Charging with no home charger is just as expensive as petrol?

[IbroSaunks]

I live in a London flat and cannot charge at home. It’s been fine though. As often as possible I try to make charging incidental to whatever else I’m doing. So whenever we go somewhere in London I leave it on charge (usually Source London) and I get electricity for the price I would’ve paid for parking anyway. Likewise on the way home from a longer trip, a return Supercharge tends to keep me going for the next week or so.

When I need a dedicated charge, I used to take advantage of the Source London overnight 4 hour price cap which brought charging down to circa 12p per Kwh. (Sadly this has now ceased).

I’m now on a local trial with Connected Kerb with chargers round the corner from my flat which charge an eco rate of 19p per KWh.

So yes, more expensive than if I could charge at home at 5p per KWh, but I don’t really bother doing the maths and still see myself as doing better than if I was driving an ICE.

I'm in a similar boat as you. I signed up for Source London's "resident discount", which reduces the cost to 27p/KWh. More expensive than it used to be, but at least you can leave the car to charge anytime, not just midnight.

I've also used the Pod point 50KWh charger at my local Tesco a few times. It's slightly more expensive at 28p/KWh, but the free 7 and 22 KWh chargers are almost always occupied, and since I'm shopping, might as well get a quick top up.

I've only had the car for a few weeks, and I haven't really measured fuel economy, but my impression so far is that it's definitely cheaper than the diesel car it has replaced.

 

[bingbongbing]

Basically if your car does 50mpg it more expensive.

city driving, EV will be cheaper, motorway work, the EV will cost more and take more time.

 

[bingbongbing]

and you won't get an ICE of similar performance to a M3 doing 65 mpg. My previous car averaged 22 mpg.

you will. I had a Mercedes e400d 'all terrain'. 3.0 twin turbo diesel. it'd do 50mpg on the motorway at 80-5mpg. while also having the same performance as a model 3 long range.

 

[Achybolo]

you will. I had a Mercedes e400d 'all terrain'. 3.0 twin turbo diesel. it'd do 50mpg on the motorway at 80-5mpg. while also having the same performance as a model 3 long range.

Same performance? Riiiiiiiight

 

[Mr H]

you will. I had a Mercedes e400d 'all terrain'. 3.0 twin turbo diesel. it'd do 50mpg on the motorway at 80-5mpg. while also having the same performance as a model 3 long range.

yeah right

335bhp 0-60 5.2 v 434bhp 0-60 4.2 it won't stand a chance

 

[init6]

At 50mpg, you'd need to be buying diesel at less than £1/l to be cheaper than 32p/kWh

 

[Doudeau]

Not wanting to go off topic but I’ve saved loads on parking - do/can you? Local council allows me to park for free and in Westminster, when I commuted, I could park for £2.49 all day and no congestion charge.

This has been a material bonus for me (as well as having a drive and octopus go).

 

[meavydev]

I'm currently on the EDF standard variable at 24p / kWh (price capped, as EDF wanted 35p / kWh peak with electric heating when working from home...).
If this 50% rise forecast for next year is true, then this means more like 36p/kWh, so home charging will be getting expensive next year.

Price cap set for 46% rise for Summer 2022, Winter 2022-23 cap may exceed £2,000 Cornwall Insight Home supply and services -

Cornwall Insight is forecasting that the domestic default tariff price cap for Summer 2022 will increase to approximately £1,865 per annum for a typical dual fuel customer...

www.cornwall-insight.com

 

[bingbongbing]

Same performance? Riiiiiiiight

lets not worry about 0-60, lets talk 40-100, real world range. its not the HP, its the torque of the e400d motor. Having owned both, I'm in the correct position to give a genuine opinion.

 

[bingbongbing]

At 50mpg, you'd need to be buying diesel at less than £1/l to be cheaper than 32p/kWh

motorway superchargers, say 40p kWh. then consumption(my own as I know what it does), tally that upto what my previous car did. that's where my answer comes from.

I know this is a Tesla forum, however I'm not blinded by the 'musk factor'. its an honest appraisal. Also, you can get paid 45ppm by a company using an ICE, compared to 4ppm for an EV.

