Supercharging now costs more than gas (one owner's experience)

[Daekwan]

Unless you are only paying for fuel, and someone else is paying for maintenance, money saved on fuel alone isn't the proper calculation to be doing.

Except you didn't include the cost of oil changes, spark plugs, etc.

Only if you don't understand the concept of driving at off-peak hours. I'm not sure why people want to drive during peak hours to begin with; traffic moves a lot faster during off-peak hours anyway.

When is the last time you seriously paid for spark plugs? I have been licensed to drive for over 30 years and have literally never paid for them. And oil change at most shops is what? $60 and something that happens once a year for most ICE drivers?

Finally off-peak hours just aren't convenient for most people. The purpose of a car is get you from point A to point B.. and almost entirely about convenience. Anybody purposely delaying trip departure & arrival times.. just to save money on Supercharging.. probably shouldn't be driving a $60,000 Tesla to begin with.

Meanwhile the guy with the CRV bought isn't pretending to save money.. the entire reason people buy something like a CRV or RAV4 is these vehicles are both great on gas and CHEAP to purchase!! He doesn't spend $60,000 on a new vehicle.. under the false premise that its somehow going to save him money vs a $25,000 CRV.

 

[STS-134]

When is the last time you seriously paid for spark plugs? I have been licensed to drive for over 30 years and have literally never paid for them. And oil change at most shops is what? $60 and something that happens once a year for most ICE drivers?

What I listed is not a collectively exhaustive list of ICE vehicle maintenance items. I do oil changes myself, but do have to buy oil and oil filters. But then there are the engine air filter changes, transmission fluid changes, brake pads and rotors (EVs not exempt but wear is greatly reduced due to regenerative braking), cooling system flushes, transfer case oil/fluid changes, etc. And for a previous ICE vehicle I had (a Toyota), a transmission replacement at 180k miles and, if it had made it to 300k miles without being totaled by an idiot behind me who wasn't paying attention when traffic was starting to back up, possibly might have needed a new engine or a rebore of the cylinders due to increasing oil consumption. Oh, and around 120k miles, they had to basically take apart the engine and replace the timing chain, because there was an oil leak in that area that was somehow getting into the radiator (that repair cost about $2000). All of this stuff adds up, and with EVs, there's just much less of a probability that something will go wrong because there's so many fewer moving parts.

 

[jwharnish]

what's interesting with OP is that gas was around $3/ gallon in November. Today what is it maybe $4.40. Using that cost the Prius is not going to beat the Tesla with cost to drive.
I have a condo that's 300 miles one way. Our Resort has a Tesla charger, so I only stop to charge once about halfway point, and that usually cost me around $8 to charge to reach my destination.
So I leave home with 100%, Home has solar so cost to charge 0, charge after 150 miles to arrive at destination with around 15%, $8, then top off for free at Condo. So that round trip with the M3P is around $16 for 600 miles.
I drive my wife's Prius down on some of the trips. Top off before trip, varies, but let's say $20, fill up after 300 miles with gas at $4.40 about $30, return trip top off another $30. So driving the Prius for 600 miles $80 today.
Charging at home and at destinations is what really reducing the total driving cost of a Tesla.
Now if hotels and resorts will put in gas stations and fill you up for free, then that would even things out somewhat.

 

[ThomasD]

According to Democrats high energy prices is a good thing
Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition’

 

[SageBrush]

According to Democrats high energy prices is a good thing

Not energy per se, but fossil fuels.
And they are not high, they are still subsidized by the Gov with direct money, and indirectly by externalized pollution costs.

You sound like a critic of "high" fossil prices. Can you explain to me why pollution should not be included in the price ?

 

[Pruitt]

I was going to post a thread asking about current charging prices vs. cost of gasoline, but this thread has more or less answered that question.

For me there's no comparison. I bought my S in March 2016, so Supercharging is free as long as I own the car. I've played around with selling this car and getting a newer one for the faster charging and longer range, but with the cost of supercharging where it is now, I think I'll just stick with my old 90D.

 

[Earl]

According to Democrats high energy prices is a good thing
Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition’

I'm not sure about all of the downvotes on this, other than maybe calling out Democrats. I see high non-renewable energy prices being high as being an inevitable reality of the world - like gravity, death, and There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. This is one of my main motivations for preferring EVs as they don't depend on a single energy source and, better, can operate from renewables. Even better still: They can operate from renewables that I, myself, can buy and control.
I guess the down-bump in oil prices due to fracking (and possibly to dissuade the transition to EV) has finally leveled out. Even senators from the petro-chemical state of Delaware can finally understand. I guess that is good. It's too bad more folks haven't figured it out earlier before it became painful for society.
While some still naively rationalize that it's them bad people (usually blaming liberals although I'm quite CONSERVative) that are denying them their cheap gas birthright, and others are afraid to let go of what they are familiar with, at least more people are finally seeing that there actually is a real problem (oil dependency) and a real answer (EVs).

