[ausev] Battery costs

[Roy Holder]

At 03:03 PM 12/14/2006 -0600, you wrote:


>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.

you did not include maintenance(oil change, timing belt, tune-up etc.), I
have seen .25 per mile thrown around as the cost of operation of an ICE,
exclusive of fuel costs, by fleet maintenance facilities.  EV's do not have
most of the maint items an ICE has.


>
(snip)
>
>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.

50 cents is way too hign.
cost of recharging will really be $.03-$.05 per trip, depending of
efficiency of your equipment. 
Also, dont depend om the evconvert.com battery prices, they tend to be off
a lot.

I have metered my elect geo at 96v, 108v and 120 volt battery packs and
found I can go about 88 to 95 miles on $3.00 of electricity at my house
elect rate.
thats $.033 per mile.


>snip some more...
>
>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. 

different battery technology, But I dont yet have a long term feel for
battery life myself.

And there is no ICE in battery bay to over heat them, they can generate
heat on their own depending on amperage draw though.  Mine are inside the
car, and under 200 to 300 amps draw they were never more than 'very warm'
to the touch this last summer.  Even with R/C car batteries that draw over
30C in current, I have not had any that were too hot to touch.
(30C is 30 times the rated storage capacity is amp draw)

 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??)?

Cold can be more of a concern than over heating. Luckily we dont have a lot
of cold here in Texas.


>
>
>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.  

It is cheaper than driving ICE , budget $.10to .12 per mile for EV Vs .37
per mile for your ICE.



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
>
>
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