Benefits Of Electric Cars Are Not Just Fuel Savings

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The benefits of electric cars are not just economical and environmental. They offer convenience benefits as well.

Nissan has created an advertisement for its Leaf vehicle which, for example, highlights the convenience of charging in your own home. Check it out, and then check out the article below for more on the benefits of electric vehicles:

Convenience of Charging

Despite the fact that typical electric cars take hours to charge, which complicates the process of recharging in public, electric cars are the only cars that can easily be charged at home overnight without stopping at any gas stations to fill up, and without buying any additional equipment.

Everything you need to charge in the comfort of your own home is built into the car.

If your office allows you to charge your car, you can get your full range back even before you make your second trip home. This is another convenience benefit. You can safely leave it to charge

You might end up running out of “fuel” less often than a gasoline-powered car driver if you plan your trips accordingly: An important fact is that people with gasoline-powered cars wait until they are almost out of gas to to refill, partly because they don’t want to sit at a gas station. So if you have an electric car, congratulations on being able to effortlessly enjoy your full range every single day.
 
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You Can Avoid Becoming Stranded Altogether

The secret to preventing stranding altogether is to first determine the length of your average daily commute, which is likely to be less than 40 miles. You would then choose a car which offers a driving range which is considerably more than that. For example, if you drive 40 miles daily, a Nissan Leaf could work.

Whenever you need to make an unusual trip, use Google Maps (Click “Get Directions”) to determine the distance of the different routes.

Electric Cars Can Back Up Wind and Solar Power Plants

Electric vehicles and wind farms complement each other especially nicely. This is because electric cars contain large energy storage systems known as batteries.

They store upwards of 24 kWh (24,000 Watt-hours) of energy, which is actually enough to supply a house with up to 1,000 watts of power for 24 hours continuously (however, the average house in the United States draws an average of 3 kW).

When wind farm wind speeds increase, and the turbines generate more electricity, the cost of wind power drops for that moment, and electric cars can take advantage of that low-cost (even 3 cents per kWh) power and capture it with their batteries.

You could actually drive your car at a cost of 3 cents per kWh just because of a stormy day!

Furthermore, wind power is most abundant at night, helping to make electricity cheapest at night in many places, when you are most likely to charge your EV.

Cost and Range

If you experience difficulty getting through the complicated and technical work of understanding the cost difference between electric and gasoline-powered cars, as well as the controversial range issue, see if this example of 40 miles a day is helpful:

If driving 40 miles per day for all 30 days of the month, it would add up to 1,200 miles per month, and it would cost a 25 MPG gasoline-powered car driver $192 per month, assuming a gasoline cost of $4 per gallon.

The Nissan Leaf, however, would cost $36 per month to make those same trips, assuming an average electricity cost of $0.10 per kWh. The Nissan Leaf is equipped with a 24 kWh battery bank. After driving 40 miles in this vehicle, you would have a range of 33 miles remaining for the rest of the day.

What is most relevant to you, however, is your electricity cost. Multiply it by 360 (this is 360 kWh, the amount of electricity the Nissan Leaf would require to drive 40 miles per day for a 30 day month).