Electric Cars: Government Subsidized Toys for Rich People

Hype for electric cars certainly has been making the rounds lately. Nissan has aired its nauseating polar bear commercial. Los Angeles is digging fiscal deficits buying people home chargers. And politicians are eager to take money by force from people who work and give it to people who are rich enough to buy a $30,000+ enclosed golf cart.

So how practical are these electric cars?

Well first off all, if you plan to drive anywhere cold, an electric car is not for you. Despite the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf being loaded down with hundreds of pounds of lithium ion batteries, they don't last very long. The Volt can get you about 35 miles on it's hundreds of pounds of lithium, and the Leaf can get you maybe 75. And guess what... when it's cold out, lithium ion batteries don't perform even that well. What also happens when it's cold? It snows. What if you were caught in a snow storm with an all-electric car? The heater also runs off the battery... do you feel like gambling with your safety? At least the Chevy Volt kicks over to its premium gasoline-powered engine after you drive a half hour. But I guess that defeats the purpose.

And how bout those batteries? Another "gotcha" of electric cars is the limited number of recharge cycles those batteries will last. Nissan says you'll have to replace the battery after 7-10 years. The current battery cost? About $18,000. Let's see... how much gasoline can you buy for $18,000?

Let's assume a generous $4.50 per gallon. $18,000 will get you 4,000 gallons of gasoline. If you are driving a car that gets an average of 25 miles per gallon, you can drive 100,000 miles for the cost of the battery pack in the Nissan Leaf. If you average 30 mpg, that's 120,000 miles. If the car costs $32,780, and the battery pack is $18,000, what kind of features are you omitting?

Can you say "depreciation?" Do you think you can sell a car that has a partially depleted lithium ion battery pack? People assume that lithium ion battery packs will come down in price over time. Let's play the unproven assumptions game and assume they are right. If the lithium ion battery pack drops 50% over the next 5 years, how easy do you think it will be to sell a car with a partially depleted battery pack, if the battery pack will cost $9,000 to replace?

Here are some comparisons:

The Nissan Altima costs $20,270. The Leaf costs $32,780. The Altima is bigger and can actually go on a road trip.

You can buy a lot of gasoline for $12,000, the difference in cost between the two cars. Which car do you think will depreciate faster? Which car don't you have to spend ten grand on to replace the battery when it wears out?

The Chevy Cruze costs $16,525. The Volt costs $40,280.

How much gasoline can you buy for the difference between the two vehicles– $23,755? (Hint: you could buy gasoline for longer than the Volt's battery lasts)

Electric cars are super expensive, and not very practical. But wait... the government is here to help!

Equipped with a limitless credit card and $14.3 trillion in debt, the government has so generously offered to take money by force from other people and give it to YOU... if you buy an electric car!

I guess there's a silver lining to every lithium ion cloud.

But at least electric cars are "zero-emissions," right? That should make us feel good at least.

Well, the Chevy Volt primarily runs on premium gasoline. So it's not really even an electric car.

The Nissan Leaf gets its power from the power grid, which, in the United States, is primarily coal power. So your Nissan Leaf, instead of burning gasoline, essentially burns coal and a mixture of other power sources. Does the polar bear realize this?

Why does anybody want these things again?