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How to find and buy a cheap electric car

Ranked #11 in Cars, #1,452 overall

Where are the EVs?

Most people don't know that there are thousands of electric cars on the road today, and they can be both inexpensive to obtain and to operate.

 

Why tolerate unpredictable gasoline prices? An inexpensive electric car can be a fun project that saves real money - and pays for itself in short order.  

Can you really buy an electric car?

You only have to spend a few thousand

We all know about expensive electric cars. Even expensive EVs can pay for themselves through fuel savings (see below.) But there are also EVs that are inexpensive to purchase.

In truth, most of the electric vehicles on the road today were built by hobbyists or small entrepreneurs. In the links section at the bottom, you will find some of these people, and the cars that they sell.

The majority of these cars are converted gasoline cars. An old car with a poor engine but a good body is obtained cheaply. The engine, and all gasoline components are stripped out, and a new electric drivetrain is installed.

You might decide to convert a car you already own - or buy a car which has already been converted. The good news is that an electric car of this type can be obtained for as little as $5000. Prices almost never get as high as $20,000.

Most of these cars will be based on old battery technology, as many new tech batteries are protected by patents that make it hard for the small businessmen to deal with. But you will still be able to drive at freeway speeds in cars that accelerate and handle well. Your driving range may be limited to less than 100 miles, or even less than 50 miles. But cars like this are still fine for most commuting and day-to-day driving tasks.

Remember, an electric vehicle can be plugged in anywhere. I charge mine while I'm at work, so I have plenty of juice to run an errand or two on the way home.

Can an electric vehicle save me money?

Apply the fuel savings to your car payment

The typical driver puts about 15,000 miles per year on his car. This works out to 1250 miles per month.

If this driver's car gets 25 miles per gallon, this represents 50 gallons of gasoline. At $4.00/gallon, our typical driver spends about $200 on gasoline every month.

An electric car uses kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity instead of gasoline. Typically our EV might get from 3 to 7 miles per KWH. So, for this example, we'll use 5 miles/KWH. In my city, there is a special off-peak electric rate of just 7 cents/KWH (ask your utility about off-peak rates.) But let's use the national average of 11 cents.

Using these numbers, the same 1250 miles per month - that cost our typical driver $200 for gasoline - only costs $27.50 in electricity for our electric car - a savings of $172.50!

If you were buying an electric car, and your car payment was $400, try subtracting the fuel savings from it: it becomes $227.50. This means you can afford a better EV with a bigger car payment!

And how about this: The Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf EVs both lease for just $350/month. Apply the fuel savings from above, and it's equivalent to leasing a conventional car for just $177.50.

Definitely not unaffordable!

Maintaining your electric car

It costs very little

Some people think electric vehicles are complicated, and therefore difficult to maintain. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A gasoline engine and its associated components are made up of thousands of parts. Every part represents the possibility of a breakdown. This situation is far different in an electric vehicle. Electric motors have only ONE moving part. There is no maintenance needed on an electric motor. No filters, oil changes, coolant, NOTHING.

You have electric motors all over your house - in your clothes washer/dryer, refrigerator, air conditioner, can opener, blender, and on and on. Appliances do break - but when was the last time the electric motor itself was to blame? There is almost nothing in the technology world more reliable than an electric motor. This is why EVs last a long time, and can have very high resale values.

How about the batteries? Yes, of course some batteries have a limited life, and need periodic replacement. The oldest battery technology is lead-acid. In a typical EV, a lead-acid battery pack might last for 20 thousand miles. The pack in my EV, which consists of 16 batteries, costs me about $800 to replace. That works out to about 4 cents per mile. Add to that the typical electricity cost per mile of 1.5 cents, and our total operating cost is only 5.5 cents per mile.

Newer battery technology, like Li-Ion, or especially nanotechnology batteries, have a much longer life. Cars with newer versions of these batteries (like the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf) typically warrant the battery pack for at least 100,000 miles, or even as much as 250,000 miles.

