How much does your EV costs to charge?
Discussion
TheRainMaker said:
Loads of ways you could do it, cheap over night tariff, finding somewhere that has free chargers (this is getting less and less)
Someone always has to pay for the electric it's never free.
To work out the cost it really is quite simple, electric cost 19p (prices vary) a Kw, so to charge a Polestar for example with a 78kWh battery would cost around £14.82 which would get you around 250 miles.
It is not really ideal if you have to stay with your car and is away from. (Re free chargers)Someone always has to pay for the electric it's never free.
To work out the cost it really is quite simple, electric cost 19p (prices vary) a Kw, so to charge a Polestar for example with a 78kWh battery would cost around £14.82 which would get you around 250 miles.
I have been contemplating with the idea of buying an EV, but this seems not so cheap after all. As others mentioned going to wait for another 10 years for it to improve and hopefully make more sense.
Knock_knock said:
To expand on an earlier reply...
Octopus Go offers 4 hours at 5p/kWh between 00:30 and 04:30.
Home charger will normally power at 7kW.
So in the four hours you can put 28kWh of electricity into your battery for £1.40. Which is about the same price as 900ml of diesel if the price I saw this morning was right!
If you treat a typical EV as achieving 4 miles/kWh this gives you a range of 112 miles for the £1.40 cost.
Which car is this? Since Polestar can do 250miles with a 78kwh battery.Octopus Go offers 4 hours at 5p/kWh between 00:30 and 04:30.
Home charger will normally power at 7kW.
So in the four hours you can put 28kWh of electricity into your battery for £1.40. Which is about the same price as 900ml of diesel if the price I saw this morning was right!
If you treat a typical EV as achieving 4 miles/kWh this gives you a range of 112 miles for the £1.40 cost.
Largechris said:
Gridserve, who are aiming to be the number one electric forecourt operator, currently charge 30p/kW
https://www.drivingelectric.com/charging/1181/comp...
So more like £25 for 250 miles, or 10p per mile, which is pretty close to what a decently efficient diesel costs.
Personally I think that's a rip off and the government should be regulating to narrow the gap between domestic and service station prices.
If I was going electric, I would be going the whole hog and powering off solar panels on my roof, removing all doubt about how the electricity was generated and eliminating uncertainty about future electricity prices.
I think you would need to have a farm on the roof in order to charge any EV and teleport yourself to Spain.https://www.drivingelectric.com/charging/1181/comp...
So more like £25 for 250 miles, or 10p per mile, which is pretty close to what a decently efficient diesel costs.
Personally I think that's a rip off and the government should be regulating to narrow the gap between domestic and service station prices.
If I was going electric, I would be going the whole hog and powering off solar panels on my roof, removing all doubt about how the electricity was generated and eliminating uncertainty about future electricity prices.
Europa Jon said:
There's a lot of BS here about how cheap EVs are to charge. If somebody signs up to an electricity supply contract now, they can't get a unit for 5p. Besides, the Economy 7 type tariffs attract a higher than usual daytime rate. However, I can't comment on complicated Octopus-type deals.
Let's be honest: a unit of electricity is about 20p for most of us. This time of year, my smallish EV has a range of about 90 miles. The electricity cost for this is about £6.
Do I feel short-changed or mislead by the EV media? Absolutely not! The driving experience is so much better than ICE, and Is never go back.
Here was me thinking of spending 50p on a charge and driving for months since every Tesla has the range only to increase.Let's be honest: a unit of electricity is about 20p for most of us. This time of year, my smallish EV has a range of about 90 miles. The electricity cost for this is about £6.
Do I feel short-changed or mislead by the EV media? Absolutely not! The driving experience is so much better than ICE, and Is never go back.
Largechris said:
Not at all. The maths is quite easy:
A 1kW system with four panels taking up eight square metres is estimated to generate 850kWh of energy output a year: that would fully charge the new Honda e 24 times over, which translates into some 3,250 miles of driving range.
That's pretty tiny by UK domestic install standards, a 4 person household would typically use at least 16 panels for 4000kWh of domestic useage.
In other words each square metre of solar panel installed would get you 400 miles of range per year IF you are either charging the car directly when the panels are working, or more likely are using a Powerwall to store the electricity and charge overnight.
I assume your Spain reference is in relation to the amount of sun available, however a point not often appreciated is that most common solar cell chemistry become noticeably less efficient in higher temperatures -
Solar panels are power tested at 25C, so the temperature coefficient percentage illustrates the change in efficiency as it goes up or down by a degree. For example if the temperature coefficient of a particular type of panel is -0.5%, then for every 1C rise, the panels maximum power will reduce by 0.5%.
So on a hot day, when panel temperatures may reach 45C, a panel with a temperature coefficient of -0.5% would result in a maximum power output reduction of 10%. Conversely, if it was a sunny winter’s morning, the panels will actually be more efficient.
Hope this helps.
