So for the first 100k miles the cost of the battery is irrelevant? Buying a NEW battery pack ontop of the OEM fitted one gives a service life of 200k miles so the cost needs to be attributed across that lifecyle mileage, not 100k. That was all my point was, its pretty straightforward. The Telsa isnt a typical EV IMO either. It has one battery pack, a battery of many many cells. Thats how batterie work, Mukay?
I have no idea on the State of Charge window the Telsa operates in with its battery tech, NiMH and more so Li-ion wont degrade as significantly overtime though.
I imagine the 1p a mile is something like a G-whizz in terms of pure fuel cost rather than your usual 'runnings costs', and a politician was using in the normal fashion. ie BS.
Id also like to discredit your 4p a mile for an Elise which is frankly laughable. A honda Insight would only just manage that doing a 'kilo tank' if it cost £40 to fill.
Pretty much any car out there will be atleast 12p a mile purely in fuel.
As a final point, portable solar panel in the boot for setting up at work and one on the garage roof. Can you give me the cost per mile then please?
I'm sure you would like to discredit my figures, but I gave figures, calculations, breakdowns of figures and sources. You have discredited none of them and provided none of your own.
The Tesla is using Li-ion batteries, so the figures are applying to Li-ion batteries. Which do indeed degrade less than some other types - the costs would be even greater with those. You'd be better off referring to the new type of battery tech that I referred to - nano Lithium Titanate. Those degrade much more slowly than Li-ion batteries. It's claimed they do, at least - I haven't seen them tested. They are sold as such, though, so I'm assuming they must have been tested. They're even more expensive to buy, but they would reduce running costs.
The Tesla isn't a typical EV, but an Elise R isn't a typical ICEV. There are many commonplace ICEVs that give double the fuel economy of an Elise R and a few odd ones that approach triple. The Tesla is the highest-profile EV because it's a roadster positioned directly against ICEV roadsters (although it spanks them on acceleration). If you're going to use a high-economy EV, you should compare it with a high-economy ICEV, not an Elise R.
I'm also not going to give you a free pass on quoting the price of fuel+tax+tax+tax as the cost of fuel. For an Elise R, it's 3.56p/mile purely in fuel. You used the phrase "purely in fuel", so that's the figure you should be using. It's 12.8p/mile in fuel+tax+tax+tax. I've already given these figures, and explained them in detail. You're also very wrong about "pretty much any car out there" costing at least 12p/mile in fuel+tax+tax+tax, even if you ignore the fact that about 2/3rds of the cost you're quoting as being for fuel isn't for fuel at all - it's for tax. Tax that the government would have to levy on EVs if they became more than a rarity. But even then, you're wrong. The Elise R is rated at 32.1mpg combined cycle and that's 12.8p/mile in fuel+tax+tax+tax. Many cars manage far more than 32.1mph combined cycle.
You're right about the first battery pack though - it comes with the car, so the cost is part of the purchase price. Unfortunately, you'd then have to take the purchase price into account and that tilts the price issue further in favour of ICEVs. You're not getting that first battery pack for free.
Calculating the cost offset of using a solar panel would be complicated because it depends on the weather. Although in the UK with a panel on the roof, I wouldn't be surprised if you never generated enough electricity over the life of the panel to cover the cost of the panel itself, let alone reduce the running costs of the car. Good solar panels are very expensive. But I've already backed my position with figures, calculations and sources. If you think a solar panel on the roof would make a big difference, back that with figures, calculations and sources. If you look at commercial products, you'll find that all they claim is to be useful in charging the 12V battery in a standard car that powers the standard electrics. Which is a very long way indeed from being of any use in powering an EV.
This, for example:
http://www.bridgwater-electronics.co.uk/p_24_Solar+Powered+Car+Trickle+Charger.php
has a
maximum power output of 125mA at 12V.
That's 1.5W
A proper EV (not a G-Whizz, not a mobility scooter) will need a charge of at least 30KWh to have any sort of useful range. So that rooftop panel could do a full charge in 20,000 hours of strong sunlight. 30KWh is a conservative figure - the Tesla Roadster holds 53KWh of charge to achieve a range of about 220miles (claimed) and that's
including regenerative braking, which obviously extends the range. On a straightforward battery use, it gets 3 miles per KWh - 159 mile range. That would take 39,333 hours of strong sunlight to charge with that rooftop panel.
This one here is a high quality solar panel:
http://www.kingslockchandlery.co.uk...nel+boat+kit+68+amp+hours+per+day/pid/8002042
1580mm x 793mm
150W...so it would only take 200 hours of strong sunlight to charge a small EV battery pack, or 353.33 hours to charge a Tesla.
It's relatively cheap at £959.
Good kit is shaped precisely to fit the roof of a specific model of car, provides 200W in strong sunlight and costs $4000 (I couldn't find a UK source in the few minutes I gave to this). So that would only take 265 hours of strong sunlight to charge a Tesla. Or, to put it another way, in 5 hours of strong sunlight, it would generate 1KWh of electricity - about 12p worth.
It doesn't look good, but maybe you can find something better.
They looked to be in pretty decent nick...
