Phoenix Motorcars website gets a makeover, savings calculator
Phoenix Motorcars, the company behind the much-anticipated electric SUT with the SsangYong body and Altairnano battery has given their website a fresh look in anticipation of increased traffic. Set to finally begin building their vehicles for fleet customers and take a few retail orders, the company from Ontario, California has rolled out the welcome map with a fresh set of pixels and features.
The feature I was just having fun with was the savings calculator. You tell them the cost of the vehicle you're thinking of buying, it's gas mileage, and a few other variables and POW!, they give you a graph that shows you how long it will take to get some serious return on your investment. If you like the results you can sign up to reserve one of these for yourself.
Bonus video: For a short video of their plant and a bit of a test drive, hit the jump.
Gallery: AFVI Ride & Drive Phoenix SUT
[Source: Phoenix Motorcars / YouTube]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
steven 3:39PM (3/12/2008)
Ouch! I put in my current vehicle at $35K which gets 25-28 MPG and does 15,000 miles per year and the electric rate from my last bill ($.138/KWh) and the ROI for the SUT is 16 yrs and SUV was off the end of the chart past 20 years! Yes, I added up all the maintenance costs over the 3 yrs I owned the car. For my wife's vehicle which is even bigger than mine (but gets better mileage and has more room that the SUV, the ROI came out to 42 and 90 years!!!! Either their calculator is fried or their minds are!
Reply
Wave54 4:19PM (3/12/2008)
I tried the calculator and it's not broken. Take the difference in purchase price and divide by the yearly savings (fuel + maintenance) to come up with number of years till break-even. Using my subcompact, it came up with 46 years for the SUT. The SUT costs $34K more and saves $840 per year based on 10K miles and 30 MPG.
Reply
GoodCheer 5:00PM (3/12/2008)
I win! I got a 392 year payback for my Civic.
I still want one (or maybe an eBox), but it sure wouldn't be for economic reasons.
Reply
scappy 5:07PM (3/12/2008)
It would take about 8-9 years to cover my ranger.
Reply
fnc 6:30PM (3/12/2008)
I'd guess the calculator isn't figuring in the future cost of the difference between electricity and gasoline, which could be a constantly increasing number. So maybe just two hundred years or so years on that Civic. But then again does the calculator figure in a possibly pricey battery replacement?
But then again an electric car wouldn't even have a 'payback' timeframe if you bought one instead of a gas powered car you were already planning on buying, apart from the present cost different with a gasoline powered car.
Reply
meme 6:44PM (3/12/2008)
Um, where's the blank for the interest and inflation rates? It's not a fair calculation without that. Payback period is only accurate if you can assume no inflation and no interest.
Reply
Peekoyle 11:08PM (3/12/2008)
It's the same old story.. Batteries need to not only give better performance but they've gotta be a heck of a lot cheaper.
Reply
steven 10:03PM (3/12/2008)
@6: I think the point we are making is the ROI is not reasonable. It would be nice if it were less that the effective life of the vehicle. They have a ways to go.
Reply
longbeachyo 4:12AM (3/16/2008)
Who is the passenger in this video???
Reply
Hmmm 7:29AM (3/16/2008)
If you factor in that this is targetted to replace fleet vehicles (trucks driving in cities all day long) guess what, they get an accelerated ROI. So yes it's unreasonable if you only drive 15,000 miles per year and you get decent mileage, but it's great for fleets
Reply
Brian 1:25AM (4/17/2008)
Be sure to use the correct power rate when using the calculator. Electric vehicles are charged at night using a cheaper Time of Use rate. With PG&E this is $.055 KWh.
Reply
dave 10:29PM (9/11/2008)
My ROI was about 6-8 years depending on which one I got. At 30k per year and fuel at 3.75 the payback doesn't take long, but then again I didn't have the actual energy cost.
Reply