Are there other operating costs? The electronic controller in the car is very reliable also - my own EV is 30 years old, and has all the original motor and electronic controller parts. They have never needed repair.

Just like a regular car, you will need periodic brake and suspension work - but if your EV has regenerative braking, which uses the electric motor to brake the car - your brake pads will last much, much longer that they would on a standard auto.

How electric vehicles help with pollution

It doesn't matter what power plants burn

A common criticism of electric vehicles is that they only move pollution from the tailpipe to the power plant. In other words, since power plants still burn dirty fuel, there will still be pollution. This is not a fair criticism.

First, only about half the electricity created comes from burning coal, but this is still our major pollution worry. Only 3% comes from oil.

So why is coal not a worry? First, coal plants are largely baseload. This means they are designed to run all the time at full output, EVs or no EVs. Extra load on the grid is handled by peak load plants, which are not coal. So adding electric vehicles to the grid increases coal pollution very little, while sending petroleum pollution to zero.

But how about when electric cars catch on, and new plants have to be built? Luckily, this is not something we have to worry about for a long time. Since EVs charge mainly at night (off-peak), there is plenty of excess electric capacity available for decades to come.

But even if all the above were not true, electric cars would still produce much less pollution than gas cars, because of the greater efficiency of electric drive (electric motor, 95% efficient, versus gas engine, 25% efficient.)

There are inefficiencies in powerplant generation too, of course, but these pale in comparison to the inefficiencies of gas and diesel refining. So much energy (including electricity!) is used to refine a gallon of gasoline, you could actually throw away the gas and drive an EV 30 miles on this energy alone.

The proof of all this is right in the fuel prices. Gasoline costs at least 12 cents per mile, and can run higher than 30 cents per mile, depending on the type of vehicle and gas prices. Electric cars drive around for only about 2 cents per mile. The difference comes mainly from efficiency. Much greater efficiency = much less fuel cost and also = much less pollution.

Incidentally, hydrogen fuel-cell cars are also electric cars, including batteries, which are needed for acceleration. But they are less efficient than battery-powered cars, because of the extra electricity required to extract the hydrogen, and the wasted energy of transporting hydrogen to service stations. Fuel cell vehicles will always be more expensive than pure electric cars, because they are electric cars with a fuel cell and H2 tank added on.

The Cheap Electric Car Link List

Links to help save you money by driving an electric car

If you have a little more money to spend, look at the cars at the end of the list!
Grassroots EV cars for sale
Here, for sale, are some gasoline cars converted to electric. Don't be put off by all the 1980s cars here - the best conversion is a car with a good body but a poor engine. The car can then be obtained for next to nothing. Next, the engine and all associated parts are stripped out, and a new electric drivetrain installed.
Used EVs at Austin EV
Peruse some used electric vehicles here. Remember, electric vehicles are very reliable, so an old car can still serve you well. Be aware you may need to invest in a new battery pack (about $1000) for some of these.
Convert your car to electric
Here's an entrepreneur who will convert your car to electric for a very reasonable price.
Ampmobile electric conversions
Another place to get your car converted to electric.
The EV Album at Austin EV
Here you can look at the thousands of EV owners and their cars.
Jerry's EV conversion
Here's somebody's experience converting a car to electric.
The Chevy Volt
The Chevy Volt is an EV for the first 30 to 50 miles of driving, then it becomes a very efficient series gas-electric hybrid for an additional 300 miles of driving. Ideal if most of your daily driving is under 50 miles, but you still need to take that occasional long trip.
The Nissan Leaf
The first 100% electric mass-market car from a major auto manufacturer.
The Mitsubishi MiEV
The MiEV from Mitsubishi arguably has the most advanced EV battery on the market.
Alaniz Conversions
For the price of a good used car, you could be driving one of these superb EV conversions.
New Electric Vehicle at Miles Automotive
These are are NEVs, or 'Neighborhood Electric Vehicles' , low-speed electric cars that can't be taken on the freeway.
E-Volks conversion kits
Do it yourself! E-Volks has electric vehicle conversion kits for as little as $2280.
New Leaf EV - Electric VW Bugs
Convert your classic VW Bug (or an old Bug they supply) to a full electric vehicle.
Wheego Electric Cars
Wheego is an EV newcomer but is aggressively signing up dealers for their cars.
Tesla All-electric sports car
Alas, here we have an EV which is not cheap (it's over $100,000) but it is for sale right now, and it has awesome statistics. The Tesla Roadster can out-accelerate a Ferrari, has a 130mph top speed, and gets about 220 miles per charge.
The Triac
The Triac is another tiny EV which is expected to sell for a very reasonable sum.
Electric Vehicles and Pollution
Here are a number of studies (warning, this is a PDF file) showing the full well-to-wheels emissions impact of driving electric. The studies have been collected here by Sherry Boschert, author of "Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America."
Study showing there's enough juice to charge EVs
"Science Daily - A new study for the Department of Energy finds that "off-peak" electricity production and transmission capacity could fuel 84 percent of the country's 220 million vehicles if they were plug-ins."

