Israeli electric car pioneer unveils price plans

[IDemo]

The Associated Press

JERUSALEM — Electric car company Better Place has unveiled the pricing of its subscription packages ahead of the rollout of the world's first nationwide battery-charging grid.

The company said Tuesday the base price for its flagship Renault Fluence Z.E. electric car will be 123,000 shekels, or $34,670.

It will offer various subscriptions depending on how much a user drives. Monthly costs will range from 1,090 shekels ($310) for 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers) a year up to $450 for 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) a year.

The company said it will also be offering a three-year package offering unlimited mileage for 157,500 shekels ($44,530).

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/israeli-electric-car-pioneer-948849.html

[IDemo]

1. This would sort of leave folks like me out

I drive only about 3,000 miles per year. But it would hardly pay off to purchase an electric vehicle anyway for me and other low-milers, even though it's an attractive idea.

[kristopher]

2. By "subscription" do they mean leasing?

And is it with or without electricity?

[IDemo]

3. Not sure I'm understanding their business model

But it sounds as if you lease a vehicle coupled with a charging package based on your driving habits, sort of like a cellphone + calling plan.

[txlibdem]

4. You've got the basics of it: "cellphone + calling plan"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place#Better_Place_business_model

Take a closer look at the economics of the charging (aka EV charging, aka electricity) plans. To drive 12,000 miles you pay $310. To bring that into numbers that we "Murikans" are more familiar with, compare that to the cost of driving 12,000 miles in a gasoline vehicle. Simply divide 12,000 by the mpg of your car (to find the number of gallons you'd use to drive that distance), then multiply by the price per gallon of gas.

===== The cost of driving 12,000 miles on gasoline =======
## mpg .......... $2/gal ........... $2.50/gal ........... $3/gal ........... $3.50/gal ........... $4/gal
20 mpg .......... $1,200 ........... $1,500 .............. $1,800 ........... $2,100 .............. $2,400
30 mpg .......... $800 ............. $1,000 .............. $1,200 ........... $1,400 .............. $1,600
40 mpg .......... $600 ............. $750 ................ $900 ............. $1,050 .............. $1,200
50 mpg .......... $480 ............. $600 ................ $720 ............. $840 ................ $960
60 mpg .......... $400 ............. $500 ................ $600 ............. $700 ................ $800

So you can see that the Better Place charging plan isn't higher priced than what a gasoline car would cost you. How much did you pay at the pump the last time you "filled 'er up?"

[Yo_Mama]

5. But that's monthly cost, not annual cost.

$310 X 12 = $3,720, but of course that covers the car cost plus fuel cost. Still, over the course of a three year lease you pay $11,160, and you never pay it off.

If you bought a cheap used car:
I bought a Ford Focus with 39,600 miles on it for $7,600, really $8,100) but I get 29 miles a gallon
Drive 12,000 miles yearly; at $4.00 gas the annual gas cost is $1,655, and the monthly payment on it would be less than $250 at current rates for a three year loan. So the cost in the first three years is higher at $9,000 loan payback plus $1,655 per year for a total of $13,965, but the next three years you pay $4,965 whereas the electric car would cost you another $11,160.

Most people have to drive quite a bit to save money on electric cars. I don't drive nearly 12K a year, so it really doesn't pay me but that's beside the point.

To compare apples to apples, I think you can get an Elantra 3 year lease for under $180 a month, and gas would be about $135 a month. That's comparable. But it rarely makes economic sense to lease instead of buying a car - if you keep doing that, you lose big money over the course of your lifetime.

[txlibdem]

6. Thanks. That does seem strange, but the monthly price isn't just for "fuel"

The service plans are priced according to annual mileage and also include installation and maintenance of a home recharging station, free access to Better Place’s battery replacement stations, battery availability, a computerized driver support system, navigation aids, and roadside service. The cheapest monthly package is NIS 1,090 (€218, US$311) for up to 20,000 km (12,000 mi) a year, and the more expensive is NIS 1,599 (€ 320 /US$456) for less than30,000 km (19,000 mi) a year. These prices include VAT. There is also a special plan that includes the cost of the Fluence Z.E. and a 3-year unlimited-mileage package for a total of NIS 157,500 (€31,775, US$45,000).<114><115>
...from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place#Israel

What you get with that monthly battery lease price:
Installation and maintenance of home recharging station
Free access to battery swap stations
Fancy extras like computerized driver support system and navigation aids
Roadside service

So it's like getting Triple A, free gas, top of the line upgrades to your vehicle, and unlimited battery swap privileges all for one monthly cost. But there are still some strange things happening with the monthly pricing plan: some of their 5 plans are more expensive than driving a Prius but other plans are cheaper than driving a Prius. It's like they either haven't really figured it all out yet (and will adjust to the market as time goes on), or they truly have figured it out and need the extra cash to stay profitable during the initial startup years. I dunno. Read the article I linked to and it might be more clear until you get down to the chart where they calculate total cost with the battery pack price included. That just muddied the water for me...

Thanks for the reading assist, however.

[Yo_Mama]

7. I think you're hitting the mark with

... the "haven't really figured it all out yet (and will adjust to the market as time goes on)".

Isn't that what everyone does when you launch new technology? No one can say that this isn't affordable for a person who can afford to lease a car but not to buy, and that may be a way for a lot of people to experiment with these vehicles without taking a risk.

It does seem as if they are skewing this toward convincing the lessees that they can be comfortable and secure driving these vehicles.

It's probably a good approach! Most people are only comfortable buying a vehicle when they are confident in its lifetime; I seem to remember that there was some sort of lease deal when the first Prius vehicles came out.

I know I hope that my next vehicle with be at least a hybrid.

[txlibdem]

8. The electric vehicle solves so many problems for our society, I'm 100% pro-EV

I can understand reluctance on the part of consumers. It is a new technology and with all the astro turf groups spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) I can't blame people for wanting to stick a cautious toe in the water before jumping in head first.

The costs of driving a gasoline powered vehicle are only "cheap" because the tax payer is picking up a large portion of the true cost of using oil. Not just in the form of $$$Billions in subsidies to oil companies each year but also their basically free access to public lands and offshore drilling, the costs of medical care directly caused by the air pollution from cars, and the kind US tax payers footing the bill for military protection of the oil shipping lanes, ports, pipelines, etc. Now we have the untold costs of global climate change to add onto the tab (admittedly shared by coal and natural gas).

Google the true cost of oil for more info.

According to Boone Pickens, we send hundreds of billions of dollars out of our economy each year to pay for foreign oil. Wouldn't it be better if we drove electric cars that are "fueled" by American electricity, creating American jobs, helping the American economy? I sure think so.
...ref http://www.pickensplan.com/oilimports/ ($42.5 Billion in April 2011 alone)

For those reasons, I am 100% pro electric vehicles. They cost too much to buy right now, that is true, and leasing an EV would give reluctant purchasers a bit more confidence so I'm all for leasing electric cars. It's the right time to start a full-scale switch to electric vehicles, IMO.

How many bridges could we rebuild with just the imported oil for April? How many student loans would that cover? How many cuts are the Republicans trying to make in social programs versus what we basically throw away by purchasing foreign oil?