Help me figure the cost to charge a Chevy Volt in my town?

[krw]

Illinois (plus federal) highway fuel tax is $.545/gal where I pay (Alabama) $.387/gal, so that's a bit over a third of the difference. Where is the other

60%?

[Roy]

=3D=3D And I'll keep my cheapo Dodge Grand Caravan before I'll blow big dollars for that limited range "experimental" Volt. It might have a place but it sure won't be up here in Canada. Its too damned cold for practical use unless they put in one humongous battery and make it a one person car. =3D=3D

[RickH]

We also suffer seasonal blends mandated for winter/summer. It gives the refineries and suppliers another excuse to jack up prices. And there is additional tax in Chicago city limits on top of the .55. And we're only getting 85% gas for that, the other 15% is alcohol for the corn lobby.

[Vic Smith]

This is all very simple. My wife buys all my clothes. If she didn't, I'd go buy them. If she buys me something I don't like, I don't wear it. Now she knows what I won't wear. So she buys what I like. It all works out. My "look" is Salvation Army work clothes. That makes it real easy for her. Only clothing I bought myself in decades is coveralls. A man's got to know his coveralls.

--Vic

[mike]

I worry about availability. Ever tried to find a new battery for a

5-year-old laptop? In most cases, all you'll find is an UNUSED battery that was built 5 years ago. Technology is changing fast. Proprietary battery pack designs are required to keep margins up.

[hallerb]

I tried pricing a prius battery when they first came out. 9 grand:(

Wonder how the taxing authorties will handle road taxes on battery vehicles?

Some have proposed mandating charging stations at malls stores etc.

if they were free you could do much of your charging at other peoples expense:)

[tnom]

As stated previously pure electric costs are $.066 per mile.

From a cost standpoint the equivalent MPG of this $.066 per mile is.....45.5 MPG

[Jeff Thies]

Note that the engine will kick in before it gets at 30%. Under normal conditions the battery will never need more than 80% charge, or 12.8kWHr

• conversion losses

Chevy claims about 200WHr/mile. That would be about .03 + charging losses of about 10%, I think. About $0.033.

What real life actually is, is unknown. They claim about 50mpg running on the internal engine, so an effective mpg of almost 100mpg at $3/gas seems withing striking range.

Jeff