Exactly and as EVs become more prevalent it will become apparent that even though sticker price wise these are in BMW 5-7 series range. 8 year cost to own will be more Nissan Maxima range or less.
I really like the way you phrased it in one of your earlier posts where you said it was like PRE-PAYING for gas or mileage.
If I was selling gas cards that allowed you buy all the gasoline you wanted to buy for the next 8 years at a 90% discount ($3.50 gas - you pay 35 cents) how much would you be willing to pay me?
Those people that are not math challenged would say:
A) How many miles do I expect to drive?
B) How many miles do I get per gallon?
C) What do I expect the price per gallon to be?
For the average American the answers are:
A) 13,476 {source ::
Average Annual Miles per Driver by Age Group}
B) 17.1 MPG {source ::
Passenger vehicles in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia}
C) $3.50 {source :: http://gasbuddy.com/}
So that gas card ought to be worth 8 x 13,476 / 17.1 x 3.5 x .9 = $19,859
Average new car buyer owns their car for 4 years, 8 months {source :: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/2010_fotw622.html}
So our mythical gas card with a 56 month duration ought to be worth $11,584.
So for the average American an EV could cost up to $11,600 more than an ICE and they would still break even in Total Cost of Ownership.
Note that the MPG number includes SUVs and Trucks. Further note that I assuming that apples to apples, electricity per mile is about one-tenth the cost of gasoline per mile. If electricity was 20% of the cost of gasoline then the average American saves $10,298.
I think that the average American pays way too much attention to gas prices and hates paying $3.50 per gallon and thinks about electricity as being virtually free so they probably estimate their savings as being higher than it really is.
EDIT: Apparently the average American pays 11.88 cents per kilowatt hour {source :: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/excel/epmxlfile5_6_a.xls} and Tesla says we should plan on 300 Wh/mile {source ::
Model S Facts | Tesla Motors bottom right hand corner}. So the average cost per mile is $0.0357. If a $3.50 gallon of gas can transport you 17.1 miles then the average cost per mile is $0.205 per mile. So the cost per mile of electric is 17.4% of the cost per mile of gasoline.
Therefore the average American buying a new car should be willing to pay up to $10,630 for an EV over an ICE.