Electric Cars: Get Ready to Plug In!
Electric cars and charging them with a solar system is the newest topic in the July 22nd issue of the GJ Free Press, written by Heidi Ihrke of High Noon Solar. Save yourself more than $1,200 a year by going renewable and electric!
The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf were in the news recently not because they are helping to push forward a movement of electric vehicles, but for a more practical reason; they both just won Top Safety Pick from the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety.
The 2011 Chevy Volt even won the Motor Trend Car of the Year award. The 2011 models of these plug-in vehicles stand at the top of the class of new vehicles for more than one reason: safety, dependability, and, very importantly, offering choice of what we use to power the vehicles that run our country.
As gas prices fluctuate wildly in an ever-upward climb, as oil companies defend their huge subsidies and tax breaks in record profit years, and as consumers decide that control for their price of transportation should be held in their own hands, the all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are finally making a resurgence more than 10 years later. But this time they're here to stay.
If you were to add a solar system onto your home solely with the intention of charging a Nissan Leaf, your solar system would pay for itself in about 4 years, after which time your cost to drive would be $0. The math breaks down like this: To charge a Nissan Leaf from empty to full takes 24 KW hours (you get a little more than 4 miles per kilowatt hour of electricity). At 11+ cents per KWh from the utility grid, this costs $2.65 for 100 miles worth of charge or $265 for 10,000 miles annually. Compare this to a gas engine at 25mpg; 10,000 miles on this at $3.75 a gallon in gas is about $1,500… a savings of $1,235 a year! Even higher when gas costs go up.
