My EV is used 95% within 20 miles of home, and I charge at home for about 11¢ per kilowatt. For 2 years I’ve had a 1000kw complimentary Electrify America package, which I used every time I took a longer trip from home. But I just took a trip where I used the last of my EA free kilowatts and had to pay 62¢ per kilowatt to charge without the premium account! On the highway, 62¢/kWh is more costly per mile than a lot of econo ICE cars.
We need more competition in the charging market to get these prices more reasonable.
Randy said:
Yep, it’s a minor trade-off for the savings the other 95% of the time.
Just like ICE owners that say we spend too much time charging…if you count up the total time charging in a year (with most being at-home charging that takes no time), then we spend less time at chargers than they do at the pumps.
@martin
Money is fungible. Time isn’t. Not all time is of equal value - if you spend half an hour charging your EV on a trip while you’re eating lunch, that time is free. If you spend half an hour waiting for your car to charge so you can continue your journey, that’s a direct half-hour time cost.
@martin
If I spend 3-5 minutes at a gas station once a week, it cuts into my ‘doomscroll social media’ time. Stopping for EV charging with toddlers can be challenging.
In their most recent quarterly statement, EA went over how they’re getting soaked on demand charges. Demand charges are based on the highest 15-minute power consumption over the past year. EVs draw high peak power, which drives costs up. Utilities need to address this.
@Nathan
Tesla gets around this in parts of the country with crazy demand charges by putting in battery storage to smooth it out. Maybe EA should take notes.
The problem with DC fast charging is that it’s not profitable on its own. It’s more profitable for existing businesses to install chargers to attract more spending. Deploying chargers costs in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Sorry, but I have to correct the units: the price is per kWh, not per kW. It’s a very important distinction. kW is power, kWh is energy. When you charge your car, you pay for how many kWh you added - NOT how fast it was added.
Gabriel said:
What is your cost per mile/km compared with gas?
Well cost per mile varies based on EV efficiency. It just chews through electricity when you’re trying to keep up with 75 mph highway traffic. Maybe 3.4 mpkWh on the highway, 4.2 is my average around town.