On Thursday, President Joe Biden told Americans he was going to be “honest” with us and assured us that we would save $80 a month if only we bought a new electric car.
Oddly, he somehow forgot to mention how long it would take to pay off that car to get to the point where that “savings” would finally kick in.
Speaking from the South Court Auditorium at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Biden gushed about the technology of the “next generation of electric vehicles” and claimed that they would be a boon for Americans.
Under his “plan,” Biden crowed,”a typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump.”
What a wonderful savings. That is a whole $960 a year. But there is a big problem with realizing this fantastic savings Biden has “planned” for us.
One has to buy and pay off a new car before any “savings” it might offer can be realized.
According to NBC News, the average purchase price of an electric vehicle in February of this year was $60,054.
But, according to the New York Post, it was even higher.
Citing Kelly Blue Book, the Post reported that “the average price of a new electric vehicle in February was $64,685.” (NBC cited data from “Edmonds,” but we think they meant Edmunds.)
That is a huge hike over the average prices that everyday Americans are paying for cars today, the Post said, adding that the cost of an electric car is “nearly 2.5 times the average price of a new compact car ($26,196), almost twice the average cost of a new compact SUV ($33,732), and 52% more expensive than the average sports car ($42,555).”
Also, just going by Biden’s “savings,” if you spent at least $60,000 on your electric car, your $960 annual savings would take 62 years, six months, and two weeks to get to the break-even point on the price of that car.
The inconvenience of charging an electric vehicle was also ignored Biden’s “savings” calculation. A depleted battery will leave you searching for a charging stations that are not only much fewer in number than gas stations, but also leave you at the mercy of charging speeds that could mean hours of waiting until you are back on the road.
Then we have to figure in the geopolitical costs. EVs are manufactured using many of the rare earth elements that come from China. Greater manufacturing and use of EVs necessarily enriches China, the most oppressive nation on earth.
There is also the dirty secret that neither Biden, nor any other greenie Democrat wants to talk about: Pervasive use of EVs means not only higher taxes, but brand new taxes imposed on many of us.
Drivers pay a per-gallon gasoline tax to pay for the roads. If fewer people are buying gas and paying that tax, government will look for new revenue sources.
One proposal has that revenue coming from a mileage tax. And with a tax like that, we are giving the government a brand new way to tax us — not to mention track us with the government-owned devices installed in our cars to tally the miles we drive.
Finally, it will also be a blow to the used car market.
The EV industry says that EV battery packs — which cost between $5,000 and $20,000 to replace — last between five and 20 years. Who would want to spend $15,000 to $20,000 on a used EV only to expect to have a $20,000 battery replacement repair bill looming over your head?
It just wouldn’t be worth buying a used EV, and that is yet another stealth cost on American consumers who will be forced to keep buying new cars instead of paying one-third the cost for a reliable used car.
No wonder GM has committed to phasing out gas-powered cars and going to exclusively zero-emissions vehicles by 2035.
With all these factors added into the reckoning of buying an electric vehicle, Joe Biden’s $80 monthly savings easily gets lost in the shuffle — like most things do over the course of 63 years.
Story cited here.
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