Will I save money having an electric car?

Will I save money having an electric car?
Based on the current cost of lithium batteries, you can expect long-term running costs to be comparable to petrol vehicles. EVs have the potential to be far cheaper, but due to much of the technology being in its infancy, early adopters are forced to pay a premium. We do not recommend people use economics as their primary motivator - do it to reduce pollution and CO2 emissions.

Here's some figures for the curious reader. Electricity to charge an electric car costs in the order of $1 per 100kms - or around one tenth the cost of petrol. For an average Australian travelling 20,000kms per year, this represents almost $2000 saved in fuel - not to mention much lower maintenance/servicing costs.

The largest ongoing cost is the battery, which will require replacing in about 5 years or 200,000 kms. As of early 2007, the cost of a car-sized lithium battery pack is about AU$10K - so, there goes the money you saved in fuel. But consider that one lithium battery has saved around 50 tonnes or 25 million litres of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere had you been driving a petrol car!

And fortunately, with the rate of improvement of Lithium battery technology, we can almost guarantee that your next battery will cost half as much, give you twice the range and last twice as long.