Time to stop charging my PiP?

i can't give up electric driving, and my 'babies' borrow my car now. we're still at $2.45 and .16/kwh. i can't wait to hit the jersey turnpike this february for gas prices.

 

Running just on gas seems like a reasonable choice given all of the circumstances. The weather will warm up in a few months and gas prices will probably find a reason to move back up.

It wouldn't surprise me if Putin was already scheming to arrange a new oil-related conflict somewhere other than Russia in order to drive up prices again....

 

I wrote a response to this in another thread, but for me the economics are still quite convincing for electric. My electricity is only about .11/kWh. I do almost half of my charging for free at work. Most of my EV miles are used on short trips, less than 3 miles so the ICE is always in warmup. I would be lucky to average 35mpg city with my habits. I figure gas would have to get to under $1/gallon before it reaches parity with electric, and that's not even accounting for my free charging.

 

free charging is the best. i drive 4 miles to whole foods, plug in, go inside and eat all the free samples, and head back home with a full charge. it's a win-win. And the nice part is, the first 6 miles charge very quickly. you need to document this for future resale, you'll have the best used battery out there.

 

At work I'm being charged 11 cents the KWH and paying no more than 20 cent per work day and it renders me about 10 commuting miles in Winter time. I'm returning from work with about 1 extra surplus EV Miles
Recharging the PiP at home it is still for free.
I think that there is NOT a time to stop recharging the PiP.

 

Considering that essentially all the domestic hydrocarbons will be used regardless of your choice, I'd lean toward the viewpoint that all your marginal hydrocarbon use can be assigned to imports. So what fraction of imports are from OPEC or Putin, vs 'friends' such as Canada (and the Albertian tar sands )?

But note also that on the U.S. coasts, some of the electricity is also imported, from Canada, BC Hydro on my side and Hydro Quebec on your side. At least that is far better than OPEC and tar sands.

For global political reasons, I'd still like to continue tightening the screws on Putin by still minimizing oil use.

 

Exactly.

 

Part of that PIP flexibility if why you even had to list some of those items like burning gas to heat the car. The larger capacity PHEVs don't need to do that. So your only real criteria then would be not wanting to bother plugging in.

But you're still driving a Prius and only saving $0.08 for that trip or $1.60 every thousand miles. That's also assuming you are paying the national average rate and not one of the discounted rates like we get on an EV TOU rate system which can drop prices to as little as $0.04/kWh. Even at the typical California EV rate of $.10/kWh it would cost approx. $1.64 for a "100MPGe" PHEV to go 50 miles using the typical 3.5 miles per kWh. Like I've said before, you have to be careful how you make these calculations.

All kidding aside. It's nice to have flexibility in a vehicle for when your lifestyle changes. I sometimes wish I had a BEV but there have been changes in my lifestyle that would have left me severely cramped with the limited range. I like being able to just say screw it and fill up at the gas station. You made a good choice.

 

I just signed up for three years of 100% renewable electricity @ 10.5 cents. No thanks, I'll keep driving on nice, smooth and silent EV drive as much as I can.

 

I have a solar array that was installed late fall. Given that fact my average cost including how the solar array generates energy to the grid I average 9 cents per kwh. It'll probably end up being 10 then go back down once winter is over.

I won't stop charging my pip yet. I want more lol. They could have added more kwh to where the cord is stored...

 

I've yet to see a solar panel array that made good economic sense without substantial subsidies. In an ideal situation, all the payback years are far behind, and the panel is producing power for next to no cost. Getting there is always the problem.

 

You are right. Without federal and state credits, rebates, etc it doesn't make sense...but same with the plugins...

Here was my situation

• Solarize mass program came in to reduce the cost per kwh installed and give an extra rebate if a town hit a threshold of installation (mass purchasing cheapens it all)
• The 30% federal credit, a big one, can be rolled over currently for 3 years if your income cant support the credit. This is untrue with plugins...

My worst case estimated payback is 5 years because of those reasons. It made sense to buy a plugin car to fully take advantage of it all. And I wanted the most efficient car gad and hybrid wise. Bought the pip used because I could not make the credits back....

With out those incentives I dont think it'll be worth it. But compared to 10 years ago solar is waaaaay cheaper

 

I own a solar array, and I also own a Prius. I also buy organic foods, but none of it really makes good economic sense. I do it because of how it makes me feel, more than anything. Just being honest.

 

This makes sense. A two mile grocery run (in which you'd get no usable heat from the ICE anyhow) makes plenty of sense in EV mode given that the overall gas mileage would be far short of 50 mpg.

 

I've always made the case that running the PiP in EV mode makes sense only for short runs like that; but in that case, a bicycle usually makes even more sense.

 

Not in Fort Lee in January it doesn't!