Jerry Pohorsky responded recently pointing out the costs to the auto
makers of switching to electric power, in the sense that BEVs and
maybe PHEVs would be somewhat less costly to maintain (fewer moving
parts, fewer repairs), but I can't find his post just this moment.

In any event, I think it's time that one of us do a spreadsheet that
really tries to do a credible job of laying out some of the total
costs of ownership over the life of a vehicle, and, additionally, how
costs change with changing fuel costs.

As gasoline creeps up above $3 per gallon (a friend of mine ran into
that price the other day) then we are back at the point where simple
fuel costs are a more visible issue to many people. If we can
demonstrate not only that there are alternative fuel vehicles which
cost much less to operate per mile, simply on a fuel-cost basis, then
I think that would be interesting. If we can additionally demonstrate
that over the life of the vehicle there are other costs that are
lowered and that the vehicle will thus be competitively priced for
anyone considering buying it, then I think that also would be
interesting.

I don't have time just right now to work on this, any more than I have
to correct and update my old page here:

http://www.herecomesmongo.com/ae/comptab.html

However, I think it would be worth doing, when one of us has the time,
or worth collecting links to existing good work in this area.