How many gallons of oil to produce enough electricity to produce energy for a car?
The Big Questions: How much does it cost to charge an electric car? / Electrifying.
The single biggest question many people ask about electric cars is:
By Nick Kurczewski
Nick Kurczewski is a car journalist who loves uncovering fascinating stories and helping people make savvy car buying decisions. Researching every aspect of the automotive world, Nick constantly reviews the newest makes and models during every work week. He’s driven a BMW at nearly 200 miles per hour on the German Autobahn, and became a licensed Zamboni driver at an ice rink in downtown… Read More about Nick Kurczewski
What will I spend to charge the vehicle?
If you’re looking at an electric car vs. a gas car, doing a bit of upfront research
on charging costs vs. gas costs will help you make an informed decision.
To answer the question of cost, we enlisted the help of John Voelcker, a longtime automotive journalist and industry analyst who specializes in electric vehicles.
He’s heard every argument made for (and against) electric vehicle ownership,
including the cost of recharging compared to traditional refueling.
You Need to Do Some Math.
Cost to Charge Electric Car vs Filling the Gas Tank.
Don’t sweat it. The math involved is pretty simple. For the most accurate estimate,
it helps if you have a recent electric bill for reference. That’s because we’re kicking
things off by calculating the amount consumers pay for electricity in a given month.
Then we’ll provide examples so you can determine how much you spend on each
kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity used.
“For home charging, find your electric bill, then divide the [number] of kilowatt-hours
you used into the bottom-line dollar total. That’ll give you the price you paid per kWh,” Voelcker explains. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration,
the average U.S. household pays nearly 14 cents per kWh as of May 2021.
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To use a simplified example, if you used 1,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity and your monthly bill is an even $100, you’re paying exactly 14 cents for each kWh.
Most bills aren’t this nicely formulated and clear-cut, of course.
But for the sake of this example, let’s stick with this easy-to-use rate and apply it to a typical electric car.
What is the Cost to Charge an EV in kWh?
“A conservative rule of thumb is that an electric car gets 3 to 4 miles per kWh,”
Voelcker says. “So, divide the total miles you drive each month by 3, to get the kWh you would use monthly. Multiply that number by your cost per kWh.
The dollar amount you get will most likely be lower than what you pay each month to buy gasoline.”
To put this into perspective, let’s give an example. Let’s say you drive about 540 miles
per month. For an EV, you will use 180 kWh in that timeframe. Using the U.S. household average from May 2021 of 14 cents per kWh, it would cost $25.20/month to charge an EV.
Do the Numbers Add Up?
Again, to keep things digestible, let’s use a simple formula.
Suppose you put 1,000 miles on your vehicle each month, for example, and pay 10 cents
in your area for each kilowatt-hour of electricity. In that case, this pegs your at-home EV recharging bill at $25 to $33 per month (based on the calculation of 3 to 4 driving miles equaling one kilowatt-hour). Even if you double your electric rate to 20 cents per/kWh, your EV recharging cost will be $50 to $66.
How Does the Recharge Cost Compare to a Fuel Fill-Up?
According to AAA, the average price of gas hovers at $3.18 per gallon as of this writing.
So, filling up a 12-gallon gas tank currently costs about $38.16. Things get a little tricky
at this point because, as we all know, cars and trucks use vastly different amounts of fuel.
Let’s say you’re driving an economy car that brings a combined average of 30 miles
per gallon during a mix of city and highway driving. Using that same 12-gallon tank as a reference point, you’ll have 360 miles of driving range for each fill-up.
If you’re driving the same 1,000 miles per month, you’ll need to refuel at least three times each month and spend about $114.48 ($38.16 x 3). Again, this is only an estimate, since fuel prices and mileage are so variable.
But considering few cars and SUVs come anywhere close to delivering a 30-mpg combined average, our fairly conservative number-crunching in this scenario makes it clear that recharging will cost less than keeping a car refueled. The financial gap narrows with a more fuel-efficient car, but it still remains.
Costs of Charging an EV at Home.
Electricity rates are subject to many factors, including the region where you live,
the time of year, and even the time of day when peak charges apply.
For the most part, electricity usage and costs are at their lowest late at night.
That’s good news for anyone considering an EV, according to Voelcker.
