This month I want to look at a few of the things I’ve seen posted about cars during the last month. These are a few headlines, as well as some questions I’ve seen on Quora around EVs. Lots of people still worry about the cost and time for charging, so I wanted to add some notes based on my experiences.
I don’t think EVs are good for everyone, and for most people, this is likely a bit of a calculation that you have to make for your situation.
Charging Costs
My cost of power is (usually) $0.14/kWh. There can be a higher charge if I pull power between 4p and 8p, but I can avoid that with scheduled charging. You have to input your own power cost for calculations, which can vary dramatically around the world.
My Tesla used to use around 260Wh/mi over the long term (75k miles). For the Lucid Gravity, I tend to use more like 285Wh/mi. Those are strange numbers, but if I convert those to a per-mile cost, I get something like:
- 2021 Tesla MY – $0.036 / mi
- 2026 Lucid Gravity – $0.04/mi
These can be compared to my other cars. For comparison, I’ll use my older cars, with a few stats.
- 2012 BMW X5 – 23mpg
- 2021 Ford Escape Hybrid – 48mpg
- 2022 RAM 3500 – 12mpg
- Gas in the Denver – avg about $3.90 today
- Diesel in Denver – avg about $5.40
If I use those numbers, I get calculations that look like this:
- Tesla MY – $0.036 / mi
- Lucid Gravity – $0.04/mi
- 2012 BMW X5 – $0.17/mi
- 2021 Ford Escape Hybrid – $0.81
- 2022 RAM 3500 – $0.45
Clearly the truck is the worst, but a gas SUV which is about the same size as the Tesla, is 5x more expensive to run. The Lucid is larger, and it’s 4x more expensive. Even the hybrid is 2x+ more than the EV.
There are also the maintenance costs, which are higher, but the quicker tire wear from the EVs offsets some of this for regular maintenance. For longer term stuff, gas cars cost more to maintain.
What does this mean? I tend to drive in the 12k-15k a year range. At 15k, this is:
- Tesla MY – $546
- Lucid Gravity – $600
- 2012 BMW X5 – $2.550
- 2021 Ford Escape Hybrid – $1,220
- 2022 RAM 3500 – $6.750
The truck tends to run just a few thousand miles, but those are pretty good costs. My charging station cost me $750 installed, which is slightly above the savings from the hybrid. Across 2 years, it’s not close.
However, if you spend more on power, or your charging station costs more, or you charge at expensive public chargers (Denver Superchargers can be $0.50-0.60), then the savings go away.
Of course, if you can charge at home, you have lots of time savings as well over the year.
Charging Time
What about time? There are plenty of horror stories where people say it took an hour or more to charge. That’s a common concern, as the 0-100 time for a large battery, say 80-100kWh can be high.
I charge at home, and in 5+ years of owning EVs, I have probably charged 30 times away from home. That’s about 6 times a year. I think the longest I charged was about 45 minutes while eating dinner, but we didn’t need to charge that long.
Almost all of my charges were while traveling away from home and staying overnight. Most of those sessions were 15-20 minutes. The EVs calculate how much charge you need to get to your destination, which isn’t something most of us are used to with gas/diesel cars. We think in terms of miles.
For me, 99.9% of the time, I plug in at night (10s) and unplug the next day (10s) and that’s it. Almost never do I exceed a 200mi a day drive. If I do, I might or might not charge. If I’m going 300 mi, which I have done, I would likely charge somewhere along the way for 10 minutes, which is about what a gas stop is with a fill up, bathroom break, purchase a coffee.
Overnight, whether I’m at 10% of 60%, the car is charged by 7am. I typically set my charger at 34A and start at 10p. Most of the time it’s a 2-3 hour charge if I’ve been driving around.
Plenty of people worry about taking a long trip. If you do that a lot, then you have to make a calculation of how much extra time you might need. For lots of people this is maybe an hour or two on a long trip, like 1,000 miles.
How often do you do that? Almost never for most of us. If I were pressed for time on a long trip, say an 8 hour drive to Omaha (600 miles), I’d likely rent a car. Heck, I’ve done that in the past to not wear my car and tires. Otherwise, I’d stop and charge at a few places. The EVs might stop you with 50% to charge or 20% to charge, depending on where chargers are, and they calculate a minimum charge time, so you are often only stopping for 15 minutes.
The reality in my experience, and in a few friends that have purchased EVs is that the “long trip” isn’t really a common occurrence or issue. Think ahead and make the decision that makes sense.
Of course, I have a friend in an apartment, no charging available. He sometimes has run an extension cord at 110V to add 4-5mi overnight to his car, but he tends to just use public chargers a few times a week, letting the car charge while he shops or eats nearby.
If you drive a lot, and you have time constraints, charging might be an issue. That’s not most people.
Is It Worth Buying an EV?
To me, with no real cheap EVs in the US, I think it’s worth exploring if you want a new or used car at the EV price points. It’s not likely worth it to change your existing car if you’re happy with it.