A tesla owner I know recently mentioned saving money on fuel as a reason they love their car. I was curious about the difference and asked what they pay for the equivalent of a gas tank charge. They had no idea.
I have also heard it claimed by others that charging is much cheaper than gas, but they never back it up, it's just taken as a given.
Given the variance in both gas and electricity prices by time and region, the answer to which one costs less is almost certainly "it depends". Interesting that electricity being cheaper has largely become conventional wisdom.
Because in most of the US, it is dramatically cheaper to charge an EV than fuel a similar gas vehicle.
These costs in this article are surprising to me, and very questionable without any actual numbers behind it. As a PHEV owner who can fuel with either gas or electricity, the 13c per kWh I pay is dramatically cheaper than gas at circa $3 a gallon, to drive any distance at all.
Confounding factors across the US may be that in some places using more electricity results in an increase in your marginal rate, in others it results in a decrease. Typically EV charging is not broken out as its own line item, so owners may not know exactly how many kWh their car is consuming. That doesn't change the fact that only a small number of places with very expensive electricity will have electric charging cost anywhere near gas.
Using numbers associated with running a Leaf over the last 6 yrs - 400km at 7km/kwh is about 57 kwh. 57 kwh at $0.14/kwh is $7.98 - call it $8 for 400 km. That overnight rate must be pretty good.
I don't think it "depends", at least not in the US and home charging. Take the worse condition of F-150 (16 mpg), F-150 lightning (2 miles/kWh). With the average gas price of $3.78 in the US, and $0.23 per kWh. For 100 miles, it'll cost $23.63 in gas, and $11.5 in electricity. This means that in order for electric car to cost more than an ICE, you need your electric price to be near $0.47 kWh. That's California price but gas also cost $5+ a gallon.
We can repeat this for a Versa compared to a Tesla Model 3. If we use the best conditions of 35 mpg and 4 mi/kWh. Repeating this exercise, you're paying $10.80 for 100 miles compared to $5.75 in electricity. Once again, your electric price needs to be $0.43/kWH for ICE to cost less.
Long story short, you're almost always saving around "2X" the "fuel" cost going electric. But that completely ignores the fact that EV cost more but fuel wise as the article talks about incorrectly, you're almost always on top if you charge at home for an EV.
Yeah, I have no idea where they are getting their numbers. I haven't run the real-world numbers recently, but my Model Y is rated at 4.0 miles/kwh. I pay about $0.16 per kwh to home charge. That's 25 miles/dollar (USD). My back of envelope calculation says that vs an ICE car getting 37 mpg, the break-even price for gas would be $1.48/gallon.
I pay $.04 per mile of charging on my Tesla Model 3 ($.12 per KWh in Maryland.) Right now premium gas averages $4.54 and regular unleaded $3.85. At those prices I'd need a gas car to get 96-113 MPG in order for gas to beat those prices.
Mine is about $12 to fully charge for about 200 miles (62kWH) vs more than twice that for 200 miles worth of gasoline in a typical gas car.
This is at home paying residential electricity costs. At fast chargers it’s still cheaper than gas but by a much smaller margin. You’re paying a large markup on those.
Junk article.
The only places this might be true are places like Hawaii with crazy expensive electricity. Of course I bet gasoline is more expensive there too since it has to all be imported by ship.
Checking the home charging calculation, specifically on the Model X's EPA rating, indicates that they're assuming a $.40 per KWh price for home electricity. The US national average is $.23.
They mention cars like the Leaf. 212 miles on 40kWh. Even if say 20kWh for 100 miles, that's like >$0.60/kWh for at home charging based on their calculations. They don't cite any variables used and I'm guessing using cheapest gas and most expensive electricity costs...to make the point they are trying to make.
So lets use the small sedan example, Versa to be exact. With their numbers, they pay $9.78 in gas for 100 miles which is about $3.43 for a gallon. Even in the shittiest conditions, an EV hits about about 3 miles per kWh. Which means its 34 kWH for the same range. Average electrity price is about 0.23 in the US which means you pay 7.82. It's pretty obvious this author is full of shit and has an agenda.
23 cents the bulk retail rate, not the actual cost.