“While shoppers worry about access to public charging stations, they need to know
that as much as 90% of electric car charging is done overnight at home,” Voelcker said.
“The cheapest way to charge your electric car is almost always at home, overnight.
Utilities have special low rates for the overnight period when their demand is lightest.”
Where you live directly impacts your electric bill.
People living in New England (including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) paid nearly double for each kWh of energy used than those living in states like Texas, Nevada, Colorado, and Tennessee.
The Cost of Level 2 and Faster Charging.
When talking about public Level 2 charging and Level 3 fast-charging systems, the prices are harder to narrow when compared to standard at-home costs. That’s because charging networks vary in price, not to mention availability around the country.
You can always opt to have a Level 2 charger installed in your garage. The cost isn’t cheap. About $2,000 for parts and installation is a reasonable ballpark figure.
Moving up to Level 2 means you’ll more than halve your charge time.
And it can potentially add value to your home.
“Every electric car (Tesla included) can use public Level 2 stations,” says Voelcker,
“But Nissan Leafs use one fast-charging standard (called CHAdeMO) while every
other EV uses a different fast-charging standard called CCS.”
Finding the Right Plug to Charge an E.V.
Voelcker explains the difference sounds more complex than it is. “The vast majority of fast-charging locations have both kinds, with a different cable on each side of the station. It’s like the same gas pump could dispense both regular gasoline and diesel fuel from different hoses.”
As for the price, a 240-volt (Level 2) recharge could cost you anywhere from zero dollars
to a fixed hourly rate. Charging networks often provide membership programs to minimize your recharge cost.
That’s something especially useful if you can’t regularly charge your vehicle at home.
The EVgo network charges rates by state and it varies for Level 2 charging.
Checking the company’s website, the pay-as-you-go approach costs 30 cents per minute in Georgia for its rates effective September 2021.
However, if you’re an EVgo Plus member, the rate per minute drops to 24 cents.
The Faster the Charging, the Higher the Rate.
Unlike a typical 240-volt Level 2 home recharging system, Level 3 chargers are prohibitively expensive for a private individual to have installed. Tesla has its own dedicated Supercharger network but, once again, the rates can vary widely depending on region, timing, the model of Tesla being charged, and even if you choose Tier 1 or Tier 2 recharge speeds (the latter being quick but more expensive). One important caveat:
Tesla Superchargers only work for Tesla vehicles. That is, until later this year.
In July 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the electric car manufacturer
will open its Supercharger network to work with other EVs “later this year.”
Voelcker again stresses that home charging is the best option for anyone considering an electric car.
Yet, equally important is knowing where to find EV perks that are close to home.
“Some workplaces offer charging for employees’ cars … But electric-car owners quickly learn which public stations near them are free, which charge for charging, and how much they cost,” he said.
For example, a bustling parking lot in a crowded city center might lure EV owners with the promise of free recharging. But the resultant fee for parking there could easily zoom past what you’d have paid to fill up even the thirstiest fuel-hog car or truck.
To help you budget, try our 5-Year Cost to Own tool to determine everything from annual costs to ways you can compare the pricing with other vehicles. Voelcker’s final words of advice to EV owners: “Always ask before plugging in!”
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Editor’s note: This article has been updated for accuracy since it was originally published.
Nick Kurczewski is a car journalist who loves uncovering fascinating stories and helping people make savvy car buying decisions. Researching every aspect of the automotive world, Nick constantly reviews the newest makes and models during every work week. He’s driven a BMW at nearly 200 miles per hour on the German Autobahn, and became a licensed Zamboni driver at an ice rink in downtown… Read More about Nick Kurczewski
How Much Electricity Does It Take to Replace Gasoline?
This was one of the major questions burning in my mind as I was doing research for
The Manhattan Project of 2009.
If we took every gasoline-powered car, truck, and SUV and replaced their powertrain with an electric powertrain, how much electricity would it take to totally replace gasoline?
This is easy to figure out.
In the U.S., we use 142 billion gallons of gasoline per year. Each gallon of gasoline contains about 36.6 kilowatt-hours of energy. So, the total energy consumed by gasoline-powered vehicles is:
142,000,000,000 x 36.6 kilowatt-hours = 5,197,200,000,000 kilowatt-hours
That is, the energy in all the gasoline consumed is about 5,200 billion kilowatt-hours.
