Hybrid truck recharges from overhead wires in Germany - GIF

[Frank S]

we were doing the calculations on the upfront cost to charge an electric car that runs 100 miles every day by solar only.
First it takes 3 power walls then $12,000.00 for the solar panels plus installation and the converter. By the time all costs were figured in even an AI program on Bing said the upfront cost was $36,000.00 Factor in the price of the vehicle in my case it would have to be a pickup so say 65,000.00
Now were are at 101,000.00 if you paid cash for everything. The power walls figure to have a use life at the discharge rate required to recharge the truck after 100 miles every day of 5 years solar panel 10 years except we have large damaging hail every year so being conservative say five years the truck 36,000 per year 180,000 is not unreasonable but the battery will be shot the only thing left with use life after 5 years is the converter 100,000 miles would cost 56 cents per mile driven not including insurance registrations tires brakes and other incidentals.

Now look at a gas powered same class truck $40,000.00 , 5 years 180,000 miles driven 18MPG gas cost average $4.00 per gallon 10,000 gallons used $40,000.00
24 oil changes @7500 mile intervals $100.00 per change $2400.00 total $82,400.00 in 5 years and the truck will still be going again excluding tires brakes insurance registration I would expect I would average closer to 22 MPG with a 5-year average gas price of $3.50
But I'm still sticking with my 33 year old F350 diesel that still averages 18 MPG and it is enough truck to do something with even better you can't dent it with a marshmallow A base ball hit with a Louisville slugger maybe

[schuylergrace]

we were doing the calculations on the upfront cost to charge an electric car that runs 100 miles every day by solar only.
First it takes 3 power walls then $12,000.00 for the solar panels plus installation and the converter. By the time all costs were figured in even an AI program on Bing said the upfront cost was $36,000.00 Factor in the price of the vehicle in my case it would have to be a pickup so say 65,000.00
Now were are at 101,000.00 if you paid cash for everything. The power walls figure to have a use life at the discharge rate required to recharge the truck after 100 miles every day of 5 years solar panel 10 years except we have large damaging hail every year so being conservative say five years the truck 36,000 per year 180,000 is not unreasonable but the battery will be shot the only thing left with use life after 5 years is the converter 100,000 miles would cost 56 cents per mile driven not including insurance registrations tires brakes and other incidentals.

If you are on the grid, Frank, why would you want to invest in solar/battery solely to recharge a truck? While I think distributed power generation is where we are headed, we aren't really there, yet, and it's much more efficient for a big power company invest in a diversified suite of power sources with the economies of scale they can gain. I'm pretty sure you'd come out ahead in your calculations, and you wouldn't be emitting so many particulates and greenhouse gasses, if you simply installed a charger that was grid powered and did most of your charging off-peak (if you are on some sort of time of use plan).

[Frank S]

If you are on the grid, Frank, why would you want to invest in solar/battery solely to recharge a truck? While I think distributed power generation is where we are headed, we aren't really there, yet, and it's much more efficient for a big power company invest in a diversified suite of power sources with the economies of scale they can gain. I'm pretty sure you'd come out ahead in your calculations, and you wouldn't be emitting so many particulates and greenhouse gasses, if you simply installed a charger that was grid powered and did most of your charging off-peak (if you are on some sort of time of use plan).

This was just a what if, for a friend of mine. We also discussed the prospect of him removing himself from the grid and using his RV generator as the backup but without the EV vehicle,

a number of people have supposedly done studies about the cost differences in going EV charging from their home instead of gasoline vehicles even if you could garner a decent off-peak rate a full EV costs 2 to 2.5 times as much to operate than a gas powered one. due to the cost of electricity on many areas, and no matter how they try and pump the green thing there is nothing green about electrical energy without nuclear power generation. followed by natural gas as the backup co-generation
My friend owns a 2019 Ford hybrid thing non plug in that averages him 45MPG. Yeah, well OK I drove a VW diesel in Europe 15 years ago that averaged better than 60 MPG when you converted from liters Kilometers to miles and gallons, I drive it like I stole it. He only drives 55 MPH wherever he goes so he can keep his milage up.