By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:50:13 +0000

My Wheego was delivered on the last day of October. The guy that delivered it told me it was about the 50th one in the United States. Whether that is true or not, I don’t know. I thought I would give some feedback for potential buyers. In Oklahoma where you can legally drive them 35 on 45 MPH roads, get a 50% tax credit in addition to a $7500 federal tax credit that actually will credit against that AMT, and has an abundance of small towns it is ideal. Our electricity is 6.3c per kwh so a full charge costs about 63c, extrapolated from the 7.5 hours it took to charge from 20-100% at 1000w. For that amount you really don’t get 40 miles. I guess you might ,however it really isn’t practical since the final 20% is in “creep mode” at 17 mph. The car has 8 charges so far and can be expected to be more efficient reaching 100% at about 30 charges according to the manual. Realistically in Oklahoma driving 35 mph most of the time around town I get 15 miles in the green part of the charge meter(60%), another 5 in the yellow(20%), then probably another 10 in the red(20%) because it kicks into creep mode. Practically I will use it for 15-20 miles a day, which is perfect. With these real world numbers I estimate 6kwh will cost 26c and for that I will get 15 miles which is less than 2c/mile. Battery costs estimated at $2500 at today’s cost in 5 years, and 3000 miles a year add an additional 6c/mile. So in Oklahoma I get 8c/mile transportation for an out of pocket $3500 investment. This compares to a 40mpg vehicle at $2.80/gal (including oil changing costs)without the emissions. At $4.00/gal however it’s more like a 60mpg car. And if you are comparing hybrids, the battery cost has to come into play on the other side as well. This is a great deal in small town Oklahoma, where distance and speed are not an issue. I have encouraged others to at least look at the numbers and see if it might work for them.

Comments on: Commander Gives Electric Wheels a Spin

By: Mike