Does The Electricity For Electric Cars Cost Less Than Gasoline For Conventional Cars? Dig Into The Details – CleanTechnica

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Should you drive a conventional car, a hybrid car, a plug-in hybrid car, or a battery electric car? The answer is, it depends. On what? A number of factors, actually. How far do you drive every day? How often do you take long trips? Do you tow stuff? What is the weather like where you live? Do you have access to a 110 volt or 220 volt wall outlet at home? Electric cars tend to cost a bit more than conventional cars, but that gap is narrowing, and the higher initial cost may be more than offset by lower operating costs. For instance, electric cars tend to have lower maintenance costs because fewer moving parts means fewer things to break or wear out.

The issue of the cost of electricity versus the cost of gasoline is one that is hotly debated by people who want to “prove” that their point of view is the correct one. When every factor is added in and the total is divided by the number of miles driven, the math says electricity is cheaper than gasoline, according to a new study by CNET. Its research includes a comparison between the cost of public versus home charging and how purchasing an EV charger for your home impacts the results. You may or may not decide to pay for a home charger (many people don’t realize you can charge an EV using a conventional electricity outlet), and you may or may not charge at public fast chargers. These variables can make a big difference in the math.

The Cost Of Charging Electric Cars

CNET asked auto and EV industry experts this question: Is it cheaper to charge an electric vehicle versus fueling a gasoline-powered car? The verdict is, based on US averages, EV charging wins out. It is important to note those averages may or may not pertain to your personal experience. There are just too many variables.

The price of gasoline is volatile and, in some areas, expensive. Electricity also varies in price, but “it’s significantly cheaper” than gasoline, said Anastasia Boutziouvis, solution product manager at ChargePoint, a company that operates the world’s largest network of EV charging stations in North America and Europe. That means recharging electric cars tends to be significantly less expensive than filling the gas tank of a conventional car.

When considering the costs of fueling or charging an electric car versus a gas car, the differences are stark and fairly obvious. Electric cars are propelled by electricity that is stored in batteries, which need to be recharged. Gasoline-powered cars need to have gas in the tank in order to drive. Using averages from government data sources, CNET mapped all the charging and fueling costs side by side for a month’s worth of driving.

Those calculations use US driving averages for both EVs and ICE cars in data points such as fuel economy, miles driven, cost of electricity and gasoline, power needed for the average EV and more. Using that data, CNET calculated the monthly cost of charging an electric car to be $66.66 versus $182.50 to fuel an ICE car. Over the course of a year, the average cost of gasoline for conventional cars would be $2,190 and the average cost of electricity for electric cars would be $799.92 — a difference of $1,390.08

The total cost of charging electric cars depends on several factors, but the cheapest way to do it is to charge at home during off-peak hours. In other words, charging your EV overnight with an at-home charging setup is likely the least costly way to recharge, and in some areas, may only cost a buck or two — a fraction of the price of a gallon of gas.

Boutziouvis said that “what we’re seeing is that the costs are about one half or one third of the costs of fueling a gasoline powered car.” But she cautions that the price of electricity can vary considerable from a low of about 11 cents per kWh to a high of 48 cents per kWh. That’s why the averages calculated by CNET may or may not reflect the actual experience of any one individual. Overall charging cost may also depend on whether you have a fixed-rate or variable electric rate, or how your chosen energy plan outlines its time-of-use rates throughout the day. Some utilities offer off-peak electricity rates that are especially low. Others have monthly charging plans to offer unlimited at home charging for as little as $20.

“The article you are discussing comes up 3:1 gas to electric energy cost. Our real world experience is 4:1. And when we put up solar and charge from that, it will go to 16:1,” one of our readers writes. “Which, ultimately, underscores that these comparisons are case by case. (we replaced a 20 MPG vehicle with an 5 mile/kWh EV6. Compare a Prius to a eHummer and you will get wildly different results). That said, cutting a major cost by 15/16 is pretty close to eliminating that cost!”

