Mr_funnypuns
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Timothy
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2019
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 47
- Reaction score
- 26
- Location
- Chicago Suburbs
- Vehicles
- 2006 Toyota Prius, 2009 Hybrid Sierra, 1985 Fiero
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer and Six Sigma “Black Belt”
- Thread starter
- #1
Sometimes when discussing EVs we get passionate about them, and bring up the topic of climate change to justify the claim that anything that man can do to control climate change, we should be doing. Some of it may be worth doing, and I’ve done some of the things that are worth doing. 7.5 kW on my roof. DRiving a Prius for 17 years (my first was an ‘02 that got crunched in a crash). Walking and riding a bike when I can. Now looking seriously at EVs because they look mature enough to rely on. And more. However, I’m under no illusions... my personal choices are completely irrelevant to the climate: the degree to which it is changing is unaltered because I personally made these choices. So, I had to make them for other rational objective reasons.
The economics of why an EV makes sense is actually a fascinating analysis that is vastly oversimplified. I’m a six sigma black belt, and so I’ve been trained to think about choices in terms of rational value.
Here’s one point to consider: over the life of a gasoline car, how much time do you spend at the pump, and what value do you place on that time? It’s not an arbitrary number. People who pump gas rather than that change an EV are making a decision to fill a 25-gallon tank with gas at $3 a gallon. It takes ten minutes to fill that car up with $75 dollars of fuel. It takes maybe another 10 min to get in and out of the station. A driver might fill a gas tank up once a week for 60 years, so that works out to a total of 60 * 52 * 1/3 hour = 1040 hours. 1040 hours spent smelling gasoline, much in cold weather, rainy weather. Time that could be spent with a shorter commute, giving you extra sleeping time, an extra cup of coffee, an extra hug with family, or just allowing a lower stress level when driving.
When we make decisions about EVs we often neglect the value of our own free time, because we’ve never bothered to place a dollar value on it. Think about this: if we work 50 hours a week, and we get maybe an hour a day free... then you could value that hour of free time at 50x your hourly pay. That’s a reasonable estimate. Suppose you are working even a minimum wage job at $11 an hour. That means the the value of the time you spend pumping gas each year is 52 * 1/2 hour per week * $11 per hour * 50 =$14,300!!!
No way to convert that time to cash of course.... but it does serve to show that the time savings granted by an EV in terms of just the time saving at the pump is more significant a value than we think it is... and maybe should factor into our decision about whether to by an EV or not.
I started this topic to encourage rational economic thought about why to buy an EV... to avoid the polemics of debating whether EVs help the environment. The impact of an EV to an individual’s life is quantifiable and measurable, and is of great interest to anyone who is rational.
I wonder how many cost savings, time savings, quality of life improvements, or avoided irritations we can indentify, and having done that, what dollar value might be placed on them? Remember in this exercise, you can’t count the value to a group... only to the individual, because the choice to purchase an EV is an individual choice, not a group choice.
The economics of why an EV makes sense is actually a fascinating analysis that is vastly oversimplified. I’m a six sigma black belt, and so I’ve been trained to think about choices in terms of rational value.
Here’s one point to consider: over the life of a gasoline car, how much time do you spend at the pump, and what value do you place on that time? It’s not an arbitrary number. People who pump gas rather than that change an EV are making a decision to fill a 25-gallon tank with gas at $3 a gallon. It takes ten minutes to fill that car up with $75 dollars of fuel. It takes maybe another 10 min to get in and out of the station. A driver might fill a gas tank up once a week for 60 years, so that works out to a total of 60 * 52 * 1/3 hour = 1040 hours. 1040 hours spent smelling gasoline, much in cold weather, rainy weather. Time that could be spent with a shorter commute, giving you extra sleeping time, an extra cup of coffee, an extra hug with family, or just allowing a lower stress level when driving.
When we make decisions about EVs we often neglect the value of our own free time, because we’ve never bothered to place a dollar value on it. Think about this: if we work 50 hours a week, and we get maybe an hour a day free... then you could value that hour of free time at 50x your hourly pay. That’s a reasonable estimate. Suppose you are working even a minimum wage job at $11 an hour. That means the the value of the time you spend pumping gas each year is 52 * 1/2 hour per week * $11 per hour * 50 =$14,300!!!
No way to convert that time to cash of course.... but it does serve to show that the time savings granted by an EV in terms of just the time saving at the pump is more significant a value than we think it is... and maybe should factor into our decision about whether to by an EV or not.
I started this topic to encourage rational economic thought about why to buy an EV... to avoid the polemics of debating whether EVs help the environment. The impact of an EV to an individual’s life is quantifiable and measurable, and is of great interest to anyone who is rational.
I wonder how many cost savings, time savings, quality of life improvements, or avoided irritations we can indentify, and having done that, what dollar value might be placed on them? Remember in this exercise, you can’t count the value to a group... only to the individual, because the choice to purchase an EV is an individual choice, not a group choice.
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