Electric Classic Cars is one of my favorites Youtube channels, although I am no car enthusiast, I don’t own a car or even plan to own one in the near future. In a particular video – Richard, the Youtube content creator – went thru his savings from going electric over a regular internal combustion engine equivalent car and the savings are staggering.
Six years ago he and his wife bought a new Tesla Model 3 -a model he describes as reliable, safe and with good performance – and since then drove 100,000 miles with it. Long story short, the estimated saving on fuel costs alone are 13,200 GBP / 15,000€ / 17,400 USD for just a 100 000 miles / 160 000 kms. That’s right, going electric helped them save 13 pennies per mile (or 9 euro cents per kilometer / 17 US cent per mile ). This is just insane.
This video is a perfect reminder that in general, cars cost a lot, especially over a long period : 35 000 GBP in their case, with a total of 15 000 GBP saved when accounting for running costs, depreciation and so on.
The comment section, for once, does not dissapoint and offers tons of other people experiencing what is “crude” reality for fossil fuels companies : electric vehicles are just a lot better, more efficient, more reliable, and thus much cheaper to run than “regular” gas or diesel cars.
Electric engines have much less parts than internal combustion ones. This makes maintenance and eventual repair easier and cheaper. With the advent of cheap solar pv – and in more and more countries, the obligation to cover parking lots with solar canopies – the future is electric.
Now, without further ado, here is the video :
To conclude, this doesn’t mean that private cars should be the be all and end all. Congestion will still be a problem if we swap our millions of polluting cars running on cas to the same number of electric cars. In cities, we need many more alternatives such as reliable public transportation and protected bike lanes. Between cities we need more high speed trains.
Image credits : Alexander Mils on Unsplash.
