EVs Pure Electric Vehicles

Thanks for adding some number sense to my reply to the post asking for inexpensive EV's. I knew there had to be a vast difference in the total cost of owning and operating an EV compared to the average new car or truck. I just wish the auto industry would resign itself to change as quickly as possible. I think many alternatives are already available here in California. I feel the pain of the post from Texas because I am from there. I chose to change careers twenty years ago when the oil industry job I had went away with reductions in national decreases in prospecting for oil. I have always suspected that the majors wanted to control the price of oil by limiting our country's supply. You may not be aware that there were 33 different oil companies ten years ago here in California. Now, there are only 11 or less, and in that same time no new refineries have been built. In fact, in Texas, in my home town of Port Arthur, the onetime largest refinery in the world (that my father worked at for almost 50 years) which was a TEXACO operation, has been in the possession of a Saudi oil company for almost ten years now.

The seeds of change have been sown, but the herbicides are powerful. Powerful people can crush anything, but not everything if enough of us use our buying power to support green alternatives.

I happen to be related to a person featured in the "Who Killed The Electric Car" movie. His role is in developing hydrogen fuel at Shell. I had my first job twenty-seven years ago doing seismic data processing. My former father-in-law is an oil prospector in Texas. My father worked for Texaco for almost fifty years in shipping refinery products. I have a basic degree in Physics. I have worked for the last twenty years with medical physics specialists in various places fighting cancer with selective doses of radiation. This is how I came to be here in California. I hope to support green technology as it emerges here in California with my own spending habits. My wife and I now own a Honda Civic Hybrid. I would like to own a Phoenix SUT as my next vehicle. We may have an ability next year to purchase one when they go into mass production. I believe that CNG cars and trucks with plug in hybrid electric motors could be a much better alternative to gasoline/electric hybrids. THAT technology is already available. Someone just needs to get the two together.

You brought up a point that I also have been discussing with my son who has spent some time researching this topic. What he tells me is that if you add up the real cost of any car or truck over its lifetime and compare that with the total cost of owning and operating an EV then you may be able to justify a higher initial cost since repair and operating costs will likely be considerably less than even the newest type of standard car or truck. I think, for example, if the Phoenix SUT will cost 35K or less then this may be very affordable if the operating costs are considerable less than the average truck. When comparing an EV to a gasoline vehicle, you must compare differences in actual operating costs. Gasoline and maintenance for all of the moving parts is a real cost for even todays trucks. If you have seen the movie, "Who killed the electric car" then you will see why the entire industry revolving around gasoline vehicles is trying very hard not to let the american public change its emphasis on them. The revenue related to maintenance and operation of gasoline driven vehicles may be (counting also the oil industry) a very large part of the daily exchange of money for products and services in this country. Very few industries in this country have changed over even the last five years as quickly as the computer and software industry. You may not have to think very hard to know someone or some company that is part of the computer industry that has had to change jobs, locations, or simply has had to sell out to meet the rapid changes in the industry. If this same thing could happen to people, companies, and revenue related to gasoline use as rapidly as it has happened in the computer industry then think about how ripping out the "roots" too quickly that are feeding the commerce in this country would not be good for all of us.

I want an inexpensive EV, but more than anything else, I want to pay for a good practical one that will really cost me less than a gasoline vehicle costs to purchase, drive, and keep it running over its lifetime, whether I am leasing or buying the EV to keep it until I wear it out.