One of the most important skills adults need is to create and maintain a household budget. Much like a business, it’s important for people to understand how much money is coming in and where it needs to go. Understanding how much our bills will be is paramount to this.
Unexpected changes, though, like opening a bill to a surprise increase, can wreak havoc on any budget. Many of the bills that used to fluctuate, like water and electric, are offering budget plans to that effect where they average up yearly usage and only charge one twelfth of that per month.
One bill that we can’t truly prevent the fluctuation, however, is our fuel bill. Gasoline prices are subject to so many factors that we can never truly know what they’ll be day to day, let alone for a month. There is one simple way to handle it: Get an electric car. And it may be time to do just that.
Electricity is cheaper than gas
While electricity is not free, it’s far cheaper than gasoline. Traveling 100 miles in a conventional car costs over $9. In a comparable electric car, it would only cost $3. Expand this over the course of a year and the savings are substantial.
The fluctuation is less as well. Between 2000 and 2017 the price of electricity fluctuation only 63%, compared to the much more volatile gasoline which fluctuated 253% in the same span.
Electronic cars have gotten cheaper
The initial investment for an electric car used to be a big stopping point for car buyers. While they would save money in the long run, paying that much more for a car at the onset was daunting. Luckily the prices are dropping as demand increases and the companies that manufacture them begin to ramp up production. Just this year, Nissan reduced the price of its Leaf by $7000.
The range of electric cars has increased as well. It’s now standard to see an electric car go between 70 and 120 miles on one charge. Tesla’s new Model 3 has a range of 215 miles per charge. But how difficult is it to charge them? Not as hard as you’d think.
More infrastructure
While more work needs to be done, the UK will soon invest £400 million in their charging infrastructure, meaning there will be more place where people can charge their cars. Many businesses will start to offer charging stations for their employees and, of course, it’s already simple to charge the vehicles at home.
Simpler to maintain
The fact that electric cars are simpler machines is just a fact. Gasoline automobiles are complex machines, containing 10 times more moving parts than an electric car. Even the parts that the electric car shares may last longer than their gasoline counterparts.
The regenerative braking system on many electric cars means that, instead of using friction to turn the kinetic energy of motion into heat, thereby slowing the car, the motor slows itself when the brake is applied, reversing the motion. Now the kinetic energy of the wheels is, instead, captured and used to generate electricity. A nice side effect is that the heat that breaks down the pads and rotors is not generated so the pads and rotors last longer.
With all of the advances made in electric car technology, making this move and removing one of the more volatile elements in our monthly budget just makes sense.
