Why the Civic VX is a superior highway FE machine

[The Toecutter]

Unfortunately, a lot of EV builders/owners don't report battery costs in their cost/distance calculations. Batteries are consumables in EV's - analogous to having to replace your ICE car's gas tank every 20-30k miles, at a cost of roughly $900 (in the case of the above-pictured Metro with twelve T-125's @ $75 ea.)

Whereas the cost of gas to go 20-30k miles in a VX @ 75 mpg @ $3/gallon is $800 - $1200.

Of course it's never that cut and dry (and I didn't account for either electricity or ICE maintenance). But you get my point. EV's aren't as cheap to own/run as would appear at first glance.

Even factoring in periodic battery replacement, it is not at all uncommon for EVs to reach cost parity with their gasoline counterparts at under $2.00/gallon gas. The most important factor is properly designing your EV so that your commute isn't deep discharging the battery pack and shortening its cycle life, and selecting a reasonably priced battery.

Brian Methany had an electric Chevy S10 with 120 miles highway range. His pack was large enough to where it lasted ~45,000 miles, and had ~$2,000 cost. I did a little research and estimated that the cost parity with the gas version of the truck was about $1.60/gallon, and he provided a similar figure in the comments section of an EV World blog a long while back.


A study by Cuenca and Gaines found that if EVs were mass produced, cost parity with comparable gas powered cars would be around $1.30/gallon gas factoring in battery replacement(NiMH or lead acid). This was in the 1990s.

[Sludgy]

Originally Posted by The Toecutter

Even factoring in periodic battery replacement, it is not at all uncommon for EVs to reach cost parity with their gasoline counterparts at under $2.00/gallon gas. The most important factor is properly designing your EV so that your commute isn't deep discharging the battery pack and shortening its cycle life, and selecting a reasonably priced battery.

Brian Methany had an electric Chevy S10 with 120 miles highway range. His pack was large enough to where it lasted ~45,000 miles, and had ~$2,000 cost. I did a little research and estimated that the cost parity with the gas version of the truck was about $1.60/gallon, and he provided a similar figure in the comments section of an EV World blog a long while back.


A study by Cuenca and Gaines found that if EVs were mass produced, cost parity with comparable gas powered cars would be around $1.30/gallon gas factoring in battery replacement(NiMH or lead acid). This was in the 1990s.

Lead acid batteries don't take deep cycling very well. Deep cycling causes PBSO4 (which is created on discharge, and is needed to regenerate PBO2 and Pb at the anode and cathode on charging) to fall out of the plates, reducing capacity over time. Lithium electrodes are not immersed in liquid and don't have this problem, so they theoretically last much longer. Some lithium manufacturers are claiming over 2000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge.

Lithium battery technology and production capacity is advancing so fast that we should see lithiums in EVs and HEVs and PHEVs very soon. Toyota is looking at lithiums for the PHEV they promised.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Sludgy

Lithium battery technology and production capacity is advancing so fast that we should see lithiums in EVs and HEVs and PHEVs very soon. Toyota is looking at lithiums for the PHEV they promised.

This is getting way OT from why the VX is a superior FE highway monster, but...

Where has Toyota promised a PHEV? Last I read, they were only "investigating", and were still reluctant to pursue it due to battery cost/performance.