Assuming $3/gal, $50/week for 3 years is 40mpg. Averaging that is damn impressive for an ICE car.
Just saw somewhere else that you are driving a golf. TDI or gas? I’m not doubting you. That’s just impressive. I can get the mid or upper 30s on my 55mi one-way commute in my gas Passat…if I’m lucky enough to not hit traffic. But that takes me trying to drive for efficiency, and almost all highway. I’d be happy to average at 30.
TDI, and I drive carefully. Accelerating hard and braking hard wastes fuel. I don’t drive fast on the highest either, and am lucky enough that most of my drive is medium speed county and state routes with very few stops. I would live to drive an EV, but it isn’t really viable for me currently, and that was what I was trying to point out.
If you’re that careful with the gas pedal your battery is going to love you for a long time and your electricity usage will go through the floor. I spend less than 20% on electricity than I used to spend on gas.
A taxi company guy I spoke to swears by 2nd generation Nissan Leaf cars, says it’s saved him a ton of money.
There’s a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt sown about electric cars, mainly by people who don’t have any experience of them whatsoever and the petrochemical industry.
Manufacturers aren’t super keen either, because unless they make their own batteries, a big part of the cost and profit of the car is outsourced and they don’t get a lot of income from maintenance because there’s just not a lot to go wrong with the actual driving bits of an electric car and so they’re left with minor things like aircon to service.