Does your car pay you back in time?

By Kamlesh Mallick

Electric cars start to pay for themselves right away by saving about Rs 60,000 a year, just on petrol.
They also save around Rs 8000 per year on maintenance. Electric cars’ brakes last 5 times that of others due to regenerative braking, so there are savings there too.  There is no need for pollution and emission checks, so you save money again.  So in effect you save around Rs 70,000 a year as compared to using a petrol car.  
You spend around Rs 1,00,000 on the replacement battery for your electric car. 
This translates to around Rs 2,50,000 worth of savings over a 5 year period!!  

However, after the first five years or so, electric cars really start to get cheap to own and use, when compared to a petrol car. Repairs on older used petrol cars are huge due to the complexity of the engine and the sheer number of moving parts. With electrics, you'll avoid most all of that, as your electric motor does not need any tuneups, you supply electricity and it will rotate - just like a fan. 


Extremely reliable and steady.

---

Meanwhile, your petrol car will keep squeezing money out of your pockets.  It will guzzle around 4000 liters of petrol in a 5 year period (assuming driving 12,000 km a year at 15 km per liter), release tons of exhaust to the atmosphere, make our cities unbreathable, uses imported foreign oil - straining our country's economy and generally pisses you off during the ownership period, until you want to get rid of it in the second hand market!!

ICE based cars - Sucking your money!

Here's just a few things, tat you don't have to worry about with electric cars, since they have very less moving parts. 

• No engine
• No valves
• No pistons
• No spark plugs
• No timing belts
• No crankshaft
• No transmission
• No engine Tune-ups
• No clutch
• No exhaust pie
• No oil changes
• No Air Filter Replacement
• No Automatic Transmission Fluid Change
• No Brake Fluid Replacement
• No Coolant Replacement
• No Drive Belt(s) Replacement
  
• No Fuel Filter Change
• No Oil and Filter Change
• No Valve Adjustment
• No Muffler replacement
  

This list can go on and on!  
All these repair works cost money and with an electric you save money here.

These car companies selling oil based cars do the same thing year in year out.  
They use fancy words like 'fluidic design', 'chrome grill', 'streamlined headlights', 'go fast stripes', 'brand new interiors' etc.  
And people fall for this.  What they miss out is the fact that under the hood, you have an internal combustion engine which is an outdated piece of technology that has seen its better years.

Wake up people!  Its time to move to cleaner, economical alternatives!

---

Run your car on free and clean electrons!

The Intangibles

• With electrics, you enjoy the fact that once you pay for the car you don’t have to think of the ongoing cost of buying petrol on a regular basis. If you run your electric car on solar, u don't even have to pay the utility company!  So no more worrying about queues in the petrol pump!
  
• Also as an electric car owner, you might also feel that the environmental and social advantages are more important than money savings. A lot of you would rather have clean air in our cities or help reduce India's oil's bill.  You don't mind doing your bit for your country.  
  Hats off to ya'll.  For you guys are not selfish, you put other important matters ahead of your self!
  
• When you get an electric, you tend to use it as much as possible, planning your errands, taking turns, sharing it among all the drivers in the household, and leaving the petrol bike at home. 
  You’ll do this because the electricity is free (if charged with solar) or cheap (if charged on the grid).
  So no more taking your petrol bike to save some money and using the car only on 'special occasions'.
• With an electric, you know that you are not wasting fuel in a traffic signal, whereas all the oil based vehicles are burning money!  The sheer frugality of the energy consumption for each drive, really makes you sit up and notice!  
  That is an 'Aha' moment, right there, that no ICE based car can give ya! 
• And lots of other people go for an electric car, because its a fun car to drive!  There is no clutch, automatic transmission is very useful in chaotic start-stop traffic conditions in India, they have instant torque - the response is usually 'electric' and its a quiet and smooth drive, as there are no moving parts. 
  

So does your car pay you back in time?
If you have an electric, it sure does!  
And then you look at the intangibles, listed above - these are the benefits that cant be quantified.
These intangibles touch your soul somewhere and make you sing!  Every time you drive!

Now you tell me, isn't that worth more than any other financial savings?

---