[Arwen]

Maybe I'm not understanding this. Our electric bills are soaring due to the price of oil. Are we not using oil for the power to charge the hybrid up? Somehow this don't make sense. You pay for oil either way. What am I missing here?

[D3V!N]

Compared to oil, its like 50 cents a gallon

[ptrobrn]

Most of our electrical systems are powered by coal, nuclear, hydro, or alternative source. Charging your car will be cheaper than buying gas.

[Randy C]

Most electric cars run at 2 cents per mile or less. A gas car hovers around 20 to 25 cents per mile for fuel only. You wont see a major jump in your electric bill like maybe $10 a month. But you will not be burning $200 worth of gasoline.

The trick is to get your utility company to provide a TOU (time of use) meter. This way you can separate yourself from your neighbors. The power company assumes that everybody in the neighborhood is using electricity in the same way. So if you start to use a little bit extra at night some of it will be assumed to be daytime usage. The TOU will tell the power company that you used the extra watts at night when the rates are the cheapest.

In a hybrid the exact electrical consumption is determined by the size of the battery and how much it is drained. There is a page at the GM-Volt website that breaks it down better than I can here. This is slightly skewed for the particular car but the description and math can be applied to your hybrid.

[Jack McSmack]

Way more less than gasoline. Plug it in for three or four hours and you can go another 120 miles. on a standard 15 amp outlet, you pay pennies to ride. nothing else comes close. just need to outlaw those damn gas guzzlers. will only need diesel trucks to haul some freight. love the electric car. buy stock in companies that manufacure the electrics. that is the future.

[John D]

you basically spend $2-$3 to charge your car for an entire day, vs spending $4.00 at the pump...

Oh my bad, $3.97

but you do save a ton, and use a lot less oil...