[ausev] Battery costs

[Aaron Richardson]

I have been researching converting to an EV for several months now.  It
seems to me that the battery cost is pretty high and may even be the
same as that of ICEs as far as cost per mile.

My current vehicle gets 20 miles per gallon.  My round trip to work is
20 miles(8 miles of which is highway).  I put about 4400 miles on it per
year.  And I put the high octane gas in it.  So, it costs me about 0.12
per mile or $2.40 per trip to work.

Now, I am considering a sealed battery of some type, which is probably
more costly that floodies.  But I dont want the constant water checking.
So, a pack of batteries (at say 144V) would be in the neighborhood of
$2000-4000.

I ran some numbers through the evcalc
(http://www.geocities.com/hempev/EVCalculator.html) to see what mileage
I would get.  I picked mostly standard numbers (I think).  The only
thing I changed was the coef of drag to .34, I picked the ADC-FB-4001
motor, DCS100 batteries, zilla 1k controller, and left everything else
as default.  It calculated ~70 miles at 60mph.  So, taking this into
consideration I would maybe get 1500 cycles (more than 50% SOC usage
typically).

Now for my numbers...
So, 1500 cycles * 20 miles/trip = 30,000 miles
$2136 (battery pack price I found at
http://www.evconvert.com/images/396.jpg)
$2136 / 30000 miles = .0712 per mile
or $1.40 per trip.  Plus if I add in cost to recharge batteries, say .50
per trip then the total comes out to ~$2 per trip.

So, I get a little savings, but not much.  Is there something wrong with
my numbers?  Or is it just cost almost the same as gas?


And then I have the other big worry with batteries.  For me to get to
30000 miles I would be driving for almost 8 years.  In Texas...  I dont
know if it is comparable, but I have to replace the batteries in my cars
every 3 or 4 years.  If I take the 4 years before changing the pack then
I get 17600 miles from the pack, or .12 per mile and $2.40 per trip
(before recharge price).

Is this also a concern?  Do the batteries die faster in the Texas heat?
Do I just need to make sure I have AC running to the batteries?  Or is
this not really a concern because of some reason (no ICE in battery bay
to over heat them??)?


It seems like an EV car doesnt make sense at all economically.  It costs
more to build than an ICE (right now at least), I get no return on my
investment if I sell, and the operational costs are about the same as an
ICE.  I could swallow the first 2 issues, but it has got to be cheaper
than driving my current car everyday.  Otherwise the only reasons I have
for driving an EV are 1) fun factor (although I still have not been in a
moving EV yet)  2) reduction of use on oil and 3) reducing emissions
(always have to include this??).



thanks,
Aaron Richardson