Let’s take similar Toyota hybrid electric and petrol Toyota Yaris models for example, both 5 seats, around 10 sec to 100km/h performance.
The Electric Prius C uses at least 3.9L per 100km. The Petrol Yaris Hatch uses around 5.7L per 100Km. The average drive away prices in Australia are $18.500AUD for the petrol car versus $28000AUD for the hybrid electric.
If I drive an average whooping 30,000 km per year I’ll use 1,170L in the electric Prius and 1,710L in the regular petrol Toyota. The Prius will bring me a savings of 540L in petrol. With the Australian price of petrol averaging 1.50$ per liter I will save only $810 per year. I’d have to drive the Prius for at least 11 years just to make the electric hybrid a worthwhile buy! Even when comparing the hybrid Toyota to a powerful, petrol thirsty and expensive hatch like the Honda Civic VTi-S (8L/100km — 30MPG, 104kW, 6.5 sec to 100km/h, $23000AUD drive away) I’d have to drive at least 3 years to break even on the purchase price difference of $5,000AUD. In reality, most people drive less than 30,000 km per year.
And that is not taking into account the extra expenses in maintenance of the electric system, like on batteries and the electric motor.
Maybe you just like showing off that you are saving the environment. But those obvious savings come at an unobvious price for Mother Nature. The problem is that you don’t see the other ends of your consumption chain. Because the global economy and currencies are hardwired to energy resources like oil and coal, every dollar you spend is actually paid by nature! So when you buy expensive electric cars you actually consume much more natural resources than you would buying a regular car. Therefore, in order to produce less carbon dioxide and reduce your ecological footprint, you simply have to earn and buy less!