Editor,
I read with interest the article “Bay Area governments make big electric-vehicle purchase” in the July 9 edition of the Daily Journal.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.
Support the Peninsula’s only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe!
Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions.
Premium Subscription
As low as $8.25 per week
Premium Includes:
-- Access to the Daily Journal’s e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time.
-- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content
-- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community
-- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week!
Rate | Price | Duration |
---|---|---|
1 Year | $99.00 | for 365 days |
1 Month | $20.00 | for 30 days |
1 Week | $8.25 | for 7 days |
Support the Peninsula’s only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe!
Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions.
DJ Basic Subscription
As low as $5 per month
Basic includes:
-- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content
-- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community
What you're missing -- Additional features available only with the Premium level:
-- Access to the Daily Journal’s e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time.
-- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week!
All for as low as $8.25 per month.
Rate | Price | Duration |
---|---|---|
1 Year | $60.00 | for 365 days |
1 Month | $12.00 | for 30 days |
1 Week | $5.00 | for 7 days |
Editor,
I read with interest the article “Bay Area governments make big electric-vehicle purchase” in the July 9 edition of the Daily Journal.
I am neither “for” nor “against” electric cars. But the numbers in the article make the governments look foolish for this purchase. They are purchasing 90 EVs for $5 million. That works out to $55,555 per car. The Nissan Leaf costs around $34K and the Ford Focus around $37K. Let’s round up to $40K each — that’s still only $3.6 million for 90 cars. I think I just saved the government over $1.4 million if they buy these at a car dealership.
Then there is the “$500,000 in fuel costs” savings. Yes, no gas. But there still is the well-to-wheel cost for the electricity. Somebody pays for the electric bill. Some not-so-green process generates the electricity. But I’ll save that discussion for another day.
Looking on KBB.com, the Focus costs around 51 cents per mile over five years for “fuel,” maintenance and purchase price, less resale price. A standard (stripped) Honda Accord LX costs only 47 cents per mile. At a net loss of four cents per mile per car over a five-year period, I’m hard-pressed to see where that half-a-million dollar savings is. In fact, at 12,000 miles/year, a fleet of Accords saves $216,000 over the EVs. I’m now up to over $1.6 million in savings for the government by simply buying 90 Accords off the lot instead of whatever “deal” they got on the EVs.
The government has my permission to buy Accords from car dealers and give the $1.6 million to teachers so we are all better at using math and recognizing tomfoolery.
Norm Federname
San Mateo
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
Only subscribers can view and post comments on articles.
Already a subscriber? Login Here
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.