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Fuel Economy Update for June - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com
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Fuel Economy Update for June - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test
Edmunds.com conducts a long-term test of the 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel and tallies up its fuel economy characteristics measured during the month of June.
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Good fuel economy. Now how about a cost estimate of savings non-savings vs unleaded fuel. How much did you spend on those gallons of diesel and how much would you have spent unleaded fuel? Would you have used more unleaded fuel but at a lower cost? Or would the cost have washed out? Then you have the added cost of the diesel option as well to consider.
Are all these costs/savings worth the benefit of the diesel engine vs a gas engine?
@the_big_al
That's definitely the $64,000 question!
If you believe that a gas V8 is similar in performance (HP & torque) to the EcoDiesel, then Fuelly reports an average of 15.4 mpg for the most recent model year they have, 2010. (Link: http://www.fuelly.com/car/dodge/ram_1500?engineconfig_id=13139&bodystyleconfig_id=&submodel_id= )
Edmunds' update for their long-term test shows 22.5 mpg average lifetime. That's 46% better than 15.4 mpg. Meanwhile, the cost of diesel is 3.92 according to ela.gov; gas is 3.71. That puts diesel about 6% higher. (Using 6/30 data from http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_gnd_dcus_nus_w.htm )
In short, current data suggests paying 5-10% more for fuel gets you +45% better mpg. These are give-or-take numbers since the cost of diesel relative to gas varies by location.
Now compare how many gallons and dollars it takes to drive, say, 20,000 miles.
Gas - 20,000 miles / 15.4 mpg = 1,299 gallons. At $3.71/gallon, that's $4,819.
Diesel - 20,000 miles / 22.5 mpg = 889 gallons. At $3.92/gallon, that's $3,485.
Assuming that 20,000 miles was driven over a year's time, you save ~$1,334 annually.
Edmunds paid $2,850 for the diesel upgrade. Using all the rates and assumptions here, the diesel option will pay for itself in a little over two years based solely on fuel costs. The Ram does need diesel exhaust fluid every ~10k miles though. And there may be some maintenance differences that help or hurt that payback period.
I think the diesel option is pretty compelling, personally.
20 mpg out of a half ton truck is something I could live with and it might be enough to make me convert from Ford to Dodge.
Nice back-of-the-envelope calculation, @seerwright.