Saudi Arabia And the US Senate Team Up To Screw Hybrid And Electric Car Owners

by
Steve MacDonald
Hybrid/Electric Vehicles
Shutterstock Image c/o watchdog.org

Back in May I published an article with Watchdog.org based on the Department of Energy 2015 Energy Outlook Report. According to the data it is difficult for Hybrid and Electric cars owners to recover the higher purchase price of a vehicle when gas prices are $3.90 a gallon.

Depending on the model it would take anywhere from 13 to 46 years to save enough money in gas to cover the higher purchase price and maintenance for EHV or PHEV technology. That was with fuel prices estimated at $3.90/gallon and electricity estimated at 0.12/kwh.

I don’t know what you are paying but I’ve been paying closer to $1.90/gallon for a few months now and I can’t remember every paying 0.12/kwh for electricity. Thanks to Obama and Company’s Clean Power Plan, if the courts don’t block it or kill it, no one will ever pay that low a price per kilowatt hour again. That’s a big set back for HEV/PHEV owners if ever there was one. The pay back period has easily doubled in just a few months thanks to gas prices. With a shadow tax coming on electricity, doom!  

There are, of course those who don’t care about that. As I wrote back in May,

Hybrid and electric cars are significantly more expensive to purchase up front compared to their conventional counterparts.  Total cost of ownership starts out higher. So manufacturers typically make two common pitches to get you to buy.

They want you to think green. If you buy their environmentally friendly car you join Dr. Seuss’ Lorax in speaking for the trees. But not just trees. You’ll speak for the plants, the meadows, and forests. The Whitetail deer, and their cartoonish woodland companions, will raise their heads to watch appreciatively as you drive by.

For the folks who think their sacrifice will be saving the planet neither purchase-price nor payback time will be much of an issue.  They will feel good driving it, and that’s all they need or expect.  But for most of us, unless we’re the kind of “rich” that progressives loathe, cost and value are an issue.  So the second pitch is savings.

They need you to imagine all the money you can save on gasoline if you pay a little more for the technology.  You’ll be driving past another gas station, singing along to some up-beat ditty on that totally integrated sound system that came standard, reminding yourself that those people tethered to the pump are a bunch of suckers.

Who are the suckers now?

Sadly, it is still all of us. Our Government spent billions on incentives to increase electric vehicle sales. We spent billions on battery plants that never built anything. States and the federal government have or are spending billions on charging stations across the fruited plains. Billions and billions (say it like Dr. Carl Sagan) have been wasted, essentially, for the benefit of those few who just wanted to feel like they were doing something good for the planet and would have bought the damn cars anyway (which, if you have a dark sense of humor, is funny because they are not better for the planet).

Gas is now half the price it was thanks to an idea from another government report indicating that we can drill our way out, although we do have the Saudi prince’s appreciation for markets and capitalism (golden toilets, etc) to thank for the dramatic plunge in prices. But it is a plunge we would never have experienced without hydraulic fracturing, and one we could enjoy for many years to come if the Feds would get out of the way and let the free market embrace a dynamic domestic energy economy.

Whatever the cause, Gasoline is cheap by 21st Century averages so the end game for most HEV/PHEV owners or buyers is this; the time needed to recover the front-end cost just doubled.

One positive note? Toyota is doing a damn good job of trying to make Hybrids affordable and there’s nothing wrong with that but affordable too often means too tiny to be practical for moving a family, pets, or any reasonable amount of cargo. And no one is adding the cost of extra trips additional cars or even van rentals so you can pick up some furniture from a Yard Sale if none of your friends owns a truck.

I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t care what you buy but taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook to help make it affordable for you  before, during or after, no matter what your reasons.

As for the government messing with your cost of ownership, that’s your fault. If you keep electing these meddling Prius-driving yahoos they will eventually mess with something you care about. And they’ll work doubly hard to make sure only they can afford it and you can’t undo it.

Author

  • Steve MacDonald

    Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, blogger, and a member of the Board of directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the owner of Grok Media LLC and the Managing Editor of GraniteGrok.com, a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, and a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.

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