We’re not mathematicians. Can we add a few numbers together? Sure. Formulas in Excel – yeah of course. Quantitative analysis of standard deviations of a normal curve analysing the behavioural trends of EV drivers versus petrol drivers? I’m sorry, what?
This is not a post about the long term economic benefits of buying an EV, there is a whole internet worth of studies on that – this is about range and putting a figure on “pleasure”.
Anyway, lots of people have said to us that they won’t buy EVs because they drive long distances, or may want to take a road trip…some time…in the future…yeah. I don’t think anyone has ever said that EVs are good for all people. If you are a long haul driver, probably not great for you.
But EVs are good for the majority of people who drive 50km or less a day.
Assuming that out of those people, they have a choice to buy an EV or a petrol car, all other things being equal.
We then assume that these people spend 95% of their time driving 50km or less a day, and 5% of their time taking road trips.
Based on a plethora of research, let’s also assume that driving an EV is more fun and relaxing than driving a petrol car. Consumer Reports have said that from their survey, Tesla Model S owners have a satisfaction rating of 98%, versus the average which was 70%. But let’s discount that a little to account for all EVs.
Let’s give EVs then a satisfaction rating of 0.85 and petrol cars a satisfaction rating of 0.7. By the way – let’s throw away supercars and hypercars from this analysis because it’s not relevant for 99.999999% of people.
However, EVs can’t go on long road trips, so for that last 5%, they have a satisfaction rating of 0, whereas petrol cars retain their satisfaction rating of 0.7.
So mathematically:
EV overall pleasure rating = 0.85 * 0.95 + 0 * 0.05 = 0.8075
Petrol car overall pleasure rating = 0.7 * 0.95 + 0.7*0.05 = 0.7
There you have it – if we can put a mathematical rating on pleasure, and specifically the pleasure of driving an EV – it turns out you should definitely buy an EV.
But you don’t need to take our word for it. It’s maths. QED*.
*We’re not sure what QED means but it sounds cool.
** This post is supposed to be both entertaining and informative. Please do not base life decisions on the maths contained herein. We are not mathematicians.