Real-world comparison of my cost per mile - MS versus ICE

[travwill]

I think for the quality and class of the car, the operating costs are impossible to beat.
Sure you can compare Model S with Civic NG, but I'm sure if you looked hard enough, you'd find something cheaper than a Civic NG too.
The Volt for instance, a 2015 old model right now, is probably going to have a very low TCO.

The cool thing here in Chicago/IL is that on the ComEd real time pricing plan, most times are around 2-3 cents per kWh, just avoid the mid-day peaks in Summer is key. The really great thing is that from 2-4AM things are super cheap and 4AM-7AM even cheaper - where you get rates of under 1 cent or 0 - 5 cents negative, even seen -20 cents for a couple hours a few days ago when the grid has too much power. Hoping to schedule for around those times and actually get paid to charge the Tesla and reduce home energy bill! ;-)

 

[kuttakamina]

The cool thing here in Chicago/IL is that on the ComEd real time pricing plan, most times are around 2-3 cents per kWh, just avoid the mid-day peaks in Summer is key. The really great thing is that from 2-4AM things are super cheap and 4AM-7AM even cheaper - where you get rates of under 1 cent or 0 - 5 cents negative, even seen -20 cents for a couple hours a few days ago when the grid has too much power. Hoping to schedule for around those times and actually get paid to charge the Tesla and reduce home energy bill! ;-)

No such luck here with Pepco. My off peak rate is 0.07, and on peak is 0.085 .. not much of a difference. I wonder if I can approach other power companies, not sure how this works!

 

[PatD]

Must be nice. I'm at $.14 and that's a decent rate around here! Then again, was talking to family in Boston and they're at $.238!

 

[No2DinosaurFuel]

I think these comparisons so far are flawed. There are many other costs not included. Oppurtunity cost, convenience cost, time cost, comfort cost, pollution cost, etc.

Those are hard to quantify and highly varies from person to person.

Even if you ignore those complex cost and just stick with money face value, then you guys have forgotten the cost of the car, insurance, registration, resale value, etc. Sure the Model S might be costly at first but it gets cheaper the more you drive it comparatively to the ICE.

Now that being said, i am not knocking the model s. All i am saying is looking at the pure cost of the fuel and saying this is the cost per mile is frivolous.

 

[PatD]

I think these comparisons so far are flawed. There are many other costs not included. Oppurtunity cost, convenience cost, time cost, comfort cost, pollution cost, etc.

Those are hard to quantify and highly varies from person to person.

Even if you ignore those complex cost and just stick with money face value, then you guys have forgotten the cost of the car, insurance, registration, resale value, etc. Sure the Model S might be costly at first but it gets cheaper the more you drive it comparatively to the ICE.

Now that being said, i am not knocking the model s. All i am saying is looking at the pure cost of the fuel and saying this is the cost per mile is frivolous.

I don't disagree. I should have titled this thread better - in my eyes, for this thread at least, I really wanted to just look at fuel cost. The other variables, as you said, are hard to put a value against. I remember in the "early" days that Tesla had finance and/or lease numbers that were like $600/mo, purely because they were putting dollars against someone's time and what it was worth to not sit at a gas station. A lawyer not sitting at a gas station is entirely different than a (pick your occupation.)

I played with the numbers until my eyes popped out of my head trying to justify owning an MS. In the end, I just enjoyed the car so much, it didn't matter (As long as I could truly afford it!)

 

[gnxs]

The cool thing here in Chicago/IL is that on the ComEd real time pricing plan, most times are around 2-3 cents per kWh, just avoid the mid-day peaks in Summer is key. The really great thing is that from 2-4AM things are super cheap and 4AM-7AM even cheaper - where you get rates of under 1 cent or 0 - 5 cents negative, even seen -20 cents for a couple hours a few days ago when the grid has too much power. Hoping to schedule for around those times and actually get paid to charge the Tesla and reduce home energy bill! ;-)

Agree 100%. It's amazing how cheap my Model S is to charge/operate when you charge at ~$0.02/kWh rate each night. Add in the occasional Supercharger visit and the occasional negative price (the example your are thinking of was -$0.24 on May 24th for the hour ending 6AM) and the numbers look even better. This post actually got me to look at last nights data just now and it was negative again from basically midnight through 4AM. I drove past the gas station with pleasure this morning knowing that my Model S was going to cost me less "fuel" cost to drive for the entire day today than what my 2009 CTS-V would likely have cost me just warming up in the garage.

 

[brucet999]

Agree 100%. It's amazing how cheap my Model S is to charge/operate when you charge at ~$0.02/kWh rate each night. Add in the occasional Supercharger visit and the occasional negative price (the example your are thinking of was -$0.24 on May 24th for the hour ending 6AM) and the numbers look even better.

I am sooo envious! Here in SoCal Edison area, lowest regular rate is $0.15/kWh ramping up to $0.25 over about 10kWh/month and $0.32 for bigger users. TOU rates start at about $0.12, but daytime is twice that and evenings much more. On my rate schedule, a Tesla would cost me about $0.095/mile.

To get a special $0.1175 EV rate, you have to spend a couple grand to install a second meter.