EV charging example costs more than it would to fill up a premium fuel car

Wow, glad I clicked into this thread. Very eye opening. I guess count me in with the clueless people that thought charging would be dirt cheap everywhere/always. You know, saving all that money over having an ICE vehicle, lol. I wasn't particularly planning on buying an EV but I don't hate them or anything. In fact there are some things about them I like much better than ICE vehicles. But man, the savings is the main motivator to me, without that it seems like you're just buying compromises.
 
Here are the rates at a nearby supercharger. For reference my all in electric is $0.15-0.16/kwh.

IMG_7375.webp
 
The issue is competition, or more likely the lack of it. If you're the only charger for miles you can charge whatever you want. When there's competition nearby that charges less, you can't do that. [Well you can, but no-body will buy your KW-hrs and you'll go broke.] KW-hrs are KW-hrs.

If you're driving an EV you charge at home almost all the time. If you're away from home and don't have quite enough charge to get home, you charge only enough to get home.

If you're on a long trip and driving a Tesla you plan your route and charging strategy to get from Supercharger to Supercharger. That costs more than charging at home, but it's not exorbitant. Tesla has to make charging stations pay or at least break even.
 
Again, videos like this are puff pieces at best. He charges with the battery half full to 100%, which is the slowest, inefficient way.
This is a worst case scenario. The title should be, "Is it stupid to be stupid?"

These cars are different; you learn. And they are certainly not for every use case.
 
alarmguy said:
Interesting maybe try later? Or a different device? I just went back and checked, and it literally comes up as soon as my finger touches the screen to start playing it.
Click to expand...
Yeah it works on my personal laptop, probably something weird with the VM on my work laptop. Even though I run the VM in bridged network mode and it gets it's own IP from my home network, it ends up inheriting some controls from my work machine like "your browser is controlled by your organization". Probably picked that up when I went to the office. The network switch at work will not give out two IPs to a single connection, common Cisco hardening technique, so I have to use NAT mode for the VM at work.
 
SubieRubyRoo said:
What happens when your EV is dead at noon and you’ve got places to go? 65+c/kWh 😱
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Why would my EV be dead at noon? I charged it to 85% last night at home and I still have 72% battery when I get to work.

But just in case I forgot to plug it in last night, there are L2 chargers in the parking garage at work, at about the same electricity rate I get at home. It literallly costs less than $2 to take it from 30 to 100%, just takes time because it is L2 and not DCFC.
 
ecotourist said:
The issue is competition, or more likely the lack of it. If you're the only charger for miles you can charge whatever you want. When there's competition nearby that charges less, you can't do that. [Well you can, but no-body will buy your KW-hrs and you'll go broke.] KW-hrs are KW-hrs.

If you're driving an EV you charge at home almost all the time. If you're away from home and don't have quite enough charge to get home, you charge only enough to get home.

If you're on a long trip and driving a Tesla you plan your route and charging strategy to get from Supercharger to Supercharger. That costs more than charging at home, but it's not exorbitant. Tesla has to make charging stations pay or at least break even.
Click to expand...
The chargers should be required to have their per-KWH prices prominently displayed like gas stations. This will become even more important as the amount of stations grow and you can visually compare multiple options.
 
21c per kwh, effectively for me. $2.699/gal for unleaded. On my Prius Prime, I did the math, the break even point is when gas is $3 in summer, a little more in winter.

But the gas station is about 0.7 miles out of my way, and I can extend my OCIs running electric. And the biggest killer app is convenience... plugging in at home gives me 26 more miles per charge, extending my gas tank range to 650-1000 miles depending on my drive length. And that's soooo nice, money aside.
 
eljefino said:
21c per kwh, effectively for me. $2.699/gal for unleaded. On my Prius Prime, I did the math, the break even point is when gas is $3 in summer, a little more in winter.

But the gas station is about 0.7 miles out of my way, and I can extend my OCIs running electric. And the biggest killer app is convenience... plugging in at home gives me 26 more miles per charge, extending my gas tank range to 650-1000 miles depending on my drive length. And that's soooo nice, money aside.
Click to expand...
Running in EV mode isn’t “extending your OCIs”.
 
Here’s a session of mine in Wisconsin with per-minute rates. Ended up around 21¢/kWh.
IMG_1689.webp


And here’s a session per kWh. Ended up 52¢/kWh

These are price AFTER my $7/month EA membership. But I don’t drive an EV for cost savings - I prefer the quiet, smooth, hefty torque. It’s also fun just to experience a totally new driving experience.
IMG_1690.webp




And my last home charge from my Autel app. 6.7¢/kWh
IMG_1693.webp
 
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Jimmy_Russells said:
It's still a lot cheaper than fuel, assuming you charge at home.
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Even cheaper if you stay home and don't drive. In the real world where people leave home and go beyond 50% of their vehicles range I paid around $20-$30 to fully charge our rental Tesla at a supercharger in CA. It seemed comparable to cheaper than driving a Camry. Very inconvenient though.
 
Snagglefoot said:
This might be a good place to post a photo I took of a BC Hyro charger.
Multiply by 0.7 to get US dollars. Notice there two charge speeds. Enjoy.


Photo didn’t load. Will be back.
Click to expand...
Here’s one from July. Very cheap. I rarely charge at a public charger, as home is way cheaper…but this is not bad if you live in BC.

I saw an article the other day stating that you can easily drive up to the Yukon now because BC Hydro has finalized installation of chargers every 150km.

IMG_7153.webp
 
SubieRubyRoo said:
WE obviously know both those things to be true regardless… we know “what time it is” 😉
Click to expand...
they can pry my ICE keys and pea shooter from my cold dead hands. no EV’s for me. i love driving past charging stations and seeing all the teslas shoved in there. i can stop for 5 minutes and get nearly 300 miles of range out of my accord for $30-35? no brainer for me. no car payment, no worries when it’s time to evacuate, when the power is out just find the gas station that has a a back up genny (plenty around here).

the price we’ve all had to pay for early EV adopters to sit at a charger is ridiculous. i hope it gets passed on to them soon.
 
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