Electric cars are generally more expensive than gasoline cars. The primary reason is the high cost of car batteries. US and British car buyers seem to be unwilling to pay more for an electric car.
This prohibits the mass transition from gasoline cars to electric cars. A survey taken by Nielsen for the Financial Times has shown that 65 percent of Americans and 76 percent of Britons are not willing to pay more for an electric car above the price of a gasoline car.
also a report by J.D. Power and Associates claims that about 50 percent of U.S. car buyers are not even willing to spend more than
US$5,000 on a green vehicle above the price of a petrol car despite their concern about the environment.
The Nissan LEAF is the most affordable five door family electric car in the U.S. at a price of
US$32,780 going down to
US$25,280 after federal tax rebate of
US$7,500, going further down to
US$20,280 after the
US$5,000 tax rebate in California and similar incentives in other states.
The Renault Fluence Z.E. five door family saloon electric car will be priced at less than
US$20,000 before any U.S. federal and state tax rebates are applied.
It will be sold without the battery thus the significant price difference. The customer will buy the Renault Fluence Z.E. with a contract to lease the battery from the company Better Place.
The electric car company Tesla Motors is using laptop battery technology for the battery packs of their electric cars that are 3 to 4 times cheaper than dedicated electric car battery packs that other auto makers are using. While dedicated battery packs cost $700–$800 per kilowatt hour, battery packs using small laptop cells cost about $200. That could potentially drive down the cost of electric cars that are using Tesla's battery technology such as the Toyota RAV4 EV and the Smart ED as well as their own upcoming 2014 models such as the Model X.
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| Sales of the Mitsubishi i MiEV to the public began in Japan in April 2010, in Hong Kong in May 2010 and in Australia in July 2010. |
A study published in 2011 by the Belfer Center,Harvard University, found that the gasoline costs savings of plug-in electric cars over the vehicles’ lifetimes do not offset their higher purchase prices. This finding was estimated comparing their lifetime net present value at 2010 purchase and operating costs for the U.S. market, and assuming no government subidies.
According to the study estimates, a PHEV-40 is
US$5,377 more expensive than a conventional internal combustion engine, while a battery electric vehicle is
US$4,819 more expensive. The study also examined how this balance will change over the next 10 to 20 years, assuming that battery costs will decrease while gasoline prices increase. Under the future scenarios considered, the study found that BEVs will be significantly less expensive than conventional cars (
US$1,155 to
US$7,181 cheaper), while PHEVs, will be more expensive than BEVs in almost all comparison scenarios, and only less expensive than conventional cars in an scenario with very low battery costs and high gasoline prices. The reason for the different savings among plug-in cars is due to the fact that BEVs are simpler to build and do not use liquid fuel, while PHEVs have more complicated powertrains and still have gasoline-powered engines.
