Life + Arts

Electric cars don’t have the power

The Nissan Leaf and other electric cars like it cost less in fuel, but pose a bigger problem in financing — resulting more expensive than similar gas-powered vehicles. Additionally, electric cars require more frequent charging than gas-powered vehicles require filling up.  |  Rudolf Simon/Wikimedia Commons

The Nissan Leaf and other electric cars like it cost less in fuel, but pose a bigger problem in financing — resulting more expensive than similar gas-powered vehicles. Additionally, electric cars require more frequent charging than gas-powered vehicles require filling up. | Rudolf Simon/Wikimedia Commons

While hanging out at the University Center on Monday, many curious on-lookers could not help but notice the shiny, silver Nissans lined up in the UC drop-off lane, ready for a test drive.

It was more like a test convoy, as the cars would pull out, make their drive around the campus one behind the other, and come back about 15 minutes later.

What some test-drivers might not have noticed offhand was the car model’s name: the Nissan Leaf. How many of those test-drivers knew that the Leaf is an electric car? Not a hybrid — all electric. This is not the Chevy Volt, which can run on gas or electrical power. This is a Nissan Leaf.

So, how much is change worth? Let’s use three points of comparison: price, power and range.

If you said, way too expensive for me and my student loans, that’s up for debate, but the actual price is around $27,700.

What about the Daimler Smart Fortwo Electric Drive? What about the car that more or less resembles the “Urkelmobile,” or BMW 300 Isetta, but without the goofy front opening? According to caranddriver.com, the 250 available Fortwo Electric Drive units require a 48-month lease at $599 per month. That is a grand total of $28,752.

The DeLorean Motor Company of Humble — which created the car from “Back to the Future” — is back in business, and when the calendar reaches 2013, we are in for some serious shock. The DMC-12, slated to cost about $90,000 is shockingly awesome.

Now compare these prices to a 2012 gas model. The Chevrolet Sonic Hatchback 2LZ runs at $19,580. That is around $8,000 less than the Leaf, $10,000 less than the Smart electric drive and over $80,000 less than the DMC-12. Even when taking into account the $7,500 tax credit given to buyers of electric vehicles, the Sonic is still cheaper. The advantage goes to the Sonic 2LZ.

In addition to the price, horsepower is another point of contention in buying an electric car. Americans love their horsepower. One problem many have had for so long about electric cars is the lack of horses under the hood.

Nissan leaves this particular stat out on the Leaf’s website, but upon further research, it pulls only 107 horses.

Not too impressive, but definitely more powerful than the Fortwo Electric Drive, which putters out at 40 horsepower.

Both of these vehicles are out-matched by the cheaper Sonic 2LZ, which pulls 138 horsepower. Even the Sonic gets outclassed by the DMC-12, which has 260 horsepower.

Then there is a matter of range — how far a single charge or tank of gas can go. Nissan says the Leaf can go 100 miles between charges. Better than the Fortwo Electric Drive’s 84-mile range, and even outclassing the DMC-12’s 70-mile range. This is where the Sonic 2LZ and other gas vehicles shine. The Sonic gets 25 mpg in the city, and 35 mpg on the highway for a maximum range of 427 miles. The advantage goes to the Sonic 2LZ, though we all know gas is not friendly to the environment, and at around $3.25 per gallon, not very friendly on the wallet either.

Gas-electric hybrids have been on the market for years now, and the prices of those cars are finally getting reasonable. It is hard to imagine how much General Motor’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, debuting in 2015, will cost.

In giving a demonstration to the environmentally-conscious college crowd, it’s important to note that it will be years before many on campus can truly afford these gas-free cars.

The power of these cars, with the exception of the DMC-12, is very weak.

The consumer can go a lot further on a tank of gas than they could on a single charge. One would have to power up several times just to get the same range as a tank of gas.

Electric cars are a viable option if one is traveling in the city with no traffic, but for longer commutes and rush-hour traffic, stick with gas — in the end, you’ll save yourself a few pennies, too.

16 Comments

  • Or maybe, just maybe, you can learn how to live life without a car and get even greater savings! There may be some inconveniences of course, but you could always rent/borrow a car, ask a friend or whatever if you needed a car. Or carpool. It's great that I always have extra spending money since it's not being used to pay off car payments, insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.

    That being said, the whole electric car thing is pretty meh. Outside of costs, since it's obviously the latest technology, they're targeted towards urban dwellers with reasonable commutes or occasional use when not using public transit.

  • You need a better Journalism Department, this article is amateurish. As far as horsepower is concerned, I have a Leaf and can beat any car away from a traffic light. But the main problem with this article is that it compares a Model T Ford with today's sports cars. Today's electric cars are the Model T's, which at the current pace on innovation will outclass every ICE shortly. ICE's have gone as far as they can go.

  • This is perhaps one of the worst articles I've ever seen on electric cars. You're comparing gas range to all-electric range? Really? How about mentioning the fact that more than 70% of the commuting population drives no more than 40 miles per day? And power? Have you driven an electric car? The torque destroys any conventional ICE vehicle. But yeah, we should definitely keep driving around in outdated ICE vehicles. I love relying on a vehicle that requires oil changes, tune-ups, a ton of gasoline which requires oil from countries that want to wipe us off the map. And oh yeah, nothing says progress like choking on exhaust. Grow up!