 

[Jeremy3292]

I realize this is an old thread and with how high gas prices are these days this entire thread is probably moot, but why are we talking about supercharging prices compared to gas prices at all? You charge your car at your house where it is incredibly cheap to charge (or apt where it is included in your rent). Supercharging is for road trips ONLY and due to the infrastructure required it should cost considerably more than at home charging. It is not how you charge your car regularly. It’s an apples to oranges comparison.

 

[UncleCreepy]

It's not an apple to oranges comparison though if supercharging used to be quite affordable in the past (infrastructure cost money back then, too) and now the prices suddenly increased by a factor 3 or 4 or whatever it is now. What does it have to do with anything if it's only for road trips? Just because I buy a cake for a birthday doesn't justify it costing $100 because it's only once a year.
But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that there is virtually no competition since Tesla uses a proprietary connector. It's pretty obvious why Tesla is not interested in selling a CCS adapter in North America.

 

[jwharnish]

It's not an apple to oranges comparison though if supercharging used to be quite affordable in the past (infrastructure cost money back then, too) and now the prices suddenly increased by a factor 3 or 4 or whatever it is now. What does it have to do with anything if it's only for road trips? Just because I buy a cake for a birthday doesn't justify it costing $100 because it's only once a year.
But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that there is virtually no competition since Tesla uses a proprietary connector. It's pretty obvious why Tesla is not interested in selling a CCS adapter in North America.

I'm in the middle of a 6k cross country trip and have spent around $150 so far on Supercharging. This is the third such trip I have made, and the average price for Supercharging went from around .25 kwh to now being around .35 kwh. I'll spend about $100 more for this trip due to that. Highest I spent was in AZ which was .44 kwh.
More cost yes, but still 6k trip for $300 in energy cost, not bad at all.
Tesla's Supercharger's are proprietary for their cars, but I still have the option with my J1772 adapter to charge at different chargers. And I have done that at destinations probably 6 times so far. Most of those have been free so far. The J1772 chargers that charge a fee are higher than what the Supercharger's are, so I avoid those if possible. Not sure if the CCS adapter was available, would it be cheaper than the Supercharger rates? Maybe depends where you live.
But yes, I only deal with this when on a road trip, rest of time I charge at home free, since I have Solar.

 

[Jeremy3292]

It's not an apple to oranges comparison though if supercharging used to be quite affordable in the past (infrastructure cost money back then, too) and now the prices suddenly increased by a factor 3 or 4 or whatever it is now. What does it have to do with anything if it's only for road trips? Just because I buy a cake for a birthday doesn't justify it costing $100 because it's only once a year.

The birthday cake example doesn't really make sense to me, bc a birthday cake doesn't cost that much to make. It also doesn't cost 3-4x more as Tesla simply went to a peak/off peak model like many utility providers do (from what I've seen). This also seems to be strictly a California and high tax state (west coast) problem also, because I have only seen supercharging go up a few cents per kWh here in the entire southeast during my travels. I think $0.35 per kWh is the highest I've seen and that was a new build. So the fact that Tesla is increasing their prices across the board is due to inflation and crazy costs for raw materials these days, which is far worse in some areas, so it is not surprising to me at all. Large urban areas seem to suffer the most. It appears Tesla is also trying to get people to change their habits and not rely on supercharging so much bc that is not what it is for. So if you want to rely on it, you pay the premium.

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that there is virtually no competition since Tesla uses a proprietary connector. It's pretty obvious why Tesla is not interested in selling a CCS adapter in North America.

I'll have to disagree with you there bc Tesla has made it very clear they are opening up the entire supercharging network to CCS and they just expanded to more countries in Europe a few days ago. It's coming to North America soon enough. Tesla doesn't have a revenue problem with their supercharging network either; they have a "it is used too much" problem. It is far more likely that service centers are overwhelmed, they can't get enough parts, they can't get enough people, and adding a massive influx of owners who want CCS retrofits is a terrible idea right now.

