Highlands Ranch - Alternative Fuel City of the Future

Thursday, November 8, 2007

I was contacted by Ms. Tracy Voreis, science teacher at the Mountain Ridge Middle School, Highlands Ranch, CO to make a presentation to her five 8th grade science classes in one group meeting. Apparently a while back, some of the science students read the Denver Post article (http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5324427) about the renewable energy/alternative fuels vision for Highlands Ranch and they wanted to learn more about the ThunderRidge senior research project.

It was a great opportunity to share with the class about vision, strategy and tactics to overcome our community dependence on 3rd party energy sources. The presentation lasted about 35 minutes along with 10 minutes of Q&A.

I heard a radio host talk about Hybrid autos and he stated it’s a waste of money because it will take over 12 years to recoup the incremental cost of Hybrid technology versus regular autos. After some simple math on my 2008 Ford Escape AWD Hybrid, the return-on-investment will be months, not years.

Ford Hybrid AWD Extra Cost is $5,000
Deduct Federal Tax Credit of $2,2oo
Deduct State Tax Credit of $1,972
Incremental Cost is $828.00

After Federal and State tax credits, my total incremental cost is $828. Let’s see how long it takes to recoup that $828.00. Note that everybody has a different auto they traded in order to gain some extra gas mileage. In my case, I traded a 2004 Ford Explorer AWD that averaged 12 MPG city driving and 80% of the miles driven were city.

Avg Cost Per Month
Ford Explorer $250.00 (1,000 miles driven per month, 12 MPG, 83.333 gallons of gas used)
Ford Escape Hybrid $93.75 (1,000 miles driven per month, 32 MPG, 31.25 gallons of gas used)

Monthly Savings $156.25

To recoup the $828 will take just 5.5 months…not 12 years

Assuming length of ownership is 36 months and the average cost for a gallon of gas is $4.25, how much would I save after the 6 months of ownership?

- 83.33 gallons of gas used per month on Explorer times 30 months = $10,625 is total gas costs
- 31.25 gallons of gas used per month on Ford Escape Hybrid times 30 months = $3,984.38

Total savings over 30 months: $6,640.63

$4.25 for a gallon of gas…it’s coming soon.