rationalskepticism.org

The_Metatron wrote:All right, here's the situation: Next school year, both my boys will be attending the school on campus where I work. This is 8 km from my house. School bus is an option, still need to check on the price (stand by for that information). City bus is not, as there is no direct line, and I'm not about to let my boys hang out at the city bus station for 45 minutes twice a day waiting for a connection.

That pretty much leaves a car, for now. Here's what I own:

2003_subaru.jpg

2.5L petrol engine. Goes about 30 miles to a gallon of fuel. Or just under 11 liters per 100 km. That's about seventeen euros worth of fuel.

Or...

A typical little electric car will use about 10 kWh for that same 100 km, at a cost of about €2.50. Just about a seventh of the fuel cost.

A few quick mental calculations gets me to an estimate that I would spend around €14,000 less in fuel over the next twelve years if I were running an electric car versus an air breather.

Ahh, except they aren't going to give me the damned thing, are they? €20K to €30K for an all electric car. A real car. About the same price as an air breather, really. But, on top of that, there's a monthly lease charge for the battery bank. Around €75 a month.

Well, shit. That eats up the savings in fuel costs quite handily. Never mind the vehicle purchase price.

So, here's what I'm thinking: I'd like to have the bragging rights of running an electric car. Way cool, way smaller carbon footprint, blah, blah, blah. But, my air breather is perfectly serviceable. I do not need a car right now. If I did, the electric is a better option. But, I don't. Not yet.

I think the environmentally sound thing (certainly the economically sound thing) to do is to run my Subaru until it is dust. It has a carbon debt due to its simple existence, and the best thing to do about that is spread that carbon debt over as long a period as possible to lessen its impact.

What say you?