should I buy an electric car?
I mean, duh, of course I should. But when? I just watched ‘who killed the electric car?‘, which is a great film, especially if you’re into corporate conspiracies. It was hard to watch all the despondent drivers of EV1s stand by and let Ford take away their beloved cars - and crappy as my car might be, I understand the sort of investment people have in their automobiles.
But electric cars are expensive, aren’t they? I have no doubt that they’d be cost-effective, but I only spend about $30 on gas a month - a far cry from the amount I’d be spending on car payments if I bought a Prius hybrid, for example. They retail at about $22,000 - and in terms of monthly payments, that’d be $1800 a month over a year, $915 a month over two years, $610 a month over three years (roughly what I’m currently paying for rent), or $460 a month over four years - that’s where it starts to get more affordable, but still, that’s a lot of money, considering I probably spend about $400 on gas a year, even with my car being the shape that its in.
Now, to be fair, I probably don’t really need a Prius - what if I kept my gas-guzzling Geo Prizm (maybe even fixed it up a bit), and bought a little ‘metro’ car to go along with it, one that I’d just drive around the city, but wouldn’t take on long trips, or carry big groups of people in? There’s a place called ‘Eco-motion‘ just down NE Sandy from my house, and it’s got some cool looking vehicles - for instance, I could get an electric scooter for about $3,000, which seems pretty reasonable to me - although they won’t go much faster then around 35, and won’t go much farther then 30 miles per charge. Somehow I think I could find a way to ‘upgrade’ it a bit to go faster or farther, if I wanted, considering all the ‘green DIY’ vibes in portland.
But what I’d really want it something roughly analogous to my Prizm - capable of 60mph, able to seat at least two people, that sort of thing. The cute little ‘Xebra’s are close - I could get one for $6,000, which would be $500 a month over a year, $250 over two years, $165 over three, et cetera. I probably wouldn’t want to stretch it out for more then a couple years or three, maybe - I just don’t like owing money for that long (my student loans are one of the exceptions I’m willing to make). Even a few months in debt stresses me out. It’s an uncomfortable position to be in, second-guessing every purchase you make. But enough about my insecurities. That Xebra thing is maybe a little faster then the electric scooters, and certainly carries more, so I could use it for groceries and whatever. I could actually buy a small fleet of these electric vehicles for the cost of a new prius hybrid, which is a tantalizing option, and apparently I’m not the only one to think of it, although that article suggests that I might also regret it - like so many other battery-powered devices, the actual operating time is ridiculously removed from the idealized number sold by the manufacturer. ‘Hype Machine‘, an article in Wired, makes me incredibly reluctant to go near anything ‘Zap’ produces.
But they can’t all be bad, right? The idea of a smaller, reasonably-powered vehicle must be attainable. Unfortunately, Zap cars seem to be the bulk of Eco-Motion’s inventory, so that kills my chances of shopping somewhere local, as far as I know. The Tesla Roadster is too luxury, and we’ve already established that the Prius is in the same boat - although maybe a used Prius would be okay? Still, it’s only a hybrid, not a straight-up electric, and the idea of having a car with an electric engine is appealing - I feel like I could have a better chance of getting to know how it works, since there would be a few less parts to deal with. But this is where my knowledge and interest runs out - with no new options in front of me, I guess I just have to wait a few years until this stuff becomes more viable, and more readily available. If anyone knows of a good way to get ahold of a reasonably-powered plug-in car for less then 10k from a company that isn’t sleazy, let me know. Otherwise, electric cars are going to be like laser eye surgery - I’ll get some one day, but until then, I’ll have to make do with what I’ve got.