Model 3 Charging cost? - Significant increase in Electric bill

[Djnas786]

Hello everyone,

Has anyone been able to calculate the true cost of charging at home? I received my car on May 31 and have since put on 7250km,. I have averaged about 152 Wh/KM since i have had my Model 3.

Over the last 3 years, my energy consumption for the month of June 17 to July 19 has averaged about 42 KW/day

Last month with my Tesla I have averaged 83 KW/Day which means I have doubled my energy consumption just from home charging. I average about 120 kms of daily driving.

Just wondering what everyone else's experience has been? I expected my bill to increase by 40-50% for the month on the high end, but a 100% increase seems a bit excessive.

It hasn't been unreasonably warmer this year over the last few and my other consumption habits haven't really changed.

Thoughts?

For the record, i am on software version 21.9 since the first week of delivery.

Thanks

 

[T3l5aFan]

Charging at home will always be cheaper than charging on the go but you will see a very big spike in your electricity bill. It has a big battery and it's like running central air on high to get it juiced up. The only thing I can recommend is charging at off peak times and avoiding charging when other major appliances are running. Also there's no massive need to charge up every day. Just make sure you have whatever you consider to be enough.

 

[albtrssp]

152 Wh / KM = 0.152kWh / KM
120KM/day = 18.24 kWh/day

There will be some inefficiency in charging, but that seems pretty high. Do you have to Overheat Protection turned on? Is the car parked in the sun all day? That might use up a fair bit of power.

 

[marcn]

What are your local electricity rates? For 40kWh/day extra, that works out to about $6 per day at $0.15/kWh. How much would a gas car cost to operate at 120km per day? That's about 75 miles, so if you think your average car gets 25 mpg, that's 3 gallons of gas per day (11L). At $1.35/L for gas, that's $14.85 in gas per day.

These are just a few quick calculations - but the point is that yes, your electricity usage will go up. But your gasoline usage will also go down, likely by a greater amount.

 

[Koflach]

Just find out what rate your provider charges per kwh and it's fairly easy to determine the cost. In Langley I get charged $0.0884/kwh. 75*0.0884 = $6.63 to fill it up

 

[Djnas786]

Just find out what rate your provider charges per kwh and it's fairly easy to determine the cost. In Langley I get charged $0.0884/kwh. 75*0.0884 = $6.63 to fill it up

In Ontario, off peak electricity costs (7pm to 7am) is 0.065 cents/KW. I am only charging in the evening after 7pm. Most of my consumption is in the evening since my family is at work during the day and dont get home until about 530pm.

I also park in a garage and do not have cabin overhear protection (dont even have the option yet). Costs still seem high. Yes I am saving quite a bit compared to my previous gas guzzler, but i should be saving more. I guess a longer term comparison is needed...

 

[Djnas786]

152 Wh / KM = 0.152kWh / KM
120KM/day = 18.24 kWh/day

There will be some inefficiency in charging, but that seems pretty high. Do you have to Overheat Protection turned on? Is the car parked in the sun all day? That might use up a fair bit of power.

Do not have cabin overheat protection. My electricity rates are 0.065 cents / KW

18.24 * 0.065 = $1.19~

$1.19 * 31 days = $36.00

However my bill has gone up about $120 on average compared to the previous years during the same month. I mean there is some other charges such as delivery on top of the cost per KW but that is still quite a bit higher than it should be. I just cant make sense of it. Wondering if my HWPC is drawing much more than it should.....

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

How has the weather been?
How has the price changed compared to last year?

 

[Djnas786]

Warm, but not much different than previous years. I will probably get a better idea when my AC is no longer needed.

How has the weather been?
How has the price changed compared to last year?

Warm, but not much different than previous years.... The price per KW was actually higher 2 years ago. Something like 8.5 cents a KW. We are at 6.5 cents now. Thats why i based my comparision on the average KW used per day. its more than double.

 

[T3l5aFan]

It's also how it is charging. I know that when I switched from my trickle charger to my 7KW one I had a huge jump.

 

[wayner]

Current Toronto hydro off-peak rates are 0.077/kWh PLUS other fees like distribution fee, transmission fee, etc so that gets up to about $0.12/kWh less the 8% rebate plus HST. So the total price is about $0.125/kWh.

This summer has been a lot warmer than last year. Last June-July was pretty bad weather. My solar panels produced 25% more energy this year vs last year and I am guessing that this correlates well with air conditioning demand.

 

[pcons]

Driving 120km/day should be around $3/day max....

152 Wh / KM = 0.152kWh / KM
120KM/day = 18.24 kWh/day

Also you can take the rated range of 499km and the battery capacity of 75 kwh and get an efficiency of about 0.150 kwh/km, so the estimate advice makes sense for summer driving.