Charging At Home Versus Public Charging

Another critical thing that EV owners need to consider is the difference in costs between charging at home versus charging in public. Boutziouvis said there are “different ways to price it,” as most public charging stations are independently owned and pricing is therefore up to the owner. There are typically two kinds of public chargers — Level 2 units provide AC current while Level 3 units supply DC current. Level 3 equipment is faster than Level 2 but often costs considerably more than Level 2. “DC charging could be $10 to $30 per session,” Boutziouvis said, and takes 20 or 30 minutes to recharge a battery from 20% to 80%. On the other hand, “AC public charging could be a couple of bucks,” she said, but could take several hours to get the job done.

Convenience can be an important factor. When I interviewed the owner of a Ford F-150 Lightning in July, he had just spent 3 hours driving to a Level 3 charger two towns away. He was unhappy because his family was enjoying the beach the whole time he was gone. When I told him about the public EV chargers just a 5 minute walk away, he was thrilled. Only later did he learn the hourly charge for parking was added to the total and a charging session cost him $60. He wasn’t happy about that, but then again, filling the gas tank of a regular F-150 would cost a lot more than that.

Charging electric cars at home may be the cheapest way to refill a battery, but getting a charger hooked up can be a relatively big expense. The cost depends on whether your electrical panel can handle the addition of a charger. If not, you may need an electrician to replace it, which can be expensive. On the other hand, if  your home still uses fuses, it may be time to upgrade anyway. If nothing else, an upgrade will also increase the value of your home.

Assuming you don’t need an upgrade, Boutziouvis said a charger installation could cost around $700 (plus the cost of the charger, of course), and the costs may vary depending on how physically far away from your electrical panel the charger is. More distance means higher costs, as more materials are required. If you do need an upgraded electrical setup, a new electrical panel can cost a few thousand dollars. As a reminder, though, you can also charge a car using a normal 110 volt electricity outlet — it’s just slower, but it can still add a normal day or two of driving from the time most people get home until the time they leave again the next morning.

Note that there are tax credits and incentives available for home charger installations. For instance, there’s a federal tax credit of 30% of hardware and installation costs up to $1,000, which was put into effect as a part of the Inflation Reduction Act. There may be some utility discounts and incentives, too. Duke Energy, for instance, provides a one-time credit of more than $1,100 per charger in some areas.

And here’s a hack I came across recently. Don’t tell the electrician you want to install an EV charger. Say you want an outlet for a welder. Just as the word “marine” doubles the cost of anything to do with a boat, saying the word “electric car” may double the cost of your proposed EV charger hookup.

Also consider this: You may not need an EV charger at all even for Level 2 charging. Many electric cars come with a charging cable that operates on 240 volts. If you have a dryer outlet handy, you may be able to plug into that. There are even devices that can make your dryer outlet do double duty by sending power either to the dryer or an EV depending on demand. The primary benefit of an EV charger is that it will allow you to access it with an app to stop or start charging, or search for the lowest rate for electricity. If you don’t need those features, you don’t need to spend money on an EV charger. You can get a 240 volt charging cable online for $200 or less. Simplerer is betterer.

The Takeaway

Sometimes we can get lost in the weeds trying to be frugal. We can be too clever by half, as my old Irish grandmother liked to say. While there are important economic considerations associated with the purchase of electric cars, there are also intangible benefits that are hard to put a price on. Yesterday I took a road trip with a neighbor in his gasoline-powered car. It’s a fine car, well maintained, with all the usual comfort features. Today I drove my Chevy Bolt over a portion of the same route and was struck by how powerful it is, how the regenerative braking gives me more control over the driving experience, and how peaceful it is to waft along in almost total silence. His car felt like driving the past. The Bolt feels like driving the future.

The bottom line is that electric cars are two to four times more efficient than gasoline-powered cars. In other words, an EV will go two to four times as far on a given amount of energy than a conventional car. It is hard to put a value on that, but it is clearly worth something. We really are at the point where if you have access to a wall outlet — even a wimpy 120 volt outlet — an electric car will meet the vast majority of your driving needs. And when you are away from home, the charging options are improving almost weekly.

So take the plunge into the world of electric cars and be happy. If you happen to keep some carbon dioxide out of the air at the same time, so much the better for you, your family, and the rest of the human community. Congratulations, you’re a climate hero and maybe saving a few bucks at the same time. That sounds like a pretty good deal all the way around.