Is it now cheaper to drive Model 3 w/ gas hike?

[JetFalcon]

So there was some article about how it was cheaper to drive a Prius over a Model 3. But now with the current news related to gas being about gas price hikes, is it now cheaper to drive an EV or Tesla? It's like $4-5 in my area of CA. But since I drive a Tesla, it doesn't really phase me much since I can supercharge for free until June and charging at home is convenience, and I think its cheaper than gas. I never looked at my electric bill since it's autopay.

But at what price point will it take for a gas car owner to switch to electric? Is it because they don't believe in driving electric or they seriously can't afford an electric car? I feel if gas prices go to $100 gallon and EV prices stay the same, I am sure everyone will switch over, even those driving clunkers. But what about something more reasonable like $15 / gallon, will that be enough to cause people to switch to EV and then will a Tesla Model 3 be cheaper than a Prius to drive?

I may be putting more miles on my Tesla because I never have to worry about stopping at a gas station. The only time I had to supercharge was when I made a trip from OC to Santa Barbara, but that's a rare trip I will do. Even without gas prices in mind, electric cars are much more comfortable to drive, and you have much more control in how it drives. I drove my mom's Infiniti Q70 and I hated it, it felt like driving a boat on choppy water. The way a Tesla drive has as much control as using the dimmer switch on a lightbulb, you get exactly what you need.

 

[iwannam3]

Hard to compete with my plugin Prius at 55mph and the supercharger $0.26/kwh. But then I have solar panels so eventually my KWH cost will be $0.00.

 

[commasign]

At $4/gallon it’s about as cheap as a Civic or Corolla over 5 years (in SoCal).

https://www.teslaadviceblog.com/blog/why-ev-understanding-the-total-cost-of-ownership

 

[Eno Deb]

I never looked at my electric bill since it's autopay.

I'd recommend you do, not just to understand how much you pay but also what rate options are available to you. I recently switched to an EV time-of-use rate and that cut my charging costs roughly in half as long as I charge overnight (off-peak rate).

 

[KG2V]

Remember your CA Gas prices have to do with your refinery situation, and taxes. CA requires a special blend of gas compared to everyone else. Yes, it's NEARLY $3 here in the NYC Suburbs last I checked.
Why drive an ICE? I'll tell you - I have a perfectly good 10 YO ICE with 53K miles on it. I'll continue to drive it till it drops, just like I did with my truck. Then I'll decide what to buy

 

[OCR1]

This question gets debated over and over again with no conclusions. The price of gas varies widely from state to state. The price of electricity varies widely from state to state.

In California, gas is now well over $4.00/gallon. My TOU rate plan charges me .10/KwH after 10pm. There is no way a Prius is going to be more efficient than a Model 3 based on those figures.

But every situation is different, and in places where the state taxes on gasoline are not as high as California, and electricity rates are less competitive, the Prius may win.

Price wise, an SR Model 3 at $35K is a steal. I’m still eligible for $7,250 in tax credits and rebates, so about $28K. There is no way I could buy a well optioned Prius for any less than that.

 

[srs5694]

You really need to crunch the numbers for your details:

• What's your comparison gasser? (A Prius, it sounds like.)
• What's the gas price?
• What's the electricity price?
  • What's the proportion of home vs. public L2 vs. Supercharger that you use?
  • At home, are you on a time-of-use or a fixed-rate tariff? If the former, when do you charge?
  • What are the prices for each of these conditions?
• What type of driving do you do? (City vs. highway, drive like a maniac vs. drive like a granny, etc.)

Combining all of that together could be complex, so most comparisons I've seen tend to be rather superficial -- they just look at the EPA's combined MPG for a gas vehicle and MPGe (or Wh/mile) for an EV and average gas and electricity rates. In fact, the US DOE's fueleconomy.gov site includes a comparison tool that you can use for this sort of thing. (Click the "personalize" link near the bottom of the page to adjust assumptions about prices and the mix of city/highway driving. Note that electricity is under the "other fuels" tab on the price-adjustment page.) I don't know offhand if the DOE's site considers losses in EV charging; if not, you may need to compensate for that in some way.

