Rich Dad vs Poor Dad
Most wealthy people lived well below their income means long before they became wealthy using the money they saved to invest in profitable assets with an ROI or return on investment. Let me say that again, a real business asset produces the owner income even when the owner not working, leveraging the work of other people who work for that business to generate profits worldwide 24/7/365 as the world never sleeps due to the rotation of the Earth in the Sun's continual output that we culturally & technically divide into arbitrary time & time zones respectively. Remember all units S.I. or otherwise SAE, Metric, Imperial, inches, miles, centimeters, kilometers, AU in space, they are all synthetic made up numbers that human brains created to create unitized subdivisions for math of otherwise analog continuous phenomenon in nature or space.
I think AMG automobiles with engines signed by the builders thereof are exception, except that they cost a lot in terms of capital depreciation, fuel costs, repair & maintenance costs, and can end up costing north of $1USD per KM or more than $1.50 per miles respectively.
19 LEAF SV Energy Operating Cost Analysis
Consider our 19 Nissan LEAF SV for $20K with $0.15/kWh electricity charging at 80% net round trip efficiency. I drive about 64 miles per day 5 days per week & a bit more on the weekend and manage all of that with the EVSE LEVEL 1 charging cables that came with the LEAF SV. It takes 1,675 watts out of the 120v 15amp outlet via a 12-3 extension cable to connect it to a dedicated circuit breaker socket with no other significant loads.
L1 Extension Cord Charging All Night & During the Day (Slow Trickle Charging)
I get home at about 6:30-7pm and plug-in to the regular outlet using the EVSE L1 charging cable adapter into the J1772 charge port in the front of the LEAF. I leave it on the charger all night until 5am when I leave for work. That means 8 hours of charging at 1.6kW or 12.8kWh into the 40kWh battery. I then drive 15.6 mi to work. After my morning shift I drive 15.6 mi home & get home at 9:30am & plug in. At 1pm I leave for work again, after 4.5 hours of charging or 7.2 kWh of added charge. Then I drive home after my PM rout ends at 5:40-5:55 and get home at 6:30-7 depending on traffic & then plug in again. Using these numbers I am driving about 65 miles per day using 21kWh of charging electricity daily during the work week. Thats 105kWh per week, or 420kWh per month or 5,040 kWh annually to energize the LEAF for 15,600 miles per year.
In reality I don't actually drive that much because I only drive 32.5 miles on Wednesday since I stay at work all day & there are only 180 school days per year, out of 365 days, and I sometimes take the 01 Audi A4 Quattro 2.8 NA engine sedan that gets 20MPG using $6.30/gal 92 octane premium ethanol free or E0 gasoline from the Grange to which I also add fuel stabler & fuel additives since its an antique German car with nearly 95,000 mi ODO that I inherited for a $42 8 week waiting time title transfer & they even (WA DOL) let me keep the old license plates on the car :)
Using $0.15 per kWh round up a bit, that's $3.15 of electricity to go 65 miles on a very hilly topographically variable route with lots of altitude variation and mountainous twisty roads. The energy cost per mile about $5 cents, or in energy this works out to about 0.323 kWh per mile. The vehicle dash says 4.3 miles per kWh which would be 0.2325 meaning its estimation about 38% higher energy economy and or the charging efficiency loses mean that's about right. We are splitting hairs here, but the main point is that even when you factor in tires, insurance, repairs & maintenance, battery degradation & even large 40kWh replacement batteries 10 years down the road, that's about $0.10 or 10 cents per mile all said, way below the national USA average vehicle total cost of operation of $0.68 or about 7X cheaper overall in terms of total cost of operation or TCO total cost of ownership.
Yes, I am frugal or cheap, that's part of why I love the Nissan LEAF. This is my 3rd nissan LEAF, the previous was a 30kWh battery 2015 MY LEAF S & before that a 24kWh LEAF S in 2013. Leading Environmental Affordable Family car or LEAF is why Nissan used that acronym as the name. The body shell of the LEAF largely based on the cost optimized VERSA, but lacks the unreliable engine & terribly unreliable CVT of the VERSA :) Nissan also installs 150lbs of sound absorbing materials in the LEAF making the interior super silent or very quite compared to other analogues vehicles in competitive segments of the market or similar vehicles that tend to have more NVH noise in the interior from the tires & vibrations from the suspension & engine & transmission.
Did I mention that modern newer automotive transmissions are known for failing before the 10 year of life & before 80,000 miles of operation. I am personal friends with the founder former owners mechanic operator of Kirkland Transmission, Jerry Johnson respectively, who loves to shotgun shoot clays on his large property. He told me that over the years, more mechanical fluid valves, smaller & weaker bearings, smaller weaker gears, weaker housing that flex more & in general weight reduction methods make newer automatic transmissions much less reliable than the older counter parts.
Toyota significant was still using the 4 speed automatic in the Corolla in 2015. That automatic 4 speed Toyota transmission was used for over 20 years in many vehicles & visually built proof in terms of reliability as one of the highest quality longest lasting automatic transmissions ever made, sorta like their inline 2JZ engine from the OG Supra. Yes I am an automotive nerd or Petrolicious. I constantly think about getting a WRX Subaru, but its sub part fuel economy turns me off.
The 2023 196 HP Prius 5th gen exceptional with a 0-60MPH or 0-100kmph of less than 7.7 seconds, and still gives 51+ MPG on regular pump gasoline, 87 octane regular E10 gasoline widely available in the USA where I live. This E10 unleaded gasoline sells for about $5/ gal locally or a bit more depending on city taxes, where fuel cost more in Seattle & less in Auburn or Tacoma respectively.
In the Book Rich Dad Poor Dad, the author says to buy slightly used 2 or 3 year lease return reliable vehicles from Toyota as the lowest total cost of ownership automobiles. That means more smiles per mile & less fuel, lower emissions & lower costs :) Sure there are other faster or more comfortable or more luxurious vehicles with more features & storage room & space, but the PRIUS bang on a value leader trumped only by a local commute only Nissan LEAF purchased used at steeply discounted prices. Our 2019 appears to have no battery degradation at all. I sometimes drive it like a stole it and get 4.3-4.6 mi/kWh and can easily hypermile to 5.3 mi per kWH but enjoy rapid bursts of acceleration too much as they shove me in my seat with silent acceleration joy of superior excellence :) Yes, I am talking about acceleration performance in a Nissan LEAF SV. The 170kW motor gives over 260 lb-ft of torque & can spin the front tires on drive payment like a burn out before the VSC & ESC torque control tractive improving tech limits wheel spin on hard acceleration. No torque steer either which is amazing given that kind of high speed launch from the FWD or front wheel drive EV motor reduction gear system :) Regen or braking by using the traction motor to generated electricity to charge the battery gives the LEAF SV 10-30% more range & makes the mechanical disc brakes, discs, pads etc last a lot longer.
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