Σε μια εποχή που όλοι μετράνε τις δεκάρες, είναι σημαντικό να έχουμε μια ολοκληρωμένη εικόνα του κόστους. O μόνος τρόπος να το κάνεις αυτό είναι να γράφεις λεπτομερώς όλα τα έξοδα του αυτοκινήτου. Είχα λοιπόν ένα μπλοκάκι στο οποίο τα έβαζα με θρησκευτικό φανατισμό. Υγρό στο παρμπρίζ, βενζίνη βέβαια, ασφάλιστρα, πάρκινγκ, ατυχήματα, λάστιχα, σέρβις και οτιδήποτε άλλο. Στο τέλος του χρόνου διαιρούμε το σύνολο δια των χιλιομέτρων και έχουμε…περίπου το διπλάσιο από όσο είναι η βενζίνη. (Δικιά μου παλιότερη μέτρηση με Citroen Saxo διαρκείας 5 ετών και χωρίς ούτε ένα ατύχημα ή βλάβη του αυτοκινήτου.)
Ένας παρόμοιος συλλογισμός από άλλον δικτυακό τόπο.
A couple of weeks ago my girlfriend and I got rid of one of our cars (something unimaginable in Southern CA and friends were surprised “What – you sold your car?”) It wasn’t a difficult decision for us and there weren’t any tears, but it did get me thinking about how much we’d save now that it was gone.
Over the 5 years my girlfriend owned her car it depreciated $19,500 (from a purchase price of $24,000), by far the largest expense, and her insurance was over $1,000 per year. The car had a total of 73,000 miles, which was a lot of driving for those years (the average American drives 12,000 a year http://www.terrapass.com/road/calcdetails.html). With an average gas price of $3.00 per gallon and a fuel efficiency rating of 22 mpg that’s around $0.14 per mile driven. All told, the car consumed close to $10,000 dollars in fuel in 5 years. Overall the car cost $3,900/yr (in depreciation) + $2,000/yr (in gas) + $1,000/yr (in insurance) = $6,900 per year for an average distance of 14,600 miles/yr.
Now to compare these costs to an electric bicycle is more than a little false (mainly because bicycles are so much more fun to ride, don’t heat up like greenhouses and fit almost anywhere), it is 
still interesting to do the comparison. The costs for an electric bicycle are $695 (for a Crystalyte Cannon Kit) + $350 (for a hybrid Giant bicycle) + $150 (in lights, bells & maint.) + $8/yr ($0.002/mile energy costs) for a total of $1,203. If we get two years per battery we’ve got a total cost of $1,211. That’s only $605 per year.
While we’ve only been riding our bicycles religiously for a little over a year we’ve easily gone over 4000 miles this year alone, while reducing our car driving to almost nothing (approximately 1000 miles this year).
Interestingly if we can use the electric system for a mere 2 years or 8,000 miles (before replacing a battery that only costs $349) we’ll have consumed only $0.15/mile vs. $0.47/mile for the car over the same period. Not to mention staying in shape, helping the environment and having a lot of fun doing it. While I’m sure there are some costs that I’ve missed (for both the car and bicycle) this is a good base comparison and shows the real cost benefit of using an electric bicycle for everyday commuting.
