Utility Bills and Electric Car

[Blackout]

Hi,

I am a current model 3 reservation holder, excited and can't wait to receive my first tesla car. Since I haven't owned any electric car yet, I was wondering if current owners of the model S and X could describe how an electric car affected their utility bills since they received it.
In provinces where the electricity is cheap, such as Quebec I don't think it would be too much of an increase in the energy consumption expenses, I'm still curious to hear what Quebecois have to say about this. However, in a province where Electricity is relatively expensive and has been increasing, nearly doubled comparing to 10 years ago, I seriously wonder how much of an impact has an electric car had on the Utility bills?
Of course, regardless it still less expensive than owning an ICE car, but that is as of now, and following the growing prices for the last 10 years I can't say for sure the price of electricity will stabilize soon...But Could any of the tesla owners share their observations on this topic?
How much of an impact did an electric car had on your utility bills for the last year or two?

 

[mrElbe]

I drove an average of 50,000 km /year the last 2 years and averaged CAD$ 1,200.00 / year in electricity costs. A lot of the driving has been via free Supercharging. I have an extra meter in the home charging circuit, so I know exactly how many KwH I used. I charge at night only.

 

[Gwgan]

Very approximately, comparing gross utility bills for one year with the car and the year before without the car the difference is about USD$1,000 for 22k miles (34.4k km) or 22 miles per USD.. By comparison, my pickup truck gets about 5mi/USD. I would expect an M3 to be 1/3 to 1/2 more efficient than the MX.

 

[Forty Creek]

EV impact on utilities? My electricity bill went up while my gasoline bill went to zero. Even in Ontario when you charge off peak (after 7:00 PM), it's like being able to buy $1/L gas for $0.30/L. I remember a time when certain friends would drive 'across town' to save a nickel on a litre of gasoline. EV owners can save around 70 cents a litre without pulling out of the driveway.

 

[gavine]

The Model S goes about 3 miles on 1kWh of electricity. A little more than 3 miles actually but for the sake of cost, that's a good number for your math, not to mention efficiency losses during charging. So 3 miles per kWh is where you should be figuring for how much it costs to run your car.

 

[wayner]

In Toronto the off-peak rate, and presumably all of your charging at home will be done off-peak, will cost about $0.13/kWh. If you drive to work you may be able to charger there - many of the parking garages in downtown Toronto have EV charging stations. But the parking in those buildings will often cost you about $250/month or so.

So yes, if you charge at home your electrical bill will go up. But as has been mentioned it is still way cheaper than buying gasoline.

 

[RAM_Eh]

Adds about $ 100.00 per month. I am separately metered too. I drive 35-40,000 Km per year. This from last February that if you remember correctly was the coldest ever in Toronto. So this is more than usual.

 

[AZ Desert Driver]

I pay about 6 1/2 cents per kw, and this has been lost in the noise of my monthly bills. I can run my dishwasher or take a long hot shower and cause my meter to jump more than plugging in my car.
I know I can drill down and see exactly how many miles I drive and how much it costs...but the end game is it is too small to matter.

 

[rypalmer]

Just to put it in perspective, you'll probably spend more on tires than you will on electricity.

 

[wayner]

@RAM_Eh
I think you are off by a year as it was Feb 2015 that was the coldest ever.

 

[DMC-Orangeville]

How Much Does it Really Cost to Charge that Electric Vehicle? | autoTRADER.ca

 

[wayner]

How Much Does it Really Cost to Charge that Electric Vehicle? | autoTRADER.ca

That's a very well done article.

 

[green1]

Everyone asks what my utility bill has done, but it's not really the right question.

The right question is how much do you pay for energy to travel X km.

What I tell people is that the car has a range of 300-400km, and it costs me about $5-10 in electricity to travel that distance. Then I ask them what it costs them in gas to drive the same distance.

That said, if they ever use their block heater on their current car (especially if they leave it plugged in over night), the savings are even more drastic. (a block heater plugged in over night would easily consume more electricity than my Tesla uses for my entire commute)

 

[Blackout]

Everyone asks what my utility bill has done, but it's not really the right question.

The right question is how much do you pay for energy to travel X km.

What I tell people is that the car has a range of 300-400km, and it costs me about $5-10 in electricity to travel that distance. Then I ask them what it costs them in gas to drive the same distance.

