Cost of juicing an electric car?

B0bbyEwing

As I'm some way off owning any kind of electric car yet, this is more of a curiosity question than a question that would lead anywhere for me.

Before gas & electric skyrocketed, the price of charging a car vs putting petrol/diesel in a traditional car, I am guessing was a million miles apart. Much cheaper to run an electric car (I am talking purely about the fuel/charging side of things here, not buying a car outright, not repairing/maintaining). 

I know the price of petrol/diesel is going up but with the price of energy shooting up, has anyone any real world calculations? Is electric still considerably cheaper or is there not much in it?

I know there'll be variables. Are we talking about a dirty diesel which gets 70mpg or are we talking about a sports car that is lucky to hit 20mpg on a good day. I don't know what's average but I'm going to guess somewhere around 40mpg. 

DrEskimo

Depends on the tariff, when you charge and the efficiency of the EV, but it can range from £0.05/kWh (what I currently pay on my time of use tariff, although no longer available and is now £0.075), to I'm guessing around £0.35/kWh if you charge on a single fixed rate.

Typically around 4miles/kWh on average over the year, so ranges from £0.01/mile to £0.09/mile.

I think the average cost per mile for a petrol/diesel is somewhere around £0.12/mile at current prices? So would have to be at around £0.48/kWh till it's on par with petrol/diesel costs. Might well reach that point in Jan 2023.

What's quite nice with EVs is that the much higher performing Tesla's can actually be significantly more efficient than lower powered EV's, so you get performance without the additional running cost, which is nice

B0bbyEwing

Thank you for the info.

I think we're a good few years away from electric cars coming in to what we're willing to spend on a vehicle although it's bound to happen one day. 
Right now I'm hitting about 28-30mpg in a diesel but that's because I'm off work & town driving which isn't good. I walk where possible. If I need to use a car and the other car is available, which is a petrol, I actually use that. When I'm at work I'll be hitting maybe 38-40 around winter time up to maybe 43-44mpg in summer time which I'd get maybe 500 miles on. Maybe more, I actually don't know as I don't like to run it so low. As a habit I only let it get as low as about 1/4 tank left. 

Was just thinking this morning that with the rise in energy, I was wondering whether the sales point of electric cars being cheaper to run would actually end up being false. 

Obviously there's a whole host of other factors. Environmental for one which is a debate in itself depending on which side of the fence you're sitting on. 

Jenni_D

My diesel car is currently averaging 50 mpg and the cost is 16p to 17p per mile, depending on the price per litre. (Latest was 52.2 mpg and 16p per mile based on £1.85.9 per litre)

Yes - I am that saddo that records every fill up in a spreadsheet. 😁

Grumpy_chap

I was aspiring to switch to EV pre-COVID but did not do so because of the long lead times (even then).

I looked at the costs and the summary was an EV charged at paid-for public charging would be about the same energy cost per mile as ICE.  If the EV was on standard tariff home-charging (or better) then the EV became much cheaper for energy cost per mile.

I have not looked again since but suspect that the balance would be similar. 
Partly because the costs of both petrol / diesel and electricity have soared together. 
Partly because I suspect the paid-for public charge services know they are selling a commodity and I have no doubt look at the comparable cost-basis of petrol when setting their rates.

B0bbyEwing

Jenni_D said:

Yes - I am that saddo that records every fill up in a spreadsheet. 😁

@Jenni_D let's test your sadness. Can you beat going back as far as June 2007  

Grumpy_chap

B0bbyEwing said:

Jenni_D said:

Yes - I am that saddo that records every fill up in a spreadsheet. 😁

@Jenni_D let's test your sadness. Can you beat going back as far as June 2007  

That's nothing

My pence per mile spreadsheet goes right back to my Rover 414 SLi collected Saturday 19th December 1992

born_again

Someone was saying it would cost them £19.00 to charge a EV6. Which sounds a lot, they were not on a cheap tarrif, when working out. 

But that would give them 300 miles. If you take £1.75 a ltr & 50 MPG for fuel that is £48 for 300 miles. 

That is going to require some massive price increases to get parity between ICE & EV on home charging.

Car_54

Grumpy_chap said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Jenni_D said:

Yes - I am that saddo that records every fill up in a spreadsheet. 😁

@Jenni_D let's test your sadness. Can you beat going back as far as June 2007  

That's nothing

My pence per mile spreadsheet goes right back to my Rover 414 SLi collected Saturday 19th December 1992

Some might say that alone is very sad,. I couldn't possibly comment.

Petriix

There are some free public chargers about and some people can charge for free at work so the floor is literally 0p per mile. On the other hand, Instavolt have just increased their price for rapid charging to 66p per kWh which is about 17p per mile. 40mpg at £1.75 per litre is about 15p per mile.

Anyone with home charging and a reliable smart meter signal can sign up for 7.5p per kWh overnight charging which is roughly equal to 2p per mile. I'm averaging about 1p per mile with a mix of 5p per kWh overnight and free charging from solar and at supermarkets. 

Martyn1981

Grumpy_chap said:

B0bbyEwing said:

Jenni_D said:

Yes - I am that saddo that records every fill up in a spreadsheet. 😁

@Jenni_D let's test your sadness. Can you beat going back as far as June 2007  

That's nothing

My pence per mile spreadsheet goes right back to my Rover 414 SLi collected Saturday 19th December 1992

LOL - I wanted one of those, didn't they have an award winning engine? Couldn't afford the price. Nearly got a Renault 5 Turbo SH, but too young and couldn't afford the insurance, had to settle for a Pontiac Firebird instead, what silly times they were back then.

People used to look at me in shock when I said it cost £35 to fill it up (back then), now that sounds so cheap, but one tank was over 7% of my monthly take home, and bought me about 180 miles if I drove very, very carefully.