Gas and electricity prices, in particular, vary a lot regionally; and even within a region, electricity prices depend on where and when you charge. There are numerous free L2 public chargers near where I live, for instance, so if I wanted to, I could cut my charging costs way down by using them heavily. Tesla doesn't seem to price-gouge on its Superchargers, but some L2, CCS, and CHAdeMO stations charge very high rates, so it could go the other way if you were to use one of them. (Yes, I know that Model 3s in the US cannot currently use CCS and CHAdeMO stations, but that could change in the future.)

 

[jdcollins5]

Charging at home with TOU in NC, my charging costs are about 1/3 the cost of my ex-Prius with gas at $2.50 per gallon.

 

[Runebane]

Don't forget to calculate not having to do oil changes every 10,000 miles (I believe that's the new number for a Prius if you use synthetic). The last time I got a full synthetic oil change it cost me a little over $70. You can do it cheaper yourself, but I'm lazy The car I ditched the oil change interval was 7500 miles, so I'm ahead even more

 

[Darscot]

If that article was about carbon footprint and cost per mile I gave it a read and it was complete nonsense.

 

[Nocturnal]

It's not even a fair comparison. It's cheaper to run a mini-bike than a Prius prime, but does that make sense to compare? (hyperbole I know but still)

Plug in hybrid comparisons don't do nearly as well once you take into account the full range.

 

[ronm2948]

At 50 mpg and $4.00 / gal, that would work out to 8 cents per mile.

At 250 wh / mile, and $0.12 per KWh (about what I pay in Oregon), it would be 3 cents per mile. Probably this needs to be adjusted a bit because of inefficiencies in charging (I don’t know how efficient a Tesla Wall connector is).

Adjust those numbers for the car you drive, your gas prices, your electricity rates, your Tesla’s typical energy use, etc.

If you use the Telsa superchargers (28 cents per KWh), you would be paying about 7 cents per mile (which again would need to be adjusted a bit for any inefficiencies in charging).

 

[Runebane]

yeah it depends on if you're charging at home or super charging. It also depends on which model 3 you have. I have the LR RWD with Aero covers. in the summer going freeway speeds (70mph) I average 210 wh/mile going to and from work (roughly 100 miles round trip). So for me vs a Prius it's a no brainer, the 3 is going to save me more money.

 

[SSonnentag]

Each individual has access to different prices on both gas and electricity. There is no universal answer to the question.

 

[SSonnentag]

My average cost of electricity per mile over 48,000 miles is $0.00117 per mile. That's $1.17 for every 1,000 miles driven. Obviously my situation is not normal and you can't judge your costs by my experience.

 

[kev1n]

my napkin math for owning a Model S in San Francisco with PG&E EV-A plan(about $0.09)

assuming 350wh/mi, 10k miles annual comes out to about $330 charging at home overnight(not including solar)

a car that gets 50mpg at $3.50/gal. about $700 annual

so if you are paying for supercharging at $0.2X cents or anything higher on your electrical rate than yes a Model 3 can have the same cost or higher than a Prius.

yes im aware model 3 has better efficiency, prob closer to 250wh/mi but this is all rough math.

 

[woodisgood]

my napkin math for owning a Model S in San Francisco with PG&E EV-A plan(about $0.09)

assuming 350wh/mi, 10k miles annual comes out to about $330 charging at home overnight(not including solar)

a car that gets 50mpg at $3.50/gal. about $700 annual

so if you are paying for supercharging at $0.2X cents or anything higher on your electrical rate than yes a Model 3 can have the same cost or higher than a Prius.

yes im aware model 3 has better efficiency, prob closer to 250wh/mi but this is all rough math.

EV-A in SF is $0.13/kwh, no?

 

[Knightshade]

Each individual has access to different prices on both gas and electricity. There is no universal answer to the question.

This.

I pay just over $2 per 300 miles of range on my Tesla. So it's about 15x cheaper than the premium-gas Lexus it replaced.

But to a guy who is comparing a 50mpg hybrid that takes regular to paying some electric rates 10x mine the math is going to look totally different.

 

[kev1n]

EV-A in SF is $0.13/kwh, no?

forgot to mention i go through cleanpowersf so its slightly less

 

[woodisgood]

forgot to mention i go through cleanpowersf so its slightly less

Oh, good to know. I’m getting switched over automatically to CleanpowerSF and assumed it’s pretty much the same rate after factoring in PG&E’s generation charges.