Running Out of Gas

I got an interesting text from my brother Patrick a couple of days ago. Out of the blue, he texted, “Must be nice to be an electric car owner….”

I thought, “Why yes, yes it is! But why on earth is he texting me that?”

Well, it turns out Patrick is way better than me at keeping up with local news and events. He was the first one to let me know about the Alabama pipeline spill that was discovered on September 9. Tip of the cap, brother.

Here’s a quick write-up of the story. Not surprisingly, I’m concerned about the massive amount of gasoline that spilled from the pipeline. It turns out that ecosystems don’t like gasoline very much.

But in light of this story, I instead want to write about what it is like to have a car that doesn’t use gasoline at all.

Many people in Georgia own or lease an electric vehicle as a result of a generous state income tax credit that expired about a year ago. The Nissan Leaf was a big seller in particular, and you’ll see them everywhere on the streets of Atlanta. That’s what my wife and I lease.

One of the significant benefits of our Leaf is what we pay for the car’s “fuel.” Georgia Power has an electric vehicle variable rate plan that charges us different prices per kilowatt hour based on the time of day. During peak usage hours, each kilowatt hour costs a whopping 20 cents (so we minimize our energy usage at those times). In exchange for our willingness to pay this rate though, we are charged less than a cent and a half per kilowatt hour between 11pm and 7am, which is when we charge the Leaf.

So here’s the super cool math that the nerd in me loves. Our car drives 4.6 miles per kilowatt hour, and at a cent and a half per kilowatt hour, that means we pay one cent to drive three miles.

Let me put it another way – it costs us about $0.08 to drive 25 miles. A gasoline powered car that gets 25 miles per gallon would pay the cost of a gallon of gas to go 25 miles, which is about $2.30 in Georgia. Which do you prefer?

But that’s not what my brother meant when he asked me if it was nice to own an electric vehicle. He was referencing the fact that the gasoline spill had resulted in fuel shortages in the Atlanta area. Not only did gasoline become more expensive here when the shortages started, but some stations were running out of gas. Imagine waiting in line for an hour to then learn that the service station had run out?

In this respect, electric vehicles carry less risk. If gasoline supply or infrastructure fails, electric vehicle owners don’t lose their mobility. In a moment like this in Georgia, I’m grateful for that benefit.

Still, you might be thinking, “What about when there’s a power outage and you can’t recharge your car!” Well, that does indeed turn the tables. Next week, I’ll answer this question and give a prediction for the future. It’s called “distributed generation,” and I hope it comes sooner rather than later.