Let's take the above as a starting point. But to the 18kwh/day you need to factor in charging losses...18kwh is what the car uses to go 120km, but there are AC/DC losses. This could be 15-20% (I've measured this before to confirm on my volt). So to put 18kwh into the battery your are using about 20.7 - 21.6 kwh from the wall.

Also, wayner is correct, the effective price would be around $0.125/kwh factoring in delivery, tax, etc. So ~21kwh x 0.125 = $2.63/day.

2.63 x 30 = 78.75

So assuming you do drive 120km every day and charge off peak, it shouldn't add more than ~$80/ month to your bill.... So yeah, something else is wrong by about 50%...

 

[MP3Mike]

Last month with my Tesla I have averaged 83 KW/Day which means I have doubled my energy consumption just from home charging. I average about 120 kms of daily driving.

When you come home and charge how many kWhs does it say it is adding to charge the battery?

 

[SSedan]

Just wait till winter you are not going to be happy. IMO the "savings" of driving an EV are grossly overstated especially if you are in a climate that has cold weather. The instant heat is awesome, still happy with my purchase and still saving something vs. the old car at 17mpg on Premium fuel.

 

[pcons]

Just wait till winter you are not going to be happy. IMO the "savings" of driving an EV are grossly overstated especially if you are in a climate that has cold weather. The instant heat is awesome, still happy with my purchase and still saving something vs. the old car at 17mpg on Premium fuel.

Lol, 17mpg on premium fuel is nowhere close to the cost of operating an EV in the dead of winter. Sure, with excessive heat the range drops by 40%, so maybe it costs $5/100km on an EV....but 17 mpg translates to about 7.2 km/l, or 13.89l/100km....that's terrible

On premium ($1.45/l) that would cost you $24.17 for 120km (as per the calculations I ran above)... versus maybe $5 or even $6 at a stretch for an EV that loses 50% of its range. 17mpg is horrible for a car, heck at that rate even paying for supercharging would be 2-3x cheaper...different story if you are comparing to a Prius on regular gas, then I would tend to agree, but don't forget ICE cars also lose efficiency in the cold...though not as much.

 

[karpetkutter]

I seen about a 60 dollar spike for similar comumute. Just make sure you are charging off peak. It added about 2 bucks a day give for take. Sure beats the 20 i would spend on gas

 

[Djnas786]

When you come home and charge how many kWhs does it say it is adding to charge the battery?

I'm not sure. Where can I find out? The Tesla app and charging menu in the car is pretty scant...

 

[SSedan]

Lol, 17mpg on premium fuel is nowhere close to the cost of operating an EV in the dead of winter. Sure, with excessive heat the range drops by 40%, so maybe it costs $5/100km on an EV....but 17 mpg translates to about 7.2 km/l, or 13.89l/100km....that's terrible

On premium ($1.45/l) that would cost you $24.17 for 120km (as per the calculations I ran above)... versus maybe $5 or even $6 at a stretch for an EV that loses 50% of its range. 17mpg is horrible for a car, heck at that rate even paying for supercharging would be 2-3x cheaper...different story if you are comparing to a Prius on regular gas, then I would tend to agree, but don't forget ICE cars also lose efficiency in the cold...though not as much.

Commute is less than 7 miles each way so battery is basically always heating when driving for months on end wh/m nearly doubles so thank you for proving by point by claiming 40-50%.
Longer commute will let the battery warm and stabilize and improve wh/m.

 

[pcons]

Commute is less than 7 miles each way so battery is basically always heating when driving for months on end wh/m nearly doubles so thank you for proving by point by claiming 40-50%.
Longer commute will let the battery warm and stabilize and improve wh/m.

Yeah, on a 7 mile commute in winter you aren't going to get good efficiency in any car (ICE or EV). It's not the battery bring heated, it's the cabin. Under those conditions you are probably using 40% of the energy in heating the cabin... But that's hardly a typical use case for an EV, especially with one that has 500km of range.... Sounds like you really should have a Prius Prime or volt. Both would easily handle a 7 mile commute in the dead of winter and have 50-60mpg after the battery is depleted...plus it would cost about 1/2 of a LR model 3....

My wife has a bolt and in the summer gets 400km+ to a full charge. Because she is on mat leave in the winter she really only took trips to the grocery store and mall to get out of the house, and range dropped to around 270km because she would blast the heat, then the car would cool off and on the return leg do the same thing.

But these are extreme cases. I have a volt with a 40km commute. In the summer I'll get about 95km, and in the winter about 70km with not too aggressive heat use (heated seats are great). So that's only about a 30% hit.... You notice losses due to heat a lot more in an EV because in an ICE you get heat for 'free' because the ICE is inefficient .

 

[Raechris]

volt. Both would easily handle a 7 mile commute in the dead of winter and have 50-60mpg after the battery is depleted

I had this commute with this car and the running engine to heat the car would easily equate to 20 mpg (or less) for this ride