[Barry Allen]

I've got a 2017 Cruze LT RS...and I also commute 180 miles a day, 5 days a week.

Trade it in for a Bolt EV.

 

[Barry Allen]

Or don't...Until GM makes an EV that isn't ugly as fcuk.(and there is sufficient EV infrastructure and vehicle tech to allow trips that exceed battery capacity not take triple or more time than in an internal combustion vehicle.)

It's a commuter beater that's going to rack up 45k a year. Who cares what it looks like? And depending on other vehicles the household owns, a BEV isn't a bad purchase for a commuter car when there are other gasoline/diesel vehicles in the household for long-distance trips. This person has the opportunity to entirely eliminate their reliance on fossil fuel for their ultra-commute and reap substantial savings.

 

[Barry Allen]

@ $.12/kwh

Electricity costs depend on where you live and who you can buy from, but 12¢ per kWh is high. That's HIGH. Where I live it's 5¢ per kWh with my city's electricity aggregation program that I didn't opt out of because the rates are about as low as you can get.

I also have the benefit of free charging at my workplace. If I had a daily round-trip commute of 180 miles my electricity cost would be $0. That's not the same case for everyone, though.

 

[Barry Allen]

Tax credit drops to $3750 April 1. So $34,495.

There is still a while until 01APR2019 that someone purchasing a new Bolt EV can get the entire $7,500 tax credit. Some people who get the entire $7,500 can’t use all of it because if you aren’t already in a high enough income bracket to owe that much to the IRS, you don’t get it refunded. It’s hit-and-miss for some potential purchasers.

Still, that puts a new Bolt EV at $30,745. That’s the price if you can’t find a Bolt EV without additional discounts. My local Chevy dealership had one on their sales floor for at least 10 months that they couldn’t sell it, so they had it marked down below MSRP. When I was shopping for my Cruze I briefly considered the Bolt EV but I just couldn’t get the math to work because I don’t qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit.

That’s a $11,250 difference if the purchaser qualifies for the entire tax credit available until 31MAR2019.

Five years of fuel makes the price difference -$6,428.57 using your estimated fuel costs. With the services you listed, it’s -$9,878.57.

Using an electricity cost of 5¢ per kWh ($3,165 for 63,300 kWh of electricity if you exclusively charge at home) brings that back to -$6,713.57

Almost $7,000 in savings is substantial. If the purchaser is like me and can charge for free at their workplace, it’s almost $10,000 in savings.

 

[Barry Allen]

There's only a tad more than 2 months til the credit halves,, that's why I went with the lower number, and later this year it halves again, and in a bit over a year it'll be gone. You could get a stripped Bolt, or you may be stuck with a loaded $44k version.
I can go down the street right now and purchase one of probably 10 Cruze LS for $16,500. Or I could get a Premier for less than $25k. My RS Redline Hatch was $19000. $.12/kwh is national average. It may be high, but $2.75 is too, there's 15 states were regular is $2.0X or less, national average is only $2.24 currently. And much of the service bill could EASILY be notably lower. I tried to pick fair numbers in both directions. And an all highway Cruze could potentially beat 35mpg by a notable margin as well.

The point is if you don't have "free" electricity, the Bolt isn't a money saver. One should really question whether free electricity is sustainable or desirable, we didn't even touch on what happens when you brake down 200 miles from the nearest Bolt certified shop...Or the fact that most significant Bolt accidents result in a total loss, or the fact that if you've gotta go out of pocket for EV system repairs that you could be easily dropping $12-15k. And of course it eventually comes back to....I think it's ugly and wouldnt pay for one. Neither would many other people....As evinced by it's sales.

I totally agree with you on the price. As I mentioned, I'd love to have a Bolt EV. The three biggest factors prevented me from buying: 1) Purchase price; 2) No tax credit for me, and; 3) I don't drive enough to make it worth it.

If technology had advanced enough to where I could get a Bolt EV for the same price I paid for my Cruze ($19,170), I'd have the Bolt EV right now. I'd be charging for free at my workplace and never paying for fuel (electricity) in my budget unless I drove somewhere on a longer-distance trip.

 

[Barry Allen]

The national average is 12.8 cents per KWh. Those living on the east coast from Virginia and north pay up to 30 cents per KWh, which at today's gas prices puts EVs on par with ICE vehicles for per-mile costs.

That's terrible to pay that much for electricity. It's uber-cheap where I live and we don't even have hydropower like is available many places. Electricity is cheap enough to install electric heat as an easy option instead of fossil fuels. My parents did a large remodel of their house to expand into a master bedroom & bathroom and instead of doing a bunch of ductwork that probably wouldn't work anyway with the furnace being undersized for the new addition, they installed a pair of electric baseboard heater (one in the bedroom and one in the kickboard of the bathroom) and some under-tile heating in the bathroom as a luxury. The electric bill went up basically nothing huge in the winter months and it allows them to keep the bedroom warmer at night while they turn down the furnace in the rest of the house with a programmable thermostat: 55 degrees at night and it kicks back up to 68 about 30 minutes before they wake up.