Who holds back the electric car?

The Sierra Club posted a rather inspiration message today: there are, apparently, people who use cars that run on solar power. Now, before you imagine the cars are massive things that have solar panels on the roof or are some other bizarre concoction, realize that what these individuals did were simple hacks. Take one garage. Add solar paneling for electricity. Buy electric car. Bingo: you have an electric car.

But, does it work?

But the short answer for the solar pay-back, he says, was “the instant I turned my system on.” Dickey had been paying $75 a month for electricity. He took a loan out to buy the PV system, and pays $70 a month toward that loan. “My electricity and gasoline bills are now zero, and next year when my loan is paid off, this investment will be paying me probably for the rest of my life. My PV system covers the power for my home and my car. It displaces $90 worth of electricity and over $100 worth of gasoline every month. So my estimate of how long until the system pays for itself is no time at all!”

Dickey says the Rav4EV is the best car he’s ever owned. “My wife commutes in it 40 miles a day, five days a week. We drive it for our weekend outings and it does errands that are too far or too bulky for the bicycle. It has never been tuned up, and I’ve spent about $50 total on it for maintenance. My wife has not been to a gasoline station in seven years and 70,000 commute miles—not once!”