Filling a gas-powered vehicle can still be cheaper than charging an electric one

[Jppumper]

I recently heard of a man that drove a Tesla from California to New York and only spent $60+ dollars to charge it.

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[Jppumper]

In additions to the many comments panning that article, I want to emphasize that for many of us, we can get loads of free electricity at many level 2 sites. For example, when I do grocery shopping in Lake Placid, NY, I plug in and get free electricity for as long as I'm willing to leave it there. There are several other sites where i can do this as well in my vicinity.

I do wish somebody would explain to me the business model that allows them to give away energy! It can't be to bring in business at those stores, because they're under-used.

Grocery store electric bills are probably sky high. My former employer, a Fleet Maintenance shop with a full welding & fabrication shop, air conditioned spaces and a screw compressor, the bill was around 5K per month 10 years ago.

 

[Steve-in-MD]

Well, I can't answer the first question, whether the author and editors are morons.... I don't know. I do know that they took a serious issue, spun it to meet the position they were promoting and ignored any common sense or components that didn't fit their preconceived answer.

Disappointing at best. As one with an MME which I charged publicly for a couple months till I got my own home level 2 charger I would agree that it usually is much more expensive on public chargers. However, the home charger seems to provide a mile of travel for about 1/2-1/4 the price of a gasoline mile. That probably won't pay for the car, but it might cover the cost difference over a 5-8 year life. It might save $1,000 - $1,500 or so per year (depending on how much you drive), it WILL put zero greenhouse gasses into the environment and create zero increase in average temperature and accompanying sea rise and might help my grandkids see their environment start to improve in their lifetime. I am willing to pay for that, PLUS it's a blast to drive and probably will have less maintenance than my ICE vehicles. (They mentioned none of that in the article as it didn't fit their fossil fuel funded narrative)

That's why they make different flavors - pick what you like and what works for you - but don't assume it's right for everyone and TRY to get all the facts on the table if you're pretending to be an unbiased reporter.

 

[dml105]

That solves one problem (parked, charged cars) but creates another (people not adopting BEVs for fear of the inconvenience and high cost of non-home charging). I don’t know what the answer is except to say that common courtesy and development of norms of charging etiquette seems to be in order.

The answer when technology forces an inconvenience is to fix the tech.
More stalls with access to charging us the answer.

 

[lawman1108]

I am spending $600 a month in gas alone. This is a click bait article

 

[TheCats]

This is true; however, the number of EVs on the road is about to double, triple, possibly quadruple in the next 12 months. There is no way the number of available DCFC stations in Virginia is going to be able to provide sufficient capacity on a normal day, let alone during a hurricane evacuation. Huge, huge problem for EV owners, and I don't see any work happening that will correct it.

That's an exaggeration, or a misunderstanding of how many EVs are already out there.

The Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3 are about five years old, and Mode Y is about two years old. They were making them as fast as the production could be expanded. Both brands have run out of tax credits.

Even with the new Tesla factory starting up, and a bunch of other brands finally being available, the number of EVs won't be doubling in the coming year. I'm pretty sure that 4x could be sold, but the production capacity isn't there.

 

[BilLongua]

LOL

 

[tuminatr]

Hybrid…….

It’s just another example of how electric cars aren’t the solution for everything.

They’re amazing for daily driving near home.

But if you’re talking road trips, long distances, especially in the cold, they’re actually at a disadvantage.

Making everyone go all electric causes issues. I really think a PHeV is a better solution for most.

This is true, now I charge at home most of the time where it's cheap. The rates here are $.43 / KWH DC Fast and that's about the same as a 23mpg car in terms of cost to operate.

Even worse some of the 50kw DCFC are $.30 / min so slow and expensive.

I will say you need to be fairly savvy when you own an EV

 

[Billyk24]

It's FOX and they are morons.

It's CNN and they are chicken noodles network

 

[Bobcat17]

Live in PA. Electric rates are reasonable. Charging is done super off peak for .02/kwh from 11 pm to 6 am with my Wallbox Level 2 charger in my garage. My electric bill went up $45 per month once I started plugging in MME last June. My wife spends $250 per month to keep high octane gas in her Mercedes(plus oil changes). It was no brainer for me-plus I love performance of Unbridled!

 

[mkhuffman]

That's an exaggeration, or a misunderstanding of how many EVs are already out there.

 

[mkhuffman]

I do wish somebody would explain to me the business model that allows them to give away energy! It can't be to bring in business at those stores, because they're under-used.

I was away from home on Monday night and searched Plugshare for chargers that I could use while eating dinner. I found a bunch at a mall that had multiple restaurants to choose from. I never would have gone to that mall if not for the EV charging.

I spent around $50 for my dinner. And I purchased some stuff at Target that amounted to around $30. I added 10 kW during over two hours, so slow L2 charging. The charger was free but shut off after two hours. I suppose I could have been a jerk and disconnected/reconnected my car to get more than 2 hours of charge but it was time to leave anyway. And I am not a jerk.

I don't know what the shopping center pays for electricity, but I am sure they get a better price than residential. Anyway, assuming they pay $0.20 per kWh, they paid $2.00 for me to spend $80 at their shopping center, which I never would have visited if not for the chargers.

Seems like a good business model to me.

 

[Polar]

Laughing now - posted a thread about it.
I’ve spent $48 charging for 2.5 mega watts while at work. Soooo much cheaper than gas.

 

[Polar]

Live in PA. Electric rates are reasonable. Charging is done super off peak for .02/kwh from 11 pm to 6 am with my Wallbox Level 2 charger in my garage. My electric bill went up $45 per month once I started plugging in MME last June. My wife spends $250 per month to keep high octane gas in her Mercedes(plus oil changes). It was no brainer for me-plus I love performance of Unbridled!

$45 at .02/kWh is damn near 2 megawatts. How much are your driving in a month?

 

[BilLongua]

$45 at .02/kWh is damn near 2 megawatts. How much are your driving in a month?

I have a very similar experience to Bobcat's (live in PA, Wallbox, wife in MB gasser). My bill went up about $40 or so after switching to the peak/off-peak model. I charge primarily at night, and am usually topping the car off to 85% during super off peak (3.4c for me), from 49% to 64% after winter use (and that is only about 40 miles of actual driving on a given day). But the car also pre-conditions in the morning during off-peak (5.1c). Those rates don't include the 7.5c transmission charges for me (PECO). So the electric is way cheaper (21.7c peak from 2p-6p) but the transmission cost is the same. Because I was on a fixed rate 24/7 before, I am now paying 3x-4x for a few hours. In the winter - this all adds up and it isn't all from the car (using the oven awith and the heat on int he house may cost me $3+ just for that couple of hours, 5 days a week). I am thinking as the temps rise, I may only see about $20/mo for the car charging. Still way cheaper than gas if it was $1/gallon (no, I didn't do the math). Now the wife's SUV currently costs more than $100 to fill up, so we try to use the MME as much as possible during the week.

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