When I ran the analysis on a Leaf vs. our hybrid RX450h comparing just fuel costs alone it was a break-even. Basically what I pay in electricity to keep a Leaf on the road is exactly what I paid for in gas to drive the RX. Except that we can only drive the Leaf 100 miles or so, and the RX could push 400 miles on a tank. The RX was around 30mpg most days... little worse on the highway, little better in town.
25 years ago, we had a 1991 Honda Civic that never got less than 35mpg. We drove it to Vegas once and I measured 42... heck you could fill it up and drive 90 miles before the needle even got down to the F line. If you filled it up again you'd be lucky to cram 2.5 gallons back in it. It blows me away that today there isn't a more efficient gas engine than they made back then.. not sure why. I don't even think the most efficient gas engines today are as good as they were back then. Heck if we still had that Civic we'd be about break-even with the Leaf, even adding in whatever maintenance that Honda needed. But it wouldn't have a steering wheel heater, or Apple carplay.
My only point is the only way an EV works for us is we've come to terms that it's a short-trip only vehicle. Drive it all day, plug it in every night, don't give efficiency another thought. Any long trip just induces needless range anxiety, and someone doing the math that for another $20 we could have just taken a bigger car with a better back seat, and getting gas only takes 5-10 minutes, and we already know where the gas stations are. All I do are short trips, or really long road trips. I'm kinda thinking it's wrong to force an EV to do things that are better for ICE vehicles, like drive from here to Moab, or take a road trip to California. I wish I could get a little electric flat bed mini truck that only has a 80 mile range, I'd love to plug that little bugger in every night. But when it's time for the next outlaws run, I'm picking a Land Cruiser.
