Quote:
Originally Posted by bal00
I just don't see the point in such a half-assed conversion.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by shikataganai
|
Saturday night cost estimation time, since I already did the math for another thread,
the baby is sleeping peacefully between feedings, and I think the numbers are actually somewhat interesting/surprising:
Full assumptions
in this post, for the morbidly curious, with the high points being a reasonable guess at CNG system depreciation, $4/gallon gasoline, Seattle residential NG prices as per the quoted post above, and home refueling via a bought-used VRA that doesn't depreciate much after being initially installed. Whew. That's a sentence and a half.
Anyway, the point is that I think the assumptions are reasonable.
Given the above then
the breakeven point for a Ram CNG relative to a non-CNG Ram lies somewhere around 64,000 miles and 5 years. Note that this breakeven point assumes one places a value of $0 on the intangible aspects of having an alt fuel vehicle, namely environmental somewhat-friendliness, domestic sourced fuel/not supporting dictators overseas, convenience of home refueling, and the lack of being tied to the gasoline grid.
As for me, I actually place a pretty high value on those intangible aspects, as evidenced by my prior electric bike shenanigans, my wife's current Prius, and her EV-in-next-year plans. For ****s and giggles, if we assign those intangibles a value-to-me of just over $100/month then the CNG Ram pays for itself in 3 years and 36,000 miles.
(The real elephant in the closet underlying the above calculations' assumptions is whether I'd be interested at all in a non-CNG Ram 2500. The answer to that would be no. But since I'd rock a Land Cruiser, which is more or less in the same ballpark cost and MPG-wise, I'll let the elephant sidle past without further mention.)