To get actual cost, you need to include monthly fees and overhead and other amortized costs, like that of upgrading your home to a fast charger. (Or even the amortized installed cost of a regular 120v outlet and everything upstreamof it, if that's the assumption. )
Which is why epa requires car companies to use a higher "rate" when calculating economy, roughly double the the natl bulk retail rate avg.
Genuinely curious, what amortized costs would cost you 2X the electric rate? A fast charger with install is about $2K on the expensive end which is a ROI of 40K miles or so for a Sedan EV. Besides that, what else would make your electric cost from 0.23 to 0.46?! I pay around 0.17 a kWH and that's final cost. As in bill/Kwh used.
There are many complaints about the lack of numbers. I looked up the study [0] and they indicate that they pull their numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and EPA. The methodology is summarized [1] and explained in detail [2] if anyone wants to go through it.
Still not a great study...when you say its "cost to charge" but include incidentals like EV registration fees you might as well look at the total cost of ownership and call it that. Throw oil changes in and other maintenance for ICE vehicles...don't just do it lopsided.
Not to mention they added completely unrelated costs like "time prices" for how long EVs take to charge: Hourly wage at a $70,000 annual salary: The average hourly wage foran individual earning $70,000 annually is about $33. This implies a fueling time cost of around $100 per month for an EV driver, and $30for an ICE drive (page 42 of their report).
I think the main issue here is that the Business Insider article and title are exceptionally bad, and that the study seems to muddle between "cost to charge" and "total cost of ownership" like you said. I only skimmed the study, but the Time Prices did jump out as silly to me too. I would like to see the study repeated but instead focused on Total Cost of Ownership including maintenance and whatnot.
Just get some solar panels. If you have net metering, and with the current federal and state rebates, they pay themselves off in 2.5 years (in my case) and I’m charging my vehicle for $0, everyday except a handful of days in winter.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 16.7 ms ] threadI have also heard it claimed by others that charging is much cheaper than gas, but they never back it up, it's just taken as a given.
Given the variance in both gas and electricity prices by time and region, the answer to which one costs less is almost certainly "it depends". Interesting that electricity being cheaper has largely become conventional wisdom.
These costs in this article are surprising to me, and very questionable without any actual numbers behind it. As a PHEV owner who can fuel with either gas or electricity, the 13c per kWh I pay is dramatically cheaper than gas at circa $3 a gallon, to drive any distance at all.
Confounding factors across the US may be that in some places using more electricity results in an increase in your marginal rate, in others it results in a decrease. Typically EV charging is not broken out as its own line item, so owners may not know exactly how many kWh their car is consuming. That doesn't change the fact that only a small number of places with very expensive electricity will have electric charging cost anywhere near gas.
Some day I may upgrade to a 60kwh battery :-)
We can repeat this for a Versa compared to a Tesla Model 3. If we use the best conditions of 35 mpg and 4 mi/kWh. Repeating this exercise, you're paying $10.80 for 100 miles compared to $5.75 in electricity. Once again, your electric price needs to be $0.43/kWH for ICE to cost less.
Long story short, you're almost always saving around "2X" the "fuel" cost going electric. But that completely ignores the fact that EV cost more but fuel wise as the article talks about incorrectly, you're almost always on top if you charge at home for an EV.
This is at home paying residential electricity costs. At fast chargers it’s still cheaper than gas but by a much smaller margin. You’re paying a large markup on those.
Junk article.
The only places this might be true are places like Hawaii with crazy expensive electricity. Of course I bet gasoline is more expensive there too since it has to all be imported by ship.
To get actual cost, you need to include monthly fees and overhead and other amortized costs, like that of upgrading your home to a fast charger. (Or even the amortized installed cost of a regular 120v outlet and everything upstreamof it, if that's the assumption. )
Which is why epa requires car companies to use a higher "rate" when calculating economy, roughly double the the natl bulk retail rate avg.
[0] https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.com/many-gas-powered-cars-...
[1] https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.com/second-edition-real-wo...
[2] https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/202...
Not to mention they added completely unrelated costs like "time prices" for how long EVs take to charge: Hourly wage at a $70,000 annual salary: The average hourly wage foran individual earning $70,000 annually is about $33. This implies a fueling time cost of around $100 per month for an EV driver, and $30for an ICE drive (page 42 of their report).