings with a Prius, before you even consider fuel cost savings.
Everyone that rides in my Prius walks away saying, "wow, I didn't realize. I need one of these".
The so called "hybrid premium" is the biggest farce ever.


"

 

It's probably a case of sour grapes. Because they can't afford or don't want to buy one, and they hear about the savings many prius owners tend to have, they justify not having one by criticizing it, aka the "hybrid premium", or "battery will cost $10,000 to replace!".

I know I thought that way, until I bought one myself.

 

I'd go with AER too. Though my round trip to work is 38 miles, in warmer weather I can probably do it regularly in full EV with 30 miles to work with and utilizing some hybrid driving techniques. The less gas I have to use, the better.

 

Buy a Model S and then sell it in 2 or 3 yrs to get something more reasonably priced? The loss on selling the Model S used is probably less than the price to lease it.

 

The aforementioned hybrid premium is nothing in comparison to the Tesla premium, and I can tell you I have a serious case of Tesla EV envy these days, even with gas dipping so low.