Also, there are likely maintenance savings. Check out the schedule maintenance booklets from Nissan for the Versa compared to the Leaf. There's no oil to change, oil filters, air filters, spark plugs. https://owners.nissanusa.com/c... https://owners.nissanusa.com/c...
It's true that an EV needs a new battery eventually but at 12,000 miles per year, an EV battery is expected to still have 70% of its original capacity. Even if you need a new battery in 10 years, prices are coming down so quickly that it's likely to be closer to $3000 than the original $10,000. Far less than the fuel cost savings in that time period.
In truth, our power system already has a helluva lot of capacity built to accommodate variability from energy USERS (supply = demand at all times or system crashes), and it can also be used to manage variability from energy PRODUCERS, like wind. It's not an extra cost, it's built in until the level of variability far exceeds current situations (except in isolated geographic areas of the grid, or island power networks).
In the long run, we will need a power system with more flexible sources of generation or storage to manage higher levels of variability associated with wind and solar power. But for now, on most power grids? Not even close.
And guess what, fossil fuels aren't without variability, either? What if you can't get a coal train to a coal power plant? http://www.marketplace.org/top...
What is algebra, exactly? Is it one of those three-cornered things? -- J.M. Barrie