EV's more expensive to charge than ICE Counterparts?

[Bmitch24]

I read articles like this occasionally and am genuinely interested if their conclusions jive with y'all's experience.

I traded a 2016 F150 for my R1T. My fuel cost on the F150 got around 17 mpg across 135k miles. At $3.50, that's around 20 cents a mile. With my Rivian, I am averaging 2.1 mi/KWh across 22k miles which works out to around 5 cents a mile if I charge at the house based on a trailing 12 month average electric cost. I'd have to be paying 42 cents/KWh to have parity with my old truck. The national average is 17 according to this BLS table which could be wrong looking at individual regions. The high is SOCal at 47 cents per KWh and gasoline there is substantially higher than $3.50/gal. Articles like this are aggravating to read because they key in on (from my experience) is a completely fabricated shortfall of EVs. There are enough legitimate issues with EVs that there is no reason to make up statistics to sway potential buyers. My Rivian is 100% the right car for me, but all you have to do is look at a Buccee's and you will know that our electric grid is a long way from supporting a world where most road trips are taken in EVs.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ev-charging-cost-versus-gas-car-truck-suv-2023-7

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[jjswan33]

I will point out that Business Insider is not a news source so this is less of an article and more of an opinion blog, just don’t take anything you read on Business Insider, Marketwatch, Benzinga, The Motley Fool, etc seriously.

 

[Dark-Fx]

EV's more expensive to charge than ICE Counterparts?

Costs me almost nothing to charge my ICE vehicles.

 

[Bmitch24]

I work under the general assumption that there are very few actual "news" outlets online.

Regardless of whether they are opinion based or not, this particular article was represented as the product of actual research conducted by an "independent" economic research and consulting group. The site gets enough traffic as to be relevant to public perception.

Here is the actual source. They periodically update it with new information. It isn't exactly new as claimed by the business insider contributor, but theoretically current through YE 2022.

https://www.andersoneconomicgroup.com/cars-gas-powered-cheaper-to-fuel-than-electric-in-late-2022/

 

[Bmitch24]

Costs me almost nothing to charge my ICE vehicles.

Touché. Just replace 12v every so often.

 

[mkg3]

The comparison needs to be made based on the total ownership costs. Not just gas prices.

My personal experience in SoCal is that depending on the distance and the vehicle one is comparing to, it can be a push or very close to it. Still charing is bit less.

With ICE, there are other routine services that EVs don't have (e.g., oil and filter change, engine air filter and so on). When you include all that there is no comparison, especially if you drive high milage.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Where do they get these numbers from? I pay ten cents per kWh here so 100 miles at 2 mi/kWh is 5 dollars. That's a third of what it would cost taking their 17 dollar figure for trucks. Now let's do performance equivalents.

The closest is a TRX or a RaptorR who don't even match my performance and they get 12MPG or less on premium fuel so the disparity is much more. This guy is talking out of his ass, and he knows it which is why he didn't list the electric prices he was using to calculate these figures. It must be the highest place in the country at these rates and he is probably using average gas prices.

So he's not using like figures for his slanted bullshit article. People like this failed journalism school because they couldn't figure out what bias was and why it was bad. Honestly journalism like this is a major thing wrong with this world today and we all need to push back on it. Shit like this is why when I hear a MSM outlet complaining about "misinformation" I can't even stifle my laughter. Articles like this turn media into a joke and are the reason why misinformation spreads.

We cannot trust our news outlets to be honest so when some Karen posts on tiktok about drinking borax or whatever other stupid shit is trending it's hard to separate that from biased and fabricated garbage like this. If we know media is lying to us when it's obvious to anyone who knows then it ruins our trust in media as a whole and that is a huge issue today.

 

[azbill]

If you are on a road trip, not charging at home, then it could cost more. In your example you state it would have to be $.42/kwh to be equivalent to your ICE F-150. EA normal pricing has been $.48/kwh (without Pass+), and in my area during peak hours EVGO is $.69/kwh. Much worse than your F-150.

But at home I pay only $.07/kwh, but APS is trying to raise the rates now by 23%.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Also reading the actual source material in the charging costs they include the "cost of charging equipment amortized over 5 years". So they are adding in additional stuff, while excluding additional maintenance items of ICE like oil and fluid changes. Biased article is even more biased.

 

[GrandEnigma]

To be fair, GM did find a way to make an EV cost just as much as an ICE vehicle to operate with the Hummer EV. That thing has a 200kWh+ pack and gets about 300mi per charge.

That said, having solar and battery backup at home gives me the equivalent of having a well pump, refinery and gas station at home which will never be the case with gas, so even if there was price parity, its a huge shift in convenience.

 

[supernu8]

Source material also presents a time burden of around 3 hours for home charging where fueling ICE is <1hr.. I don't recall standing at my home charger waiting for electrons to move for a combined three hours. Report is overall biased against EV.

 

[shandel]

My Land Rover LR4 (an equivalent to the R1S ICE vehicle) cost me ~$100/tank to fill (~300 mile range per tank). At off-peak charging rate of $0.26/kWh, the Rivian costs $35/charge (~300 miles range). This is the bay area, so both gas prices and electricity rates are high. But it's still a 1/3 of the cost overall. And there's very little maintenance cost on the R1S. And because the R1S is electric, I actually get to charge for free because I have solar panels installed at my house. That's not an option for ICE vehicles.

 

[ThisIsMyHandle]

On a variable time of use plan I pay less than 2 cents per kwh from 11-7 (and I won't charge out of that unless needed or not home)

So at that math assuming 2.25-2.5 avg I pay less than a penny per mile.

 

[usofrob]

If you are on a road trip, not charging at home, then it could cost more. In your example you state it would have to be $.42/kwh to be equivalent to your ICE F-150. EA normal pricing has been $.48/kwh (without Pass+), and in my area during peak hours EVGO is $.69/kwh. Much worse than your F-150.

But at home I pay only $.07/kwh, but APS is trying to raise the rates now by 23%.

I came here to say this as well. So, someone that only uses DCFC might pay similar in energy/fuel as a gas powered equivalent. But, as others have pointed out, there is a lot more to it than just the individual energy costs for a single trip, unless maybe you're renting a vehicle.

 

[WorldComposting]

Another thing to consider is how much do you drive to actually fuel up an ICE vehicle. I know I've driven home realized I was pretty low on gas then drove a few miles to get to a gas station to fill up just to head home. Or waiting in line to fill up due to popularity of a gas station (Costco).

Yes waiting in line can happen at EV chargers but that is typically only on long trips not daily when you plug in at home. Not to mention some locations have up front EV parking with chargers.

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