 

[Achybolo]

motorway superchargers, say 40p kWh. then consumption(my own as I know what it does), tally that upto what my previous car did. that's where my answer comes from.

I know this is a Tesla forum, however I'm not blinded by the 'musk factor'. its an honest appraisal. Also, you can get paid 45ppm by a company using an ICE, compared to 4ppm for an EV.

Total yawn, a quick search of your *input* shows what I need to know about you, out of interest why not stay with the diesel car?

 

[Chris1981]

Just wanted people's thoughts on this. I live in a flat so am currently unable to have a charger installed due to various reasons.

I've been surviving on public chargers but with consistently increasing prices, charging the battery costs as much as fuel

For example, BP Pulse Rapid Chargers as a member charge 0.32p/kW so charging say 40kW is £12.80 and assuming you need one charge a week with the reduced range in winter then that's already £51.20 a month

Does anyone else have any tips or suggestions to reduce the price of charging? Is an EV only feasible if you have a home charger?

I don’t have the ability to charge from home and save around 40-50% in fuel
Costs per month. I’m lucky where I live I have a choice of chargers 7w, 22w, 50w and a Tesla supercharger 10 mins away. Once you learn about where’s good and what rates it’s simple. I pay between 15p-36p per kw probably more around the 25p mark on average. Just do your homework where your local chargers are and you will be fine

 

[Sixer]

@Nick77 what is that app you provided a screenshot of?

 

[MrT3]

Also, you can get paid 45ppm by a company using an ICE, compared to 4ppm for an EV.

Your company can pay you what they want, but over 4 ppm and you have to pay back the tax element as it is deemed untaxed income. My company pays more than 4 ppm as they know it isn’t realistic.

 

[spooksman]

Also, you can get paid 45ppm by a company using an ICE, compared to 4ppm for an EV.

That's not correct - for a privately owned car you can claim 45p per mile for an EV as well (actually for any car). 4p per mile is the AMAP rate for a company EV, whereas (for example) a petrol based car under 1400cc is currently 13p per mile.

Equally, those rates are just what you can claim without having to pay tax on the payment...

 

[ACarneiro]

The tax needs to be equalised

Be careful they don't up the domestic tax rather than reduce the DC charger one...
As things stand, I believe the reduced VAT on electricity is capped at 1MWh per month (I don't know if this is absolute or averaged over a 12 month period) and with my mileage I go well above that in the winter. No idea if that'll ever become a problem...

 

[MrT3]

As things stand, I believe the reduced VAT on electricity is capped at 1MWh per month

I believe that is for de minimis quantity into a non domestic dwelling. For a domestic dwelling there isn’t a limit.

 

[ACarneiro]

I believe that is for de minimis quantity into a non domestic dwelling. For a domestic dwelling there isn’t a limit.

Yes, after reading the paper I did wonder if I had made the incorrect interpretation. I am glad to hear that, many thanks

 

[CaptFish2003]

I think the problem with owning an EV without a private Charger is that the range in the winter plummets. While on a long journey the car might achieve 200 miles or so, I find that this reduces to about 130-150 miles the way I use the car. We need it for loads of short trips and in the winter the car needs to constantly heat, multiple times a day.
I charged a couple of weeks ago and then ran the battery down for a week without a top up (using up the last free super charger miles) and only drove 90 miles but used about 60%.
Need to factor that into your financial calculations. Particularly if you pay considerably more for the electricity in the first place.

 

[yessuz]

Just wanted people's thoughts on this. I live in a flat so am currently unable to have a charger installed due to various reasons.

I've been surviving on public chargers but with consistently increasing prices, charging the battery costs as much as fuel

For example, BP Pulse Rapid Chargers as a member charge 0.32p/kW so charging say 40kW is £12.80 and assuming you need one charge a week with the reduced range in winter then that's already £51.20 a month

Does anyone else have any tips or suggestions to reduce the price of charging? Is an EV only feasible if you have a home charger?

Jist to out you in perspective here:
Full tank for my temp Qashqai petrol is ~70 pounds. I can do max 320 miles in town or about 500 on motorway (cruise at 74)
I need about 4 tanks a month (almost tank a week as have to comute to office once a week which is 170 miles away.

So it takes ~ 300 pounds a month...