RapidRick
Member
Greetings!
My name is Rick, I live here Bowling Green, KY. I wanted to post and introduce myself, and what I might have in mind regarding the purchase and use of an iMiev. As this project progresses, I will try to post updates and questions on this thread, maybe pics, as others may also want to purchase an iMiev solely for business use.
For the past month or so I have been lurking here on the forums, investing many hours doing my due diligence. I own and operate a small hot dog cart business here in town at a variety of locations working the lunch crowd, the late night crowd, and the summer tourists. My commute each day is roughly 8 miles each way if I take the interstate, or 6 miles if I drive through the city. At worst, I would be taking two trips a day into town, with several hours in between for charging.
The actual equipment I use in also pretty minimal. The cart itself weighs 200-250 pounds and the additional coolers, tables, signage and other junk I carry around weighs another couple hundred pounds, at most. I am upgrading to a new cart that will weigh more later in the year, around 400 pounds, but I still would be towing a relatively light load.
I do have some concerns about how much the aerodynamics of towing the cart will impact my range. The cart is a basically like towing a parachute, it is a big, horizontal sheet of metal and this concerns me somewhat.
Most of the big questions that I have are not necessary centered around the viability of the technology or if the car can do the job, but the financial impact of using the car. I currently own a '13 base model Honda Insight that is already extremely efficient to operate and costs me about 20 cents a mile to drive. If I'm going to buy an iMiev and figure to get eight years of useful life out of it, I really need to at least equal, if not improve upon, that 20 cent number to justify my purchase. In fact I don't even care to pay a bit more, due to the convenience of having a dedicated hot dog car and the ability to make use of the car for branding and marketing purposes.
Unfortunately, I'm finding the math on an EV a little less straight forward than on an ICE car. I'm using 8 years of life, 6000 miles a year and a 6000 purchase price as my benchmarks. That puts me at 12 cents a mile for the car. Another 1000 for a tow hitch and some swag to dress up the car. What should I estimate insurance costs to be? Registration costs? Maintenance costs? Electric use costs?
Can any of you veterans take a guess at what kind of costs I might guesstimate at to use in my figures?
Also, any concerns about the viability of this idea?
Thanks- Rapid Rick
My name is Rick, I live here Bowling Green, KY. I wanted to post and introduce myself, and what I might have in mind regarding the purchase and use of an iMiev. As this project progresses, I will try to post updates and questions on this thread, maybe pics, as others may also want to purchase an iMiev solely for business use.
For the past month or so I have been lurking here on the forums, investing many hours doing my due diligence. I own and operate a small hot dog cart business here in town at a variety of locations working the lunch crowd, the late night crowd, and the summer tourists. My commute each day is roughly 8 miles each way if I take the interstate, or 6 miles if I drive through the city. At worst, I would be taking two trips a day into town, with several hours in between for charging.
The actual equipment I use in also pretty minimal. The cart itself weighs 200-250 pounds and the additional coolers, tables, signage and other junk I carry around weighs another couple hundred pounds, at most. I am upgrading to a new cart that will weigh more later in the year, around 400 pounds, but I still would be towing a relatively light load.
I do have some concerns about how much the aerodynamics of towing the cart will impact my range. The cart is a basically like towing a parachute, it is a big, horizontal sheet of metal and this concerns me somewhat.
Most of the big questions that I have are not necessary centered around the viability of the technology or if the car can do the job, but the financial impact of using the car. I currently own a '13 base model Honda Insight that is already extremely efficient to operate and costs me about 20 cents a mile to drive. If I'm going to buy an iMiev and figure to get eight years of useful life out of it, I really need to at least equal, if not improve upon, that 20 cent number to justify my purchase. In fact I don't even care to pay a bit more, due to the convenience of having a dedicated hot dog car and the ability to make use of the car for branding and marketing purposes.
Unfortunately, I'm finding the math on an EV a little less straight forward than on an ICE car. I'm using 8 years of life, 6000 miles a year and a 6000 purchase price as my benchmarks. That puts me at 12 cents a mile for the car. Another 1000 for a tow hitch and some swag to dress up the car. What should I estimate insurance costs to be? Registration costs? Maintenance costs? Electric use costs?
Can any of you veterans take a guess at what kind of costs I might guesstimate at to use in my figures?
Also, any concerns about the viability of this idea?
Thanks- Rapid Rick