srs5694
Active Member
Just to add my 2c, I see several of you using power cost estimates of 20 or even 30 cents per kwh. I would say that vast majority of those who live in the USA do not or should not be paying that much. My rate is 10 cents. I get it that in Hawaii the rate is 35+ cents per kWh, but if you live in Hawaii you really should get solar panels installed, sign up for time of use metering, etc.
The cost of electricity varies greatly from one area to another. The EPA uses $0.13/kWh on its energy efficiency web site for computing the cost of driving an EV, and I'm pretty sure that's close to the national average. By state, the rates vary from $0.088/kWh (Oklahoma) to $0.321 (Hawaii), according to this site. (I'm a little suspicious of those figures, though; I live in Rhode Island, which they specify has a rate of $0.227, but the base rate in my area from the biggest utility here is more like $0.18. Perhaps it varies from one part of the state to another, though.)
Ultimately, this means that you should check your own electric bill to figure out the rate you're paying. (The way I'm billed, that means adding up a bunch of smaller figures, since they don't do that for you -- instead, they charge $0.02 for fee X, $0.04 for fee Y, etc.) For many people, that will add up to $0.20/kWh or so. California's at $0.183, according to the above-mentioned site; and of course California is Telsa's #1 market in the US. OTOH, time-of-use metering seems to be popular in California, and that can help bring costs way down for driving an EV. For that matter, the site's list of the ten most-expensive electricity states includes many places where I'd expect EVs to be popular, and the ten least-expensive states are ones where I'd expect EVs to be less popular. If my expectations are reasonable, that will shift the cost of electricity to the high end for EV owners, compared to the national average.
One more point: When considering lifetime costs of driving a car, factoring in plausible changes in fuel prices is fair. Like everything else, the cost of electricity is more likely to go up over the next few years than it is to go down. The same is true of gasoline, of course.