  • Not to mention that the article says nothing about running costs. Lets face it, no one is buying the car up front for cash, so you have to factor in how much you'll be saving on gas vs the higher monthly payment. Also, this is talking about campus kids, who do the majority of their driving in town, which is the exact target of the low range electric vehicles of today. Fail article, epic fail even.

  • I love gas hot-rods and ecomodder refinements. But I don't get why this article is discussing practicality with a campus crowd and for some unknown reason, range of 70 to 100 mile range (per charge) is sited as a problem? Cost per mile for the EV's is approximately 1/10th that of gas. The lack of oil changes, belts and spark plugs to buy is a plus. There's no mention, that by the time a kid graduates, will the cost per mile savings have made up the difference in a higher vehicle cost. A real issues for this demographic, is where do they charge (without a line) if they live in a dorm? Keep an eye out for increasing campus charge stations. The gas vs. EV vehicle cost difference over the next couple of years is likely to diminish.

    My2cents,
    Kirk Swaney http://www.shiftev.com http://www.destinyparts.com

  • Houston = driver's Heaven. (Or Hell, depending.) Besides, Petro help build Texas, so it's enshrined here. No such thing as sensible eco-friendly driving. It's un-Houstonian. It would be an insult to the money now wasted on repairing crumbling freeways while building new ones to accommodate the urban sprawl we boastfully call home. What? Save money by taking care of the environment! That's crazy talk for those looney-tunes up north! Well, maybe when the price comes down, like it eventually did after Ford's little rickety death traps came off the lines in Detroit and scared horseback riders to death. Trains spooked folks, too, but that's another story.
    And Henry's little car cost (in todays dollars) about 20K, and fell, and fell, yearly since 1908. Mass production fueled by demand is funny that way.

  • I suggest that Aaron Manuel write his next article while parked in a closed garage with his engine running. To leave out the effects his favored petroleum has on our environment is a travesty. People die because of oil. Breathing the pollution causes cancers, heart and lung diseases, and then there's that little problem of fighting wars for oil. We've lost thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands severely wounded. To not even mention these costs in his "cost comparison" shows his disdain for the security of our country and our soldier's lives.

    • Mining for coal is even deadlier. Mine collapses, mountaintop removal mining, tailing pond floods, the list goes on and on. The electricity has to come from somewhere, and most of it comes from coal. Now, if the electricity came from electricity generated by wind turbines that use the electricity to pump some liquid to a higher elevation as a sort of battery for later use, then it's a different matter.

  • This article is wildly bias – ICE's had ~100 year head start, of course they will seem better!
    However, thanks to new battery technology, EV's are poised to revolutionize light-duty transportation as we know it. My bet is this article will seem very quaint in 5-10 years.

    Two more things:

    1. Horsepower ratings between gas (or diesel) powered cars and Electric cars are NOT comparable; for gas/diesel, horsepower is measured at "peak" – meaning the best you will ever get, usually at an RPM one will never reach in daily driving, while EV's have a rating that is constant. For instance, the Chevy sonic mentioned has a horsepower rating of 138 hp @ 6300 rpm – NO ONE drives in the city at (virtual) redline, so you will never get to that number. However, the Leaf has a horsepower rating of 107 hp @ 0 rpm, meaning INSTANT power. I guarantee that a Leaf will beat a Sonic from a traffic light anytime.

    2. Most college students don't have money for a new car anyway, so comparing prices alone isn't really useful.

    p.s. I think it's odd that most are quick to say electricity comes from coal (which is dirty), but almost no one mentions how many steps there are to get crude oil to be gasoline (probably no better). EV's are more efficient by a long shot, so it probably better for the environment anyway.

  • This article is wildly bias – ICE's had ~100 year head start, of course they will seem better!
    However, thanks to new battery technology, EV's are poised to revolutionize light-duty transportation as we know it. My bet is this article will seem very quaint in 5-10 years.

    Two more things:

    1. Horsepower ratings between gas (or diesel) powered cars and Electric cars are NOT comparable; for gas/diesel, horsepower is measured at "peak" – meaning the best you will ever get, usually at an RPM one will never reach in daily driving, while EV's have a rating that is constant. For instance, the Chevy sonic mentioned has a horsepower rating of 138 hp @ 6300 rpm – NO ONE drives in the city at (virtual) redline, so you will never get to that number. However, the Leaf has a horsepower rating of 107 hp @ 0 rpm, meaning INSTANT power. I guarantee that a Leaf will beat a Sonic from a traffic light anytime.

    2. Most college students don't have money for a new car anyway, so comparing prices alone isn't really useful.

    p.s. I think it's odd that most are quick to say electricity comes from coal (which is dirty), but almost no one mentions how many steps there are to get crude oil to be gasoline (probably no better). EV's are more efficient by a long shot, so it probably better for the environment anyway.

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