thinking about getting a Volt for a commuter car....

[ZBB]

One other comment about driving the Volt...

There is a lip spoiler under the front bumper that VERY easily scrapes the ground on pavement dips. You may not notice it if the dips are not very steep -- but I hit it on a bunch of intersections (neighborhood roads, not main streets) in LA...

[lemming]

Originally Posted by ZBB

I'm going to see how the production Cadillac ELR looks and costs. Might give the Volt a bit of soul...

Plus, I'm committed to keeping the Boxster for at least another year. But who knows after that...

Funny. There seems to be quite a few people I know who say they want to see what the ELR turns out to be.

[lemming]

Waiting on Clyde's thinking now.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by ZBB

The one Motoman had was averaging over 120 MPG over ~5 days, including a "trip" to Orange Country to visit Fisker (the man and the company). Over the ~15 miles I drove it, the MPG went up about 6 MPG... He'd used under 3 gallons of gas.

My round-trip commute is ~60 miles. In the Boxster, that means about 2.7 gallons of gas per work day

GM's Volt FAQ says the Volt gets 35 MPG city when the engine is used, and that it has a 35 mile range on battery. Based on that, I'd expect to use 0.7 gallons per work day in a Volt -- although I'd need to charge it some at home (16 kWh battery, although you'd only need to charge 80% -- so 12.5 kWh).

For cost, I fill up the Boxster about every 5-6 commutes and put in 15-16 gallons to fill up -- so $55-$60 per fill up and 3.5 fill-ups per month, ~$200 per month. A Volt holds just over 9 gallons, so I'd guess a fill-up would be 8 gallons every ~2 weeks -- so $30 per fill up or $60 per month, plus a bit more electricity -- we pay ~$0.08 per kWh off-peak (9pm to 9am + weekends), so about $1 per day in electricity to charge a Volt each night. Call it ~$100 per month total.

That's pretty favorable math...

After a deep dive on my specifics, it looks like $5/mo of electricty (and no need for gas) in the Volt versus $35/mo of gas in a Focus ST to cover my commute...but my commute may change.

Looks like I can get a garage space within a few blocks of my building for $275 without trying hard to do better. Two years ago, I was paying almost nothing for my commute beyond gas for the short round trip drive. I'm now paying near $200 and hate every second of it.

So, a drive downtown and back every day would run me $17/mo for electricty in the Volt (and still no need for gas if I get a full charge each night) or $117/mo in gas in the ST.

Kinda makes leasing the Volt and driving it downtown a no brainer, right?

Then I look more closely at the Volt lease versus Focus ownership costs. I come up with $12.5k for the ST ($10.8 depreciation based on a guessed 60% retained value plus $1,680 for sales tax when new) and $16.3 for the Volt ($299/mo*36mo plus $2,749 down plus $2,400 tax plus $400 lease disp.)

If I drive downtown, I'm looking at $4,200 for gas in the ST or $600 in electricity for the Volt. This makes my cost $16.7 for the ST or $16.9 for the Volt.

If I keep my commute as it is now, I'd only spend $1,300 on gas in the ST compared to $185 of electricity for the Volt. That makes my ST cost $13.8 or $16.5 for the Volt.

The ST looks like the cost winner either way, but the Volt lease incentive is very week today compared to what it was in late October. If I remember GM correctly, they don't have their most aggressive incentives available the first week of the month.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by lemming

Waiting on Clyde's thinking now.

Sorry it took so long...work crept in...

[lemming]

Originally Posted by clyde

Sorry it took so long...work crept in...

it's good math.

it's educating me on how to work out my spreadsheet similarly.


thanks!

[clyde]

Originally Posted by lemming

it's good math.

it's educating me on how to work out my spreadsheet similarly.


thanks!

I don't know how good the math is. I totally skipped tax incentives. They make a wee bit of difference.

[lemming]

Originally Posted by clyde

I don't know how good the math is. I totally skipped tax incentives. They make a wee bit of difference.

i don't follow --do you mean simply at the transaction cost of the Volt and the tax incentivized cost afterward?

one thing (and this is minimal) is that the electrical companies (dunno about DELMARVA) give special rates for plug-in families during off-peak hours.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by lemming

i don't follow --do you mean simply at the transaction cost of the Volt and the tax incentivized cost afterward?

one thing (and this is minimal) is that the electrical companies (dunno about DELMARVA) give special rates for plug-in families during off-peak hours.

I'm talking about what my total life cycle cost would be. The federal tax credit isn't applied until your file your taxes for the year. State of Maryland has an excise tax credit as well that (I think) can be applied at the time of purchase. (Doesn't look like MA has anything similar.) Combined, they would take a massive bite out of my total end to end cost.

My power company has 3 rates for on, off, and intermediate. The spread is pretty tiny. I'm not sure how it would affect the rest of our electricty usage, but for the car, therey's a $10 difference over 3 years from most expensive to least (at current rates).

[kognito]

Clyde, I think there is one flaw in your math. The Volt charging station doesn't magically appear in your garage.

The volt doesn't plug into the wall like a drill, right? isn't the home charger a 220 system?