EV proponents just don’t understand how much of a ripoff this is…
here’s a snap shot of my most recent SDGE bill.
Note the “baseline” rate ranges from 6 cents to 28 cents a KWH, but then the a-holes add 14 cents and other charges pushing effective rate well over 30 - 45 cents. Meaning the econo sh*tbox EV car you buy is going to cost the same to run as a 4x4 truck.
Now solar is awesome, if you can do it, but you’ll have to spend oh I don’t know, $30k - $40k to get enough panels to charge your car for “free” (and run your home).
And BTW, I would buy an electronic car, but only for 2 reasons… the convenience of “filling up” at home and the HOV sticker to drive solo in the carpool. The rest of the enviro, smug, feel good, save the environment, save money, blah blah is all nonsense.
I looked into getting solar and I had a 9-11 year break even. Which is awesome given that the average American moves every 7 years.
But then again where I live electricity is 8 cents a KwH (flat rate, none of that silly base and off peak and super peak pricing) and not much sun for 4 months a year. I suppose if you lived in SoCal, break even would be a lot quicker, given the extra sun and insane electric prices.
Where I live (and apparently you too) they have charges for electric “generation” and also other charges for “transmission and delivery” plus a bunch of fixed charges on top of everything. So your "baseline rate is 6+14 = 20 cents, and your “excess” rate is 28 + 14 = 42 cents per kwh. Plus all the other fees.
yea, don’t get me wrong, I’m no man made global warming alarmist., but I do appreciate the benefits of EV cars. All my friends that have recently got solar spent about 20-25k on the whole system (before tax incentives). One of them calculated his break even point to be about 5 years and he doesn’t even drive an EV. He actually got additional panels that will offset that cost once he does get an EV. So no, I’m not delusional and think you’re charging “free”, but really the difference in cost for the larger solar panel system isn’t very significant. I would’ve gotten solar years ago, but I’m planning to build a second floor on my house, so I’m waiting to do that first.
LoL. I don’t know anyone that believes that, but I’m sure there are ridiculous people out there that do.
So just wanted to throw another little wrench out there. I went out to the charging stations in front of my building at work and it seems they charge $0.75/hr to charge there. It also mentioned 6.6kW on the screen. I’m not sure if this is accurate but that would mean it would cost just over $0.11/kWh to charge there. By my calculations, it would cost about $1.88 to charge my soon to be Tesla 300 miles of range. Assuming I were to buy a new hybrid that happened to go 40MPG (as you suggest), it would take 7.5 gallons of gas to go the same 300 miles. At $3.00 per gallon (which is relatively low right now for SoCal) that would be $22.50.
Are my calculations off cause that seems like a really significant difference?
You’re gonna be in for a rude awaking when you start paying/charging your EV. I’m also in SoCal (SCE) and the rates are ridiculous. I had a Prius Plug-In (super small battery, only did 11mi/charge) and I wouldn’t even charge that because of electricity costs. Remember that once you go up in tiers, everything (TVs, computers, fridge, AC, etc) will also be charged at the higher rate, not just when you charge your EV. TOU plans are a joke and so inconvenient. The costs are so outrageous when used during the day. You pretty much need to be in a situation where no one is home at all M-F 8am-6pm.
To be fair, that is the case with many families. Not my family since I work from home and my wife doesn’t work. Note to self: DO NOT MOVE TO CALIFORNIA!
Like I said, that’s at my work. Maybe get some kinda of ridiculously cheap corporate rate? I don’t really know how it works. The charger is called Chargepoin+. Not sure if that helps at all.
haha… definitely don’t move to CA for the cost of living! We get lots of sun and beautiful weather, but we sure do pay for it! I love it though, can’t imagine living anywhere else. I live right up the street from the beach though, so how could I possibly complain?
I’ve spent a lot of time in California, SF Bay, LA, SD, Sac, Tahoe, even some time in Needles…all over the state.
Eery time I go to SD, I think, hmmm, would be nice to live here,. Then I remember it costs $1M for a barely livable house and state income tax is 10%, and that idea quickly goes away
It assumes future, very expensive improvements to diesel ICEs used in commercial transport.
None of which will make their way down to passenger vehicles - much too expensive, and to be blunt diesel engines for passenger vehicles are going the way of the dodo…worldwide.
Electrification is the future of transportation, but will likely be driven more by point-source pollution concerns, especially in dense urban areas, than strict economics.
Let’s see if we can leasehack this one and make both ICE and battery proponents happy
Mercedes-Benz S560e
The frugal S-Class can travel in pure electric mode for up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) NEDC.
An entirely different kind of a hybrid compared to the Project One hypercar, the Mercedes S560e comes to replace the old S 500 e (S 550 e in US) version of the pre-facelift S-Class and aims to deliver amazing fuel economy for a car of this size. Without further ado, the partially electrified fullsize sedan will sip just 2.1 liters / 100 km in the combined cycle with corresponding CO2 emissions of 49 g/km.
I did pretty much the same thing. Just the title of the article sounds a little like a clickbate. Also reading this - “but the generation and distribution of electricity is also much more expensive than the production and distribution of gasoline.” Since when? This makes me laugh, where he gets the data, Exon/Mobile? Is he comparing delivery of gasoline, yes you have to deliver crude oil first, but let’s say just gasoline to what? a horse drawn carriage delivering charged led batteries?
Anyways, only what I can offer is my own experience with electric vehicles and solar generation, although a short and anecdotal data, still a data compare to just statements pulled out of nowhere, you know what they say about statistics…
I leased two Chevy Spark EVs, bot turned in this year. I also leased a Fusion Energy last year so between last July and this year’s April I had roughly 2.5 electric cars, I am also leasing a Volt at the moment, but i did not start using it every day till July. So we had two cars with 21Kw capacity each and one car with 7.6 Kw capacity all charging overnight between the dates I mention above on TOU2. I have a 6KW solar array, ground mounted on my bank’s property that feeds into the grid during the day and I of course charge at night. I can not tell you how many days we have used the A/C during this period becasue I hate using it, the rest of the family can’t live without it, guess who is winning there… My electrical SDGE ( i live in San Diego as well) bill for last year was $74. No I am not saying that it’s cheaper to use electric car then the ICE vehicle the solar cost me a bunch of money and Sparky is tiny little car (big inside) that just happen to be quite enough for my daily city driving. I still have a Lincoln to drive if I decide to pollute more than I have to. Only what I am saying is that calling to kill electric car again (btw it’s too late now) just because someone thinks it’s a bad energy investment is bunch of BS.
Did you actually read the article? The author said nothing about killing the electric car. And as is often said, data is not the plural of anecdote. You have an anecdote, he presented data.
The entire EV model only exists because of tax subsidies. I can make anything “cheaper” if I get the govt to pay a substantial portion of its cost. But it doesn’t actually make it cheaper.
You can’t rely on the number posted on the charging station becasue they charge a one time fee from $5 and up, just for the pleasure of connecting your vehicle to the station, so that offsets the total cost to charge plus there is energy loss to heat and transmission so you get less than you pay for. In any even charging at home is the cheapest, unless it’s free at work etc.
Here is some data from people that actually charge their Tesla - https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/how-much-does-it-cost-fully-charge-model-s-85
Ngo, you can change your plan to one of three ev option tou a, tou b, or independent meter. You can only revert back to your old plan only once and after that you are stuck (this only applies to Edison)
My daily audi cost me nearly $800 a month in gas. I thought if I get a tesla I would see some substantial savings with the gasoline break. Nope, as of today I got my weekly notice from sce that im over $705 of my monthly $500 budget electricity bill.
In the end, you really don’t save much of you own/lease a car.
