That is what EVs are for. Replace the battery every few years and replace your car whenever a new incompatible plug standard comes out.
In Europe is already standard. The US will switch to NACS but that's what most cars sold in the US already had and by 1-2 years from now all new cars will be NACS.
But I have a hard time seeing how you can make up the price difference between a relatively reliable compact hybrid and its EV version - take a Kia Niro (just because offhand I know it comes in EV and Hybrid): Hybrid is like $27k, EV is like $40k (though hybrid used to be more like $24k). If you own for 10 years what's going to eat that $13k difference? Just better resale in 10 years? Oil change once a year, a few medium repairs, and cost of gas vs electricity don't get you there.
My electric co. has a tool for estimating your monthly fuel savings: $15 monthly for me. That's probably the cost of food my toddler smashes up and throws on the floor in the same period.
Same mileage, 3.5mi/kWh, $0.12/kWh, that's $445.71/yr.
For a car where electric is $40k and hybrid is $27k like a Kia Niro, it looks like your numbers would produce a payback period on the electric close to 10 years, but longer the less you drive. But that doesn't even get to including potential returns on the $13k saved at the beginning.
But come on, is it really that hard to believe? Look up the internals of an ICE and automatic transmission and compare those to an electric motor and single stage gear box.
We could debate over whether a battery pack is a single part or many, but still, those are completely potted and welded assemblies. Failures outside of normal wear are rare.
Gas: $7200 Maintenance/Repairs: $2300
Note that maintenance includes things you'd do for EVs as well (e.g. new tires).
That's $9500 in 7 years.
Total spent on the car (including purchase price): $18500.
The extra cost of a comparably sized EV is significantly more than my gas and repair costs.
The numbers for my other cars is similar.
Sorry, not buying the koolaid.
I haven't included insurance, which will be a lot cheaper as well. For context, for my older car I pay $700/year for insurance, and that's with many of the benefits maxed out - I simply can't get more expensive insurance! For my other (newer) car it's more like $1200/year.
Oh, and the TCO on Edmunds is full of $h*t.
But to be clear you're an outlier. Most 2003 cars can't get away with such low maintenance costs.
I keep hearing this. I've apparently been lucky for 20 years and with 4 cars. I'm a really lucky guy.
Or, perhaps, I research which cars are reliable, and get a good mechanic to check them out before I buy them.
> Unless you're doing the oil changes yourself, those alone should have run you at least $1,000
In that time period, an oil change was $20-30. Yes, it costs a lot more for some cars (e.g. $80 for one of my other cars). Also, if you did it every 3 months or 3000 miles you've bought into the propaganda. Do it on the schedule specified in your car's manual. For all my cars, that's every 6 months, and 5000 or 6000 miles. For heavy usage (10,000 miles for non-heavy, but almost everyone falls into the "heavy" category).
Oh, and I'm not a big car guy. I know almost nothing about doing maintenance myself (other than adding wiper fluid). I do whatever the mechanic recommends. Find a good mechanic, and stay away from official dealerships.
> And it sounds like you never had to do brakes
On the car I quoted, I did. In 2014. Cost me under $420.
> Most 2003 cars can't get away with such low maintenance costs.
That car got totaled in 2018. So I replaced it with another 2003 car of similar miles as the one that was totaled. In the last 5 years I've spent $3000 on maintenance/repairs. That's more than the 8 years prior, but some of it is just due to inflation and labor costs. Oil change costs, for example, almost doubled.
Gas costs should be higher per year because gas is more expensive and the car I replaced it with is a lot less efficient. But at the same time, COVID brought gas expenses down (less driving). I average $1000/year in gas costs. I expect it will go up soon due to needing to drive more now.
> But to be clear you're an outlier.
Sure, I'm an outlier in that I actually track my expenses. Everyone I know who tracks auto expenses has turned out to be an outlier ;-)
Let's just say it's one of the top Japanese auto manufacturers.
Generally, Toyota and Honda will give you good results for their signature cars (Corolla, Camry, Accord, Civic). Subaru, for some years and models do as well. I think Mazda and Nissan are a tier lower, but there may be exceptions (in model/year combination).
One tip: Try to avoid cars with chains. That's an expensive, mandatory maintenance.
In the US they're converging to NACS and the adapter for it is cheap...
At least use correct arguments against EVs
Look up reliable cars. Buy them used. It's much cheaper. I have the numbers going back to 2007.
Hell, I bought a new high performance vehicle. Drove it up to the dealership for its 5k oil change. They could easily have said "sure, no problem" and charged me $150ish for the privilege.
"Sir, unless you've been tracking the car and driving it very hard, 10K is the oil change interval. Sorry you wasted your trip".
In your world, they would have taken my money.