SwampNut
Well-Known Member
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- #1
I know it's been done a few times, I wanted to for my own amusement, and seeing my own exact data.
Since I just did a 1580 mile round trip, I thought it would be a great time to compare the costs of public charging versus gas. I think I drove fairly normally, meaning, mostly 5-10 over the speed limit, not a lot of heavy acceleration nor braking. My driving was mostly interstate and wide open state highways, nothing particularly mountainous or curvy. In those situations, ICE obviously would have a huge disadvantage in consumption, so this is a more fair comparison. This means in AZ I was doing 82-85 and about 10 less in CA.
Phoenix > Los Angeles > West Bay Area > Pleasant Hill CA > Los Angeles > Phoenix
I left home at 100%, arrived home at about 10%, so I included the cost of refilling at home back to 100%. There was also some home charging in Pleasant Hill so I added that as a home charge cost. DCFC public charging cost $249, and home charging cost $55 (including the CA cost in Pleasant Hill and AZ cost at home), for a total of $291 rounded. The truck also was running AC while sitting a lot, so that consumed power that's not accounted for in driving, and makes it seem less efficient. I think the excess usage was 30-50k. Note that the two "home charge" events in the middle would be more than the full capacity, and I had arrived there with around 30% to start. So I've removed 40k from the final numbers.
All of my searches lead me to finding that average ICE pickup MPG is 18-22, and my friend with a middle of the road new Silverado reports a measured actual 21-22 highway. So I'm going with 22 MPG for best case on the truck. My neighbor who upgraded to a Tesla was reporting 18 on his truck. Gas costs are harder to account for, because I saw gas as high as $5.90 in the bay, but it's less everywhere else. I asked AI to give me average costs for Phoenix, L.A., and the bay, then blended them to get to $4.43 overall. This means the gas trip would cost $319 in fuel. Add to this the cost of increased maintenance for ICE, which would be part of the cost of oil changes, brakes, filters, etc. Obviously tire wear is the same, but there's really no other cost to speak of with an EV.
So it's an OK win for EV, not as astronomical as home charging in my area. The numbers for my average 10k/year of driving using home charging would be:
ICE: $2013 for fuel, $120-ish oil and filters, plus other costs
EV: $205
My truck uses slightly less than double the power per mile (460 watts per mile) as compared to the Tesla (257 watts per mile). The average MPG for cars that EPA uses for comparisons is 28. So the EV car is vastly more efficient in relative terms and saves a shitload more compared to an average ICE car. But not much different if you compare to a high-efficiency/economy model.
If road trips are a big deal, the EV truck is not a good idea, EV car might be. Well, there's still all the huge suck about ICE, but that's not mathematically representable that I know of. I am SOOO fucking glad to be past the three weeks with ICE.
Since I just did a 1580 mile round trip, I thought it would be a great time to compare the costs of public charging versus gas. I think I drove fairly normally, meaning, mostly 5-10 over the speed limit, not a lot of heavy acceleration nor braking. My driving was mostly interstate and wide open state highways, nothing particularly mountainous or curvy. In those situations, ICE obviously would have a huge disadvantage in consumption, so this is a more fair comparison. This means in AZ I was doing 82-85 and about 10 less in CA.
Phoenix > Los Angeles > West Bay Area > Pleasant Hill CA > Los Angeles > Phoenix
I left home at 100%, arrived home at about 10%, so I included the cost of refilling at home back to 100%. There was also some home charging in Pleasant Hill so I added that as a home charge cost. DCFC public charging cost $249, and home charging cost $55 (including the CA cost in Pleasant Hill and AZ cost at home), for a total of $291 rounded. The truck also was running AC while sitting a lot, so that consumed power that's not accounted for in driving, and makes it seem less efficient. I think the excess usage was 30-50k. Note that the two "home charge" events in the middle would be more than the full capacity, and I had arrived there with around 30% to start. So I've removed 40k from the final numbers.
All of my searches lead me to finding that average ICE pickup MPG is 18-22, and my friend with a middle of the road new Silverado reports a measured actual 21-22 highway. So I'm going with 22 MPG for best case on the truck. My neighbor who upgraded to a Tesla was reporting 18 on his truck. Gas costs are harder to account for, because I saw gas as high as $5.90 in the bay, but it's less everywhere else. I asked AI to give me average costs for Phoenix, L.A., and the bay, then blended them to get to $4.43 overall. This means the gas trip would cost $319 in fuel. Add to this the cost of increased maintenance for ICE, which would be part of the cost of oil changes, brakes, filters, etc. Obviously tire wear is the same, but there's really no other cost to speak of with an EV.
So it's an OK win for EV, not as astronomical as home charging in my area. The numbers for my average 10k/year of driving using home charging would be:
ICE: $2013 for fuel, $120-ish oil and filters, plus other costs
EV: $205
My truck uses slightly less than double the power per mile (460 watts per mile) as compared to the Tesla (257 watts per mile). The average MPG for cars that EPA uses for comparisons is 28. So the EV car is vastly more efficient in relative terms and saves a shitload more compared to an average ICE car. But not much different if you compare to a high-efficiency/economy model.
If road trips are a big deal, the EV truck is not a good idea, EV car might be. Well, there's still all the huge suck about ICE, but that's not mathematically representable that I know of. I am SOOO fucking glad to be past the three weeks with ICE.
| ChargeStartDateTime | SiteLocationName | kWh | Per kWh | Cost | Odometer | kWhPM | MPkWh |
9/28/25 | End miles | 120 | 0.051 | 6.12 | 29762.18 | ||
| 2025-09-28T13:58:55-07:00 | Quartzsite, AZ - Main Event Lane | 64.0831 | 0.44 | 28.19 | |||
| 2025-09-28T11:01:36-07:00 | Cabazon, CA - Morongo Trail | 69.4981 | 0.44 | 30.57 | 29398.25 | ||
| 2025-09-27T15:19:08-07:00 | Tejon Ranch, CA – Outlets at Tejon Pkwy | 34.0435 | 0.44 | 14.97 | |||
| 2025-09-27T12:11:17-07:00 | Coalinga, CA | 79.495 | 0.44 | 34.97 | |||
9/25/25 | Home charge | 85 | 0.34 | 28.9 | |||
9/7/25 | Home charge | 19 | 0.34 | 6.46 | |||
| 2025-09-07T09:27:35-07:00 | South San Francisco, CA - Oyster Point | 29.2091 | 0.46 | 13.43 | 28996.91 | ||
| 2025-09-06T17:51:06-07:00 | San Jose, CA - E Capitol Expressway | 28.9973 | 0.39 | 11.3 | 28951.21 | ||
| 2025-09-06T15:04:48-07:00 | Coalinga, CA | 94.1704 | 0.42 | 39.55 | |||
| 2025-09-06T09:49:37-07:00 | City of Industry, CA - Colima Road | 93.3118 | 0.42 | 39.19 | |||
| 2025-09-05T14:32:16-07:00 | Beaumont, CA - Oak Valley Village Cir | 39.1428 | 0.37 | 14.48 | 28547.05 | ||
| 2025-09-05T11:44:29-07:00 | Quartzsite, AZ - Main Event Lane | 51.6973 | 0.44 | 22.74 | |||
9/4/25 | Start miles | 28179.04 | |||||
| Gas price | |||||||
| Total | 687.6484 | $290.87 | 1583.14 | 0.434 | 2.302 |
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