-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
I was going to disagree then read if not sub 10 cents. The actual rate of what makes sense will vary a lot depending on individual situations. But in my case 10 cents was sort of the magic threshold for me combined with the fact that I save and additional $100 or per month on the rest of my electricity usage with EV-A(PG&E) since my entire house usage is on the EV rate.
That $100 savings is enough to drive my MS over 3K miles a month and have the same eletric bill I would have had before I bought the car so getting on that rate is like getting 3K miles a month of free fueling. Between that and supercharging, 200K miles in a car that has the power of similar cars that only get 20 MPG will save $30K alone in gas assuming I had to buy premium fuel for a 500+ hp ICE car equivalent over the same 200K miles.
idealsol
Member
We are fairly heavy energy users. Service is from SCE
Long before we had a Tesla we did what seemed like a no brainer given our usage
We went from the standard SCE plan to a TOU plan. Specifically, TOU-B. We have saved money without much change in the way we use energy. TOU-B has about a $15 surcharge per month. They also have TOU-A which has almost no surcharge. But if you use a lot of energy, ( like north of 700 kW h per month ), plan B is vastly superior
The highest rate is the time when you should try to use less energy ( 2-10 pm weekdays ).That said, we didn't alter our use as much as we can and have still saved money over the previous plan in every month for 2 years. Ballpark savings $600/year. Our best rate is .13 or .14 depending on time of year.
When we got a Tesla we looked at SCE EV plans and determined it was best for us to stick with TOU-B
Long before we had a Tesla we did what seemed like a no brainer given our usage
We went from the standard SCE plan to a TOU plan. Specifically, TOU-B. We have saved money without much change in the way we use energy. TOU-B has about a $15 surcharge per month. They also have TOU-A which has almost no surcharge. But if you use a lot of energy, ( like north of 700 kW h per month ), plan B is vastly superior
The highest rate is the time when you should try to use less energy ( 2-10 pm weekdays ).That said, we didn't alter our use as much as we can and have still saved money over the previous plan in every month for 2 years. Ballpark savings $600/year. Our best rate is .13 or .14 depending on time of year.
When we got a Tesla we looked at SCE EV plans and determined it was best for us to stick with TOU-B
Huh? My electric rates for when I charge my car are $0.125/kwh. Even if you compare that against a 50mpg ICE car, that's the equivalent of $1.80/gallon($0.125/kwh * 60kwh battery = $7.5 for a full charge giving 208 EPA-rated miles. $7.50 / 208 miles = $0.036/mile. $0.036/mile * 50miles/gallon = $1.80/gallon). Current gas prices here are around $3.00/gallon.
Obviously long distance traveling by car was the norm for families back in the dark ages when I grew up, but the availabilty of cheap and widely available air transportation has really changed things. I'm glad my 2016 S has free SC but am not at all concerned that my 3 will not. (Of course, it helps that my wife works for an airline!)I'll stick with my unlimited free for life supercharging MS thank you
We're about to take another long trip, this time to Springfield, MO from California. We'll save about $250 vs an MS that has to pay for SC.
Yinn
Active Member
Not all of us live in cities, so this argument is inane
My commute is only 35mi/each way. What seems to be the problem with walking it?
Are you taking into account both "supply" and "delivery" charges?? My supply charges are about 9c/kwh, and delivery charges are about 9c/kwh, for ~18c/kwh - check out your electric bill details
Last edited:
This is incorrect . Running a Model S on electricity is a lot cheaper than gas, even cheaper than running a small 4-cylinder Honda when gas is over ~$2/gallon
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
Because it applies to the huge fraction of Americans that do live in cities ?Not all of us live in cities, so this argument is inane
Or because it applies to people like me who bicycle around their small towns ?
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
My wife and I are taking a 1000 mile drive (each way) this summer to Lake Tahoe. This will be the second time in our lives that we have driven anywhere more than ~ 300 miles from home. Every other long distance travel has been by plane.
So like you, I find the change to SC terms to be the least of my concerns.
Similar here - I haven't taken a car trip over 500 miles round trip in at least six years, and I didn't drive for that one, I just rode in the car with others. Anything longer than that and a flight just is better, even though the security theater has been trying their best to ruin the experience.
We don't have a split charge like that. We do pay a $20 a month service fee but that is a fee everyone pays, even people who walk everywhere so it doesn't make sense to add that onto the cost of charging the car. Your rates are more than double ours, but I'm not surprised. Of course we use a ton of electricity in the Summer, mostly AC
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
Then you have no basis for comparison. The best you can do is divide the 2000 cents into your average consumption and add that to the kwh charge.
I pay $34 a month connection fee and use about 200 kWh. Each kWh is 9 cents but my total, per kWh charge works out to about 26 cents. If I consumed more energy my per kWh cost would drop and eventually approach 9 cents.
As an aside, this arrangement seems perverse because it encourages waste. After all, the marginal cost is cheap. Nothing is simple when it comes to the utilities though, and although I live in Repub Redneck land where trumpism is a rampant disease, my utility has no problems with me net metering my PV because the 9 cents per kwh is a passthrough charge they do not profit from; they live and prosper on connection fees
California figured this out too: they split out generation from delivery charges and are therefore mostly energy source neutral.
That doesn't really make sense. The $20 is sunk cost regardless of what you do. It doesn't make any sense to take that into account in any way in terms of the cost of operating the car.
SageBrush
REJECT Fascism
But why would you? The only consideration that matters is: how much more is my electricity bill if I regularly charge my car vs if I had an ICE car?
That's the real operating cost of it.
Similar threads