That said, if they ever use their block heater on their current car (especially if they leave it plugged in over night), the savings are even more drastic. (a block heater plugged in over night would easily consume more electricity than my Tesla uses for my entire commute)

The reason why I was asking all this it's because I am long term thinking kind of guy. Before going any further, I should add that there is no debate, Electric car is winning it is cheaper to own an Electric car than a gasoline car.
The question I am asking myself is the cost of electricity without the emergence of the mass electric car have not stabilize for the last 10 years in my province. From the info I gathered so far, the utility bills increase and almost double depending on usage. But what if all your neighbours gets jealous of your tesla and how you are saving money on gas, and decide to buy a tesla too...Now I am not confident that the current electrical system would withstand the extra load...They would all want to charge over night possibly at the same time. So the Utility companies might have to invest into upgrading their system, and if that's the case then that could result in a higher price for electricity. Furthermore, it seems in my province Ontario, approximately 40% of electrical energy comes from nuclear, and One of the power plant is scheduled to shut down due to its proximity to large population. The other government own one is scheduled for regular maintenance and upgrade and that would affect its maximum energy output. There is a private nuclear power plant as well, and if the government own plant reduce its output, I can't start imagine what would the private own company do to electricity price.

So short term, there is absolutely no debate Electric car is the future. But long term the electric car is still the future, but I am wondering if I'll have to face some angry ICE driver complaining why his utility bill went up, and blame it on people like me that purchased electric car and adds more loads on the grid...I often hear, new supercharger station, Ontario government spend something like 20 Billions in electric car infrastructure all over the province. But all these are charges and ways to use more electricity, I haven't heard much in ways to produce more electricity to offset the extra usage that the mass electric car will bring...I'm still buying my car but I also can't help myself asking these questions...

 

[Blackout]

Adds about $ 100.00 per month. I am separately metered too. I drive 35-40,000 Km per year. This from last February that if you remember correctly was the coldest ever in Toronto. So this is more than usual.

View attachment 217158

Very helpful thank you

 

[rypalmer]

You're wrong on multiple fronts. Yes they have committed $20M not 20B for infrastructure. But one key reason electricity prices are high in Ontario is not because demand has outstripped supply, but the opposite. And all that surplus power is being sold to other regions for almost nothing, at a huge cost to ratepayers in Ontario.

We'd be well off if we could make productive use of that surplus. Electrified transportation of all sorts should help.

 

[Blackout]

How Much Does it Really Cost to Charge that Electric Vehicle? | autoTRADER.ca

Great article, just read it...The Hydro fair plan looks promising and will be a good advocate for EV sales for the next 4 years...

 

[dhrivnak]

I pay about $25 for about 1000 miles of driving. But since I have solar to fully meet my needs the cost is now irrelevant

 

[Blackout]

You're wrong on multiple fronts. Yes they have committed $20M not 20B for infrastructure. But one key reason electricity prices are high in Ontario is not because demand has outstripped supply, but the opposite. And all that surplus power is being sold to other regions for almost nothing, at a huge cost to ratepayers in Ontario.

We'd be well off if we could make productive use of that surplus. Electrified transportation of all sorts should help.

Yep you're right 20 Millions just on chargers. Was confusing, the chargers and the Billions dollars the government is investing on Climate change sorry...

Could you please elaborate on what else am I wrong about? multiple fronts?

But normally when the supply is more than the demands, price usually goes down right? at least they should have somewhat stabilized and goes back to the mean. So you're saying the tax payers have been paying for the lost that happened while they sold the electricity less than what it cost to produce it? And that's been going on for the last 10 years? without major correction to address this issue? The green party was even proposing at some point to buy cheaper electricity from Quebec, I wonder why would they have propose that if we are in surplus?
I am not too sure about the demand tho, there has to be more demand just on population growth alone + immigration + wave of new constructions, especially in the GTA area. Adding the wave of electric car coming from different manufacturers the demands will be more, so yah that would be a good way of addressing the surplus, because we'll kind of need it...
I am still questioning the distribution system that will handle the extra load, I don't think it wasn't designed to handle such fast growth in energy demand...What if all your neighbours get an electric car, and they all change during off-peak hours?

 

[Blackout]

I pay about $25 for about 1000 miles of driving. But since I have solar to fully meet my needs the cost is now irrelevant

Lucky you...having solar...I'm actually interested in having that on my roof. In Ontario, we have this limited deal where the government buys the electricity from our panels for 28 cents/kwhr...and it doesn't cost us that much to consume it 18 cents/Kwhr during peak hours at the most...

Do you have a battery system too? are you doing net-metering?