 

[avs007]

Honestly it really depends on what car you are comparing to... I know people love comparing to civics and priusus, but those drive nothing like a Tesla. Especially if you have a 7 seater like me... I just got done with a road trip up and down the entire length of I-5... In my MY7, I paid around $52 for each 600 mile segment... That won't even pay for a single tank of gas in my MDX. When I have my MDX loaded with passengers and gear, the best I can manage with it is between 15 and 17 mpg... To fill the tank costs over $100. In OR/WA every gas station along I-5 was almost $6 gallon... In California, it was over $6 a gallon, with many of the ones in the more rural areas being over $7 gallon.. One station I drove past near Shasta was $7.29 gallon.

 

[ElectricNerd]

I calculated yesterday for our Model 3 SR+ that the cost to use the supercharger was at the equivalent of $2.06 a gallon of gas at one, and $2.20 a gallon of gas at the slightly more expensive SC. I'm basing this off of what I read that Tesla claims an ICE gets at 28 MPG.

 

[animonj]

fortunately, I only had to use a supercharger on rare occasions and the first few times were free. but the few times I had to use it, I realized the cost of supercharging varies wildly depending on the charging station, time, etc. most recent example is when I spent 22.59 on supercharging for traveling about 170 miles while it would have cost about 23.34 if I was driving a normal ICE car. so, no Tesla for long-distance drives, not at this price.

from what I have read, the cost can be even higher. I paid at two supercharging stations: one @33c/kWh and the second one at @48c/kWh. apparently, the cost at some places has gone up to 58c/kWh

 

[roblab]

Wow, where is it $3/gallon? It’s about double that here in Northern California. I fully-charged today for about $15 getting about 290 miles. I don’t know of any other car that would get 290 on 2.5 gallons around here.

Yep. Gas is about $7 a gallon (how many gallons to get 400 miles??) here in northern Napa Valley. Compared to a fill up in my garage of 400 miles for about $14. No comparison, unless you want to compare grapes to pineapples. I don't care what you're driving...: I wanna know what you're smokin'.

 

[XPsionic]

I think Supercharger cost is a bit too expensive and detracts from the ownership experience. IMO Tesla's doing it partly due to revenue and cost, and partly because they're not expanding the network fast enough to meet the demand in busy states like California. With the high number of Teslas being sold everyday, full superchargers are getting more common, and high cost is one way to reduce demand.

While no CCS network is as easy to use or complete as Supercharger, I'm still very much looking forward to getting an adapter and having more options.

 

[Msicario]

Moderator note: Edited thread title to reflect that this comparison of the costs of Supercharging vs. gas is one person's experience, and not a universal truth.

Drove 680 miles today. Paid $50 for supercharging--and that's coming home with an empty battery (I have to pay to fill it up now).

Gas was around $3/gallon today plus or minus a few cents. A Prius gets around 45 mpg. That's about 15 gallons of gas for $45.

I thought electric was supposed to SAVE money--not cost more.

Some people here might not like it but you’ve spoken facts I have both MYP and Prius, so I know your telling truths..

 

[ElectricIAC]

Yep. Gas is about $7 a gallon (how many gallons to get 400 miles??) here in northern Napa Valley. Compared to a fill up in my garage of 400 miles for about $14. No comparison, unless you want to compare grapes to pineapples. I don't care what you're driving...: I wanna know what you're smokin'.

a) You have a supercharger at home that charges by the minute?

b) You’ve legitimately gotten 400mi out of a full battery in one shot?

 

[Tkdmatrix]

Did you supercharge up to 100% or with a cold battery or something? It is beyond me how 680 miles can cost $50. At $0.40/minute (just a guess, I don't know how much supercharging costs where you live) that would translate to 125 minutes of supercharging, so you got 326 miles per hour while charging. I can get like 3 times as much from a V3 supercharger.
I for one do NOT want my Prius back.

It cost $.44/min in Burlington, Ma

I get lucky in Hudson, Ma at $.34/min

 

[Scrot]

Back of paper maths.

My Porsche = 1 CHF per 5km
My Tesla Model S = 0.60 CHF per 5km

Now I have free supercharging but it's interesting that the difference really isn't that much for a performance oriented car.

Certainly for a "normal" efficiency car like a Volkswagon Passat it would be the same cost. A very efficient car like a Peugeot diesel 208 would cost 1/3 less than the Tesla.

Obviously it's all still in favor of Tesla still....the interesting metric for me is the price rises.

Switzerland was originally 0.3 chf

Then in June 2021 it changed to variable 0.32 to 0.43 chf

Then in December 2021 it changed to 0.42-0.48 chf

And now in June 2022 it's gone up to 0.57-0.6 chf.

So essentially it has doubled in price.