Books and Videos about Electric Cars

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Electric car publications on eBay

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Cheap electric car feedback

Would you drive a cheap EV?

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Where's my wallet?

AaronSquid says:

EVs are going to become much more common as oil starts to run out over the next decade or so. I'd love to own a Tesla Roadster, they are such beautiful cars.

Posted February 04, 2012

VRP says:

2 Thumbs up Kent!

Posted February 01, 2012

nelsonkana says:

I don't have one. But i think i should start thinking about having one.

Posted January 21, 2012

BikeToAustralia_com says:

One EV driven for 30 years? Where is the profit? Greed fuels a capitalist economy.

Posted January 18, 2012

newbizmau says:

I don't know about these guys but have you seen the chevy Volt. It's pretty inside. And you can use both gas and electric depending on your trips that day if you have to go into using your back up gasoline. It's a no brainer. WHY NOT HAVE THE OPTION to have both especially when it's not just a hybrid.

Posted January 08, 2012

You're off your rocker!

lex says:

Yes ,I love it, ism sick of diesel,fossil fuels

Posted February 08, 2012

freecarguy says:

There is no need to transport hydrogen, if you have water use solar panels to split it and you're done. You can also store solar and wind energy in hydrogen. Fueling with hydrogen takes as long as it takes to fuel with gas. Charging a battery the size that runs a car takes hours!
As I said, for in-town driving EVs might work, but why strict myself?

Posted January 05, 2012

freecarguy says:

I don't think it's the time yet. As DJ says, the infrastructure is not ready yet, and I would only drive one within the city only if I don't pay for the electricity. With the deregulation of electricity coming soon (already in place in some areas) I don't think it would be an economic idea. A better green option would be a hydrogen cell car. The infrastructure can be built easily, it fuels the way gas does (I don't need to plug the car and look for a hotel to spend the night until it's full as with EVs), and this gives it a longer range.

Posted January 05, 2012

DJ says:

I did compare, apeweek. The comment was for the writer who is obviously skewing his things. I would love to buy an electric car when they make it reasonable.

Posted January 03, 2012

DJ says:

The savings are inflated. Gas is not $4/ gal in most places these days.
And compare buying an economy car that gets 40 mpg and costs $15k with buying a Volt or a Leaf. With the gas savings they are still much more expensive, you may have to have something installed in your house/garage to charge them, and they don't have enough range to do even some long commutes, and there's not much infrastructure for charging on the road.

I think the guy that wrote this was paid somehow by the EV manufacturers.
It's just ridiculous.

Posted January 03, 2012

 
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by

apeweek

Author, one book with Simon and Schuster. Worked also in TV production, software development, and music. And yes, I really do all those things I write... more »

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