Your math is slightly off but close. Lets see, The Scion has a 11.9 gallon fuel tank. Assuming that it costs you $18,000 for a fully kitted Scion xB and $55000 to make it electric and you never bought another gallon of gas, to break even (ie pay for the conversion only), it would take you (at $2/gallon) 27500 gallons of gas ($55000/$2 per gal). With an 11.9 gallon tank(lets call it 12 for ease of math), that's 2291.67 tanks of gas (27500/12). Now, the Scion xB gets an EPA rated 30 city / 34 highway mpg with an automatic transmission. Lets average your mileage out at 30 miles to a gallon. That means that your would have to drive 825000 miles to break even (27500 x 30). Upping the cost of Gas to $2.50/gallon (more like reality in DC), gives you the following mileage: 660,000 miles. Still waay too much.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
to pay for the conversion you would have to drive a little over 900k miles, the equivalent of 75,625 tanks of gas at $2 a gallon.
Your math is slightly off but close. Lets see, The Scion has a 11.9 gallon fuel tank. Assuming that it costs you $18,000 for a fully kitted Scion xB and $55000 to make it electric and you never bought another gallon of gas, to break even (ie pay for the conversion only), it would take you (at $2/gallon) 27500 gallons of gas ($55000/$2 per gal). With an 11.9 gallon tank(lets call it 12 for ease of math), that's 2291.67 tanks of gas (27500/12). Now, the Scion xB gets an EPA rated 30 city / 34 highway mpg with an automatic transmission. Lets average your mileage out at 30 miles to a gallon. That means that your would have to drive 825000 miles to break even (27500 x 30). Upping the cost of Gas to $2.50/gallon (more like reality in DC), gives you the following mileage: 660,000 miles. Still waay too much.