By Andy Ostmeyer
Globe Metro Editor
MIAMI, Okla. —
With gas prices in the neighborhood of $2.75 a gallon, Scott Kreeger figures it costs 13.8 cents a mile just in fuel costs to deliver pizzas using a vehicle with a traditional combustion engine.
Now, he figures he will be able to do it for about 2.4 cents per mile.
Kreeger is director of operations for two Pizza Hut restaurants in Miami, as well as Pizza Hut restaurants in Grove, Jay, Baxter Springs, Kan., and Columbus, Kan.
His father, Renick Kreeger, is the franchisee.
They recently bought a Wheego Whip, an all-electric, low-speed car, and started making some of their first deliveries in Miami last week.
The car, a two-seater, has a dozen batteries in the back that allow it to scoot around town at no more 35 mph — perfect for their business.
“They call them neighborhood vehicles,” Scott Kreeger said. “They will do about 20 deliveries.
“It plugs into a regular household 110 outlet. You can get about 40 miles on an eight-hour charge. It is supposed to cost no more than what it costs to run your refrigerator.”
Kreeger estimates that combustion-engine vehicles that get 20 miles to a gallon of gas would cost between 13 and 14 cents per mile to operate at current prices. He estimates he will be able to charge his Wheego for 96 cents per day, or 2.4 cents per mile.
He calculates that over a year, he won’t have to buy 730 gallons of gas, which would cost more than $2,000 at $2.75 per gallon. At 96 cents a day to charge, it will cost $350 to run the Wheego. That’s a savings of more than $1,650 a year.
The all-electric car cost around $21,000 to buy, which means it would take more than a decade for it to pay for itself, except that Kreeger’s 2009 Whip also qualified for a $7,500 federal tax credit (which has since been reduced) and a $10,000 tax credit from the state of Oklahoma.
In other words, the car pays for itself in less than two years, Kreeger said, with one additional upside: no tailpipe emissions.
The car has been a big hit around town so far, Kreeger said.
“We’re getting a lot of people looking at it when we’re driving it around,” he said.
Andy Ostmeyer is the metro editor for The Joplin Globe.