I was refering to the sun availability rather than how much power it gives. Also the cost to install is unlikely to offset with free energy you are going to get.A 1kW system with four panels taking up eight square metres is estimated to generate 850kWh of energy output a year: that would fully charge the new Honda e 24 times over, which translates into some 3,250 miles of driving range.
That's pretty tiny by UK domestic install standards, a 4 person household would typically use at least 16 panels for 4000kWh of domestic useage.
In other words each square metre of solar panel installed would get you 400 miles of range per year IF you are either charging the car directly when the panels are working, or more likely are using a Powerwall to store the electricity and charge overnight.
I assume your Spain reference is in relation to the amount of sun available, however a point not often appreciated is that most common solar cell chemistry become noticeably less efficient in higher temperatures -
Solar panels are power tested at 25C, so the temperature coefficient percentage illustrates the change in efficiency as it goes up or down by a degree. For example if the temperature coefficient of a particular type of panel is -0.5%, then for every 1C rise, the panels maximum power will reduce by 0.5%.
So on a hot day, when panel temperatures may reach 45C, a panel with a temperature coefficient of -0.5% would result in a maximum power output reduction of 10%. Conversely, if it was a sunny winter’s morning, the panels will actually be more efficient.
Hope this helps.
Edited by Largechris on Thursday 9th December 11:02
gmaz said:
Kona with 64kWh battery costs about £3.50 on Octopus Go 5p/kWh as there are ~10% charging losses.
I charge from solar when I can, which is free, and also the local Tesco but usually not there long enough to make it worthwhile
Are you saying that you charge your car in 4hours? From zero to full?I charge from solar when I can, which is free, and also the local Tesco but usually not there long enough to make it worthwhile
TooLateForAName said:
SWoll said:
If I'd managed to lock in one of the cheap tariffs would have been more like £5 v £50. 
Dont beat yourself up. Pretty much everyone offering super cheap deals have now gone bust and customers not getting many options of where to move to.I was chuffed with price and thought to save money... There was a fee for cancellation. I wonder if I could charge them for failing to provide...
Jonny_ said:
Being an engineer by trade and something of a nerd by character, not to mention possessed of the tight-fisted nature inherent to all Yorkshiremen, I do keep quite a close eye on the running costs for my E-Niro...
I'm managing to do the vast majority of my car charging during the 4 hour off-peak window on Octopus Go - 5p/kWh off peak and 13.3p peak rate (for now...). My average efficiency thus far, over about 11000 miles, works out to around 3.9 mi/kWh including charging losses. A 4 hour charge typically consumes 28.6kWh, so that amounts to £1.43 worth of electrical energy to travel 106 miles, giving an average cost of 1.36p/mile. This probably covers 95% of my usage; very rarely do I need to charge outside of the off peak window.
On one occasion a decent motorway round trip came (a little uncomfortably) close to fully discharging the battery. It took 66.3kWh to fully recharge ready for much the same trip the following day (again this is measured at the charging point, so that figure includes charging losses, the actual usable battery capacity is quoted as 64kWh), which necessitated 37.7kWh of peak rate charging on top of the 28.6kWh on the cheap rate. Total cost £6.44 for the 246-mile journey, so 2.6p/mile overall.
Note that I am positively dreading the end of this Octopus contract at the end of March! The 5p off peak rate stays the same but peak rate for anyone signing up now is an eye-watering 23.4p/kWh
Well, you'll have to drive less or find a local Tesco and read a book while being charged I'm managing to do the vast majority of my car charging during the 4 hour off-peak window on Octopus Go - 5p/kWh off peak and 13.3p peak rate (for now...). My average efficiency thus far, over about 11000 miles, works out to around 3.9 mi/kWh including charging losses. A 4 hour charge typically consumes 28.6kWh, so that amounts to £1.43 worth of electrical energy to travel 106 miles, giving an average cost of 1.36p/mile. This probably covers 95% of my usage; very rarely do I need to charge outside of the off peak window.
On one occasion a decent motorway round trip came (a little uncomfortably) close to fully discharging the battery. It took 66.3kWh to fully recharge ready for much the same trip the following day (again this is measured at the charging point, so that figure includes charging losses, the actual usable battery capacity is quoted as 64kWh), which necessitated 37.7kWh of peak rate charging on top of the 28.6kWh on the cheap rate. Total cost £6.44 for the 246-mile journey, so 2.6p/mile overall.
Note that I am positively dreading the end of this Octopus contract at the end of March! The 5p off peak rate stays the same but peak rate for anyone signing up now is an eye-watering 23.4p/kWh
I remember watching a Ukrainian guy on YT who has a Tesla garage. He went to the seaside in his TS driving there for hours otherwise he would not make it. His cruising speed was around 70kmh-80kmh(45-50mph). I think it took him 8hours to reach the destination. When he got there he kept it charging as he would not make it back as no charging was available en route and only charging from a socket. That is torture imho.
Thank you for input, folks. It is much appreciated.
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