I received a check from the California Center for Sustainable Energy in the amount of $5000.00 this week. Not a bad way to start the week. I'm still waiting to see my San Diego Gas and Electric bill. It's overdue, but I think that with the Time-of-Use pricing study I'm a part of, the delay isn't unexpected.
We drove the car more efficiently this week. Whereas previous weeks we were getting about 4 miles per Kwh, this week we moved to 4.4 Miles per Kwh. I think I have enough information to track this more accurately on a daily basis.
Here are the numbers for this week: 192 miles driven. $2.06 for 30.4 Kwh of charging cost. Equivalent cost of gas at today's average in San Diego was $26.18. Average weekly savings is $21.60.
From a cost perspective, I calculated the Gross Cost of the vehicle after taxes and fees at $38115.81. Reduce that by the $7500 Federal Credit (next year after I do my 2011 taxes) and the already received $5000 from California and the net cost is $25615.81. I'm selling my 2008 Honda Fit, which this car replaces for about $12000, so the net replacement cost comes to $13615.81. Divide that by the average weekly savings and the car pays for itself in a little over 12 years. Not great, but I still have to factor in the SDG&E costs or savings due to the time-of-use study.
I was reading about a San Diego Union Tribune writer's decision to not buy his Leaf now that his reserved car is here (Dealer loves this because they are able to mark it up significantly for open market sale.) At the end of the day, it just was not financially justifiable for him to buy it. I've heard this argument used a lot about the Leaf, but I have never heard it used with any other new vehicle purchase. Maybe it is just me, but I find that people tend to buy as much of a new car as they can afford (often more than they can afford.) For most people, the purchase is more emotional and frequently not very rational. For me, this was definitely an emotional purchase. Only 3 weeks in and I have absolutely no regrets.