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Friday, February 18, 2011

Will Electric Cars Save You Money?

ROCKVILLE, Md. (WUSA) -- Gas prices are on the rise. Could the solution be an electric car? We compared the Chevrolet Volt to its electric counterpart, the Chevrolet Cruze.

Chris Pieroni at Ourisman Rockmont Chevrolet in Rockville showed us both cars. He had one Volt on the lot. We also looked at a Cruze that had the same features.

The VoltSticker Price: $44,195
Rebate: $7,500
Cost Per Charge: $1.50
Highway MPG: 37

The CruzSticker Price: $26,280
Highway MPG: 36
Pieroni says the Volt can travel up to 40 miles on a full charge, then it reverts to gas. He says it takes premium.

"Personally, I think the better buy would be the Chevy Volt, in terms of paying for gas fuel," Pieroni said.

9NEWS NOW's Lindsey Mastis crunched the numbers, taking into account the upfront cost of buying the car. She compared costs among three popular commutes (counting 250 work days per year).

Bethesda to DC: 14 Miles RoundtripCRUZE: $1.23 per day; $307.50 per year
VOLT: $.53 per day; $662.50 per year

Woodbridge, Va. to the Pentagon: 44 Miles RoundtripCRUZE: $3.85 per day; $307.50 per year
VOLT: $1.86 per day; $467.50 per year

Winchester, Va. to Tysons Corner: 120 Miles RoundtripCRUZE: $10.50 per day; $2,625 per year
VOLT: $8.96 per day; $2,240 per year

The Volt costs less in gas. But when you take into consideration the upfront cost of the car, the Cruze is a cheaper buy overall. We also ran the numbers for cost per five years, and the Cruze was still cheaper.

Source

3 comments:

  1. Has anyone thought about how much electricity costs? People think they are saving fuel by using electric, but do they think about the millions of tons of coal used to generate electricity?

    ReplyDelete
  2. You really don't need to make this any more complicated than it is. Just read the accompanying article.

    ALL electric autos just don't make sense yet no matter how much you subsidize them. Hybrids still haven't been well received although I own one and am completely satisfied.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There now small" GAS " fueled cars that get 40 MPG...great mileage & low upfront cost..real life meets the future.

    ReplyDelete

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