So, is that how much electricity we need? No! It turns out that electric vehicles are far more energy efficient! A gasoline-powered vehicle does good to average 15% energy efficiency.
I know this from taking actual measurements while doing research for my first book.
A plug-in electric car, however, can easily maintain 60% energy efficiency.
Since the electric car is 4 times as efficient, it only needs 1/4 as much energy to go a mile. That means we can divide the total energy used by a gasoline-powered car to see how much electricity it would need to go the same distance.
5,200 billion kilowatt-hours / 4 = 1,300 billion kilowatt-hours
Here it is. This is how much electricity we will need in order to replace gasoline.
Let’s say we want to get this electricity from a renewable source.
How does this much electricity compare to, say, wind energy?
For this, we take a look at the estimated wind energy potential for the top 5 states:
1. North Dakota 1,210 billion kilowatt-hours
2. Texas 1,190
3. Kansas 1,070
4. South Dakota 1,030
5. Montana 1.020
As you can see, gasoline could be almost totally replaced by the wind energy of North Dakota by itself. The coming switch from gasoline to electricity is not lost on the big utility companies. They see electric vehicles as a major new market for electricity, and especially a market that will consume electricity mostly overnight, when the utilities have a lot of excess capacity.
In the late 90’s, Southern California Edison ran a fleet of 320 electric Toyota RAV4’s from 1997 to 2002, racking up 7 million miles in evaluating the potential of electric vehicles. The result: they were quite surprised at how well they worked, and how reliable they were. One of their major concerns was battery life; the tests showed conclusively that the vehicles’ NiMH batteries could provide 130,000 to 150,000 of reliable service.
More recently, SoCal Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric are partnering with Mitsubishi to test Mitsubishi’s i MiEV electric cars in their fleets. In addition to generally promoting electric cars, the companies are hoping to learn how to develop their infrastructure to better accommodate electric cars.
In the next 10 years will see as many as 1.6 million electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles zipping around the state, in what is shaping up to be the nation’s e-car proving ground. But in the 1990s a similar optimism hit here too, only to fizzle as gas prices plummeted and gas-guzzling SUVs took over the auto market with a vengeance.
(See the history of the electric car.)
That was then; this is now. Strong government incentives and regulations,
car and battery-maker innovations and the public’s genuine concern for global warming are all contributing to the EV enthusiasm. But utilities are working feverishly to put infrastructure standards in place; the prospect of managing rapid EV growth has utility executives both amped up over the opportunity and queasy about unplanned snafus.
“We’ve had a run at this before, but now there have been important advances on the technology side,” says Ted F. Craver Jr., chief executive officer of Southern California Edison. SoCal Edison provides electricity to 13 million people and is the biggest power player behind the new EV push.
Craver foresees at least 30,000 EVs in his region by the end of 2012.
The state’s Air Resources Board is less optimistic, quoting estimates between 7,500 and 25,000 EVs on the state’s roads by 2014. Most are brand names you’ve never heard of,
at least not yet, Zenn, Zap, Helion and Wheego.
(See the best EV’s from the 2020 Detroit Auto Show.)
On its own, SoCal Edison maintains the largest EV fleet in the country, with some
300 electric vehicles, mostly Toyota RAV4s and trucks. It operates in Pomona the Electric Vehicle Technical Center, a facility advanced enough to have automakers knocking.
Ford’s plug-in hybrid Escape SUVs have been tested there, and others, such as
Mitsubishi’s iMiEV subcompact and Daimler’s plug-in hybrid van, are under review.
General Motors’ much anticipated plug-in hybrid, the Chevy Volt, has been put through
its paces in Pomona. “We know EVs, and we know the consumer will be annoyed if the experience isn’t a good one,” says Craver. “A bad buying and user experience could hurt EV market growth; we have to make the experience positive.”
(See the 50 worst cars of all time.) – Bing images
One part of SoCal Edison’s ramp-up involves the installation of 5.3 million SmartConnect meters in every home throughout its 50,000 sq. mi. service region, from the Pacific Ocean to the San Bernardino Mountains to the east and into parts of Orange County.
Most e-car owners will eventually want to plug in their faster, highway-approved EVs
into new rapid-charging, 220-volt garage chargers. But that requires another step: finding a certified electrician and several thousand more dollars to install the add-on feature to the home or garage.
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