Relative fuel costs of petrol and electric

[DrNick]

In an idle couple of moments, I was wondering what the relative costs of refuelling petrol and evs was. I found this comparison from the states, which shows the relative costs of adding 100 miles of range to each type.

What was also interesting is that the average economy of new petrol cars sold in the states is 25.7mp(us)g. Haven't found equivalent figure for the uk yet.

These charts show how much it costs to charge an EV vs. refueling a gas vehicle

Is it still true that it's much cheaper to "refuel" an EV? CNBC crunched the numbers.

www.cnbc.com

There are details in the article about assumptions used and the basis for comparison. Be interesting to see what the average and specifics are here. No doubt its not straightforward due to specialist tarifs and the volatile petrol prices at the moment.

 

[Will]

With electricity prices due to rise sharply this year, the figures could be quite misleading unless they take that into account?

 

[190]

All the web site comparisons are hopelessly out of date with electricity prices so I think we have to do the calculation ourselves.

Average small EV consumes * 0.34 KWh/mile
* Average Electric Car kWh Per Mile [Results From 231 EVs]

Projected 50% October unit electricity price increase to 42P/KWh = 14.28 P/mile

I'm going to assume petrol prices stay high at 165 p/litre.

Small petrol car @ 50 MPG works out at 15 p/mile

You could put your own numbers in for a particular electric car but which ever way you look at it the days are gone when An EV cost a fraction of a petrol car to run and that's with domestic electricity rates. Throw in public charging and the EV could easily be more expensive.

 

[ALFAitalia]

On another car forum I'm on one of the guys on there said that since the recent horrific electricity rises (not shown on your chart) its actually slightly more expensive to run his 208 EV than his wife's Polo diesel!!

 

[Tonygw]

A better graph would be amount of years of your life lost waiting to recharge vs refilling with petrol or diesel. Time is precious..

 

[KennyN]

A better graph would be amount of years of your life lost waiting to recharge vs refilling with petrol or diesel.

None if you work where i do as the EV`s get charged FOC whilst the guys are on shift ,whereas i need to fill mine on my own time with fossil juice.

Just waiting on the work installing a petrol + diesel pump so i can commute FOC just like the EV guys.

K

 

[ALFAitalia]

Everyone I know with an EV charges overnight at home (the cheapest way) and since most very rarely do over 200 or 300 miles or so in a day its not often they are forced into using public charging points. If I'm honest most days I do sub 50 miles.....maybe once or twice a year I do more than 250 miles or so in one stint. Even at 250 miles that's five to six hours driving....common sense would say that taking a twenty minute break to get a drink and refresh would be in order....that's enough to get a 70 to 80 percent charge on a service station supercharger. Still don't want an EV though!!

 

[Tonygw]

None if you work where i do as the EV`s get charged FOC whilst the guys are on shift ,whereas i need to fill mine on my own time with fossil juice.

Just waiting on the work installing a petrol + diesel pump so i can commute FOC just like the EV guys.

K

FOC is nice while it last.. Our company only installed one EV charger to avoid people running up their electricity bill. I think this will become a problem at office and factories and companies will start charging.

I filled up this morning, cost me ££ but too me 3 mins pay at the pump. that's me sorted for the next 500 miles ;-)

 

[ALFAitalia]

".....companies will start charging......"

See what you did there!!!

 

[Tonygw]

Yep

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

FOC is nice while it last.. Our company only installed one EV charger to avoid people running up their electricity bill. I think this will become a problem at office and factories and companies will start charging.

I filled up this morning, cost me ££ but too me 3 mins pay at the pump. that's me sorted for the next 500 miles ;-)

Exactly: petrol or diesel is far more expensive, but it's the convenience factor.

If you don't have the ability to easily plug an EV in outside your home once or twice a week, a petrol station takes no thought, and you'd only spend that £70 on loose women and old whisky.

 

[CoopsSA]

The ability to charge overnight at home is where EVs win, or whilst you're parked at work.

I'm struggling with the Mercedes Me app as it doesn't track any historical charging information, which you'd think it would. I can get my home charging stats from the PodPoint app but no way to track what I've put in whilst parked at work, unless I do it manually.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

In an idle couple of moments, I was wondering what the relative costs of refuelling petrol and evs was. I found this comparison from the states, which shows the relative costs of adding 100 miles of range to each type.

