The article says "Anyone who rents a Nissan Leaf from Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be able to charge their car for free at area hotels, near theme parks and downtown." Is it really "free" or is in in the rental fee somewhere?
. That you have a bigger problem then what is being discussed here.
I had not seen the news of chargers being installed at Disneyland posted on the forums, so thought it was relevant to the discussion. Somethings new at one property often brings something new to another.
The Nissan Leaf costs $28,980 for the base model. Fully loaded its a little over $35,000. In addition all electric cars still get a $7,500 tax credit plus a lot of state and local incentive programs exist. If you buy the base Leaf it costs $21,480 or fully loaded $27,500. The base model Nissan Altima costs $22,110. If you live in parts of CA, TX, DC, VA or MD with the Leaf you can sign up for the EVGo plan where for about $55 a month you get unlimited charging and they install a home charger you can use any time plus access to a network of quick charging stations you can use any time at no additional cost. I know I spend a lot more than $55 a month on gas.
Solar is very close to reality in CA at DLR. The market is ripe for a major solar installation. In Florida it's a little less appealing. Florida is still a fully regulated market so the monopoly utilities have no incentive to push solar. The price of electricity in the Southeast is still relatively low due to coal and nuclear plants and the close proximity to the gulf to buy cheap nat gas. If WDW was to make a big splash in solar it would probably be more like one of the NFL solar deals where a 3rd party comes in and installs and owns the panels and WDW just enters a long term agreement to buy the power produced from them. Then there is no maintenance or upkeep and you have a locked in cost for green power. They could most likely get a "market friendly" deal like the NFL teams who installed solar at their stadiums did since it also becomes a great source of free advertising for the energy company that installs and owns the panels. Could be a package deal where they sign on as an advertiser, maybe a new sponsor for an EPCOT pavilion or electric cars for the Speedway.
) to Drive Electric for at least one of their vehicles. And then there are all the other benefits...
No of course, not. But we are talking about *average* US electrical rates, and *average* economy gasoline only cars at *average* gas prices, not comparing expensive electricity (you are paying too much in New England by the way, I pay 5 cents less than that in New England for 100% renewable generation, time for you to switch suppliers!) and a best hybrid scenario like a Prius (hybrids cost as much or more than electrics now, btw - a base Prius II starts at ~$26,000)
Compare apples to apples and you see that it now makes sense in an economic sense for MANY IF NOT MOST PEOPLE (but maybe not you
Finally, you can't convince me a hybrid, even a best one, is simply cheaper to drive than an electric in New England...because my other car IS a gen II Toyota Prius ('08), and I know for a fact it is more expensive to drive every single month than my Volt...around 2-3 times more so, on average. What's your real world data?
You are hitting on a topic that is near and dear to me so bear with me a little on this. First, on the impact of de-regulation: Your electric bill consists of charges for the commodity electricity and the line charges for delivering the power. The line charges are still coming from a regulated utility and are based on approval of the public utility commission. Nothing changed with line charges in deregulation. The commodity electricity can now be purchased from other suppliers besides the legacy monopoly utility. De-regulation also means that wholesale electricity is now produced by independent producers instead of from plants owned and operated by the monopoly utility. When you say power is $0.22 per KW that must be the all in delivered price not just the commodity. You can buy electricity from a supplier for as little as $0.08 per KW. It's hard to quantify whether de-regulation itself resulted in higher prices. Prices are higher now than before de-regulation but you would have to look at the cost of the fuel used to generate the electricity. New England is pretty heavily dependent on natural gas as fuel for power plants. Before de-regulation CT had a number of old, dirty coal and oil burning power plants which produced cheap electricity and tons of pollution which were affectionately known as the sooty six. Through efforts of environmental groups and local politicians the sooty six have all been either shut down completely or repowered with nat gas. This was a huge win for your lungs but a big hit in your wallet. Your friends out in CA know all about the cost of having clean, environmentally friendly power. My point is that if we kept the monopoly utility model and shuttered the same plants would electricity prices have gone up? The answer is most definitely yes. So while it's easy to blame de-regulation for higher prices you have to see the complete story to understand why prices are up. In a simple example lets say you have an Exxon station down the street from you and you are paying $4 a gallon for gas. The station closes and six months later reopens as a Shell station and is charging $3.50 a gallon for gas. Through simple observation you could conclude that Shell gasoline is much cheaper than Exxon. However, in those 6 months the price of crude oil dropped significantly worldwide. Without that extra information your original conclusion would not be correct.
According to Nissan the Leaf has a cost of of roughly $0.035 per mile assuming electricity of $0.11 per KW. To make the math easier lets look at a standard distance of 100 miles. Buying power at $0.11 per KW it would cost $3.50 to go 100 miles. If you are paying $0.22 per KW (you really should shop around
) that means $7 to go 100 miles. A standard sedan gets about 25 miles to the gallon so if we assume gas costs $3.50 a gallon it costs $14 to go 100 miles or double the cost of the electric car.
According to Nissan the Leaf has a cost of of roughly $0.035 per mile assuming electricity of $0.11 per KW. To make the math easier lets look at a standard distance of 100 miles. Buying power at $0.11 per KW it would cost $3.50 to go 100 miles. If you are paying $0.22 per KW (you really should shop around
To be more exact a full charge from empty on a Leaf is about 24 KW. Even at $0.22 per KW that's $5.28 to fully charge. You will get about 75 miles on a full charge so $0.0704 per mile. That's $1.85 to go 25 miles. The average sedan gets 25 miles to the gallon. Unless gas drops below $1.85 per gallon the electric car is cheaper even if you are paying $0.22 per KW for the power.