What was also interesting is that the average economy of new petrol cars sold in the states is 25.7mp(us)g. Haven't found equivalent figure for the uk yet.

These charts show how much it costs to charge an EV vs. refueling a gas vehicle

Is it still true that it's much cheaper to "refuel" an EV? CNBC crunched the numbers.

www.cnbc.com

View attachment 125080
There are details in the article about assumptions used and the basis for comparison. Be interesting to see what the average and specifics are here. No doubt its not straightforward due to specialist tarifs and the volatile petrol prices at the moment.

Would that it were so simple.

You need to make some assumptions about mileage, how much home charging you can do, as opposed to ridiculous external charging costs, and then model it against the extra cost of running an EV, both in terms of capital cost and expected depreciation.

Then, in the longer term, there's a need to examine whether you think electricity will continue to be essentially tax-free, and what changes are coming in regarding road usage, from annual road charges to congestion charges generally. Short-term is straightforward, but we can see the Chancellor is desperate to raise taxes.

Then there's performance trade offs: cars are seldom like for like. There are lots of people gloating about buying low performance EV's like the Nissan Leaf and saying that they're saving money compared to BMW ownership, but really they've down-traded to something simpler. The comparison should really be to a more basic ICE like a Focus or Mondeo.

And challenge the "reliability" claims of EVangelists. Teslas are about as reliable as Jaguar Land Rover, so there's a calculation there about hassle and time off the road.

For some it's simple. (6,000 miles a year, no round trips over 200 miles = cheap as chips).

For others: not so much.

 

[KennyN]

Wifes pal has just taken on a Peugeot 208 all electric and it is a nice wee motor , both inside and out. It would fit in perfectly with wifey's daily three mile journey to work so i was tasked to "look into it".

As far as their "Passport" scheme goes and for a 208 GT it would be - £550 pm over 48 months with a £13k option to buy at the end of the term so around £53k if you were to keep the car.

Think we will stick with her Juke as the £40 pm she spends on fuel seems a bit of a bargain.

K

 

[CoopsSA]

Wifes pal has just taken on a Peugeot 208 all electric and it is a nice wee motor , both inside and out. It would fit in perfectly with wifey's daily three mile journey to work so i was tasked to "look into it".

As far as their "Passport" scheme goes and for a 208 GT it would be - £550 pm over 48 months with a £13k option to buy at the end of the term so around £53k if you were to keep the car.

Think we will stick with her Juke as the £40 pm she spends on fuel seems a bit of a bargain.

K

And this is part of the battle isn't it - yes on paper an electric car for most people would make a huge amount of sense but it's the lease/purchase that's the problem.

Our other car is the wife's Mini. We own it outright so doesn't owe us anything technically. It does 4k miles a year, that is all. An electric would be a no brainer but taking the above example why would I fork out an extra £550 per month for an EV?? I'm not going to save that over a year am I.

 

[KennyN]

Our other car is the wife's Mini. We own it outright so doesn't owe us anything technically. It does 4k miles a year, that is all.

We are in the same position , 2019 Juke owned outright and does a similar mileage. We are £40pm on petrol , £150 py on tax , £200 py on servicing so it is not going to break the bank.

So for us it is just not financially viable to fork out £40k plus charging costs over four years for what is essentially a small town car , the money could be better spent on a C63 or an M4.

K

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

If anyone's thinking about saving CO2 to save the planet remember that roughly 10 tonnes of CO2 are expended in making a new car.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Glance at the Tesla & EV owner forums and you'll see huge numbers of private individuals buying new EV's to do less than 5,000 miles a year. (You'll see the same on the Autotrader ads)

And then the reality dawns.

EV's only make sense as a company car tax avoidance device. (Unless you live and park in the centre of a congestion charge zone.)

 

[chic0821]

Just waiting on the work installing a petrol + diesel pump so i can commute FOC just like the EV guys.

Sounds like a terrific place you work for

 

[KennyN]

If anyone's thinking about saving CO2 to save the planet remember that roughly 10 tonnes of CO2 are expended in making a new car.

Had a conversation with one of the "green" guys at work a few weeks ago , he said that i should get rid of both my cars and buy an electric vehicle to do "my bit" for the planet. I politely pointed out that whoever bought my cars would be doing considerably more miles than i do so adding to the problem and the cost to the planet in making my new vehicle would also be a contributing factor.

However being a "greenist" he was just no prepared to see anyone`s POV , apart from his own.

K