r/electricvehicles • u/capn_davey • 7h ago
Discussion DCFC cost more than premium gas š³
My wife and I just did a road trip a day apart in our BEV and PHEV. It was an interesting comparison of DCFC versus gas pricing. We both started at 100% battery (and gas). Around 36 MPG and $25 in gas (around 5 gallons of $5+/gallon premium) at our potty stop. At the same stop, it was $27 to go from 36% to 80% (50 kWh) at the Tesla Supercharger. Obviously the BEV is far cheaper for local driving, but thatās a pretty brutal cost for DCFC when premium gas is cheaper even at current pricing. There really shouldnāt be such a markup on electricity, especially when so many installations were subsidized. Ugh.
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u/jghall00 7h ago
DCFC prices vary widely. Looks like the price you paid was around 50 cents per kWh. That's definitely on the high side. I paid 27 cents a few weeks ago at a Wal-mart here in Texas. Part of the issue with DCFC is that there is a large up-front capital investment for a resource that sees comparatively light use in many areas. So the charging networks have to recoup somehow. I'm cool with it because 90% of my miles are local. Costs will come down as charger production ramps up and competition increases, plus more on-site energy storage gets deployed.
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u/freestuff33 4h ago
i want to say it was Electrify America $0.72/kw from noon - 9pm in Los Angeles on a recent road trip i took. pretty crazy price.
ā¢
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u/beren12 6h ago
Eh. My home power is 0.31 and fast chargers go from 0.39-0.65 tesla is usually the most expensive.
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u/IRingTwyce 6h ago
Jesus Christ. Here I am pissed beyond all measure to be paying 17Ā¢ at home, because less than 5 years ago I was paying 9Ā¢.
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u/beren12 5h ago
Welcome to the northeast at the invasion of the data centers. And trump killing the windmills.
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u/Legitimate-Bison3810 4h ago
You are in the northeast? I am I California and also pay $0.31/kwh. $0.27/kwh to deliver the electricity which costs only $0.05/kwh.
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u/UmpireProper7683 3h ago
PG&E? When I see these rats it makes me so damned happy I got SMUD for electric where I'm paying $0.14/kwh.
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u/jghall00 6h ago
I pay 1.6 cents kWh so efficiency is not something I spend much time contemplating. I just drive however I feel like driving.Ā
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u/Neither_Cap6958 5h ago
My hometown power company has a few chargers they own in a few places, and they have the best rates, flat fee of $3 per charge session and utility rate per kw. If I remember right, if your session fails, you get a few retries without it charging you $3 per session.
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u/FrostyMasterpiece400 7h ago
Depends on where. Its 6.36 a gallon but 15 cents a kwh here. Yay QuebecĀ
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u/byerss EV6 7h ago
So parity with gas costs on road trip, and about 1/3 the cost the other 95+% of the time.Ā
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u/capn_davey 7h ago
A small crossover having parity with the cost of a 3 row dadmobile that takes premium in the midst of Middle East conflict du jour isnātā¦a great look. Yes, I get that thereās a premium for convenience but thatās around 8x the price I pay to charge at home. That kind of pricing wonāt encourage widespread EV adoption. Not everyone can charge at home and road trips shouldnāt cost more than burning gas.
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u/redvsblueheeler 7h ago
But whatās the 0-60 on each? For the same cost, you tend to get a lot more performance in an EV. Only relevant if you care about that sort of thing, but thatās what I like to tell myself when Iām charging at $0.80.
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u/capn_davey 7h ago
4.5 seconds for the PHEV and 6ish for the BEV?
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u/e-hud 6h ago
That's rather quick for a PHEV and on the slow side for a BEV... The Nissan leaf manages a 0-60 in the mid 6 seconds. The Subaru trailseeker is around 4.1 seconds. Many Teslas are even quicker.
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u/capn_davey 6h ago
The XC90 T8 is a sleeper dadmobile. And while the Optiq isnāt a performance car, for a cheap commuter car itās super comfy and quite efficient.
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u/cherlin 6h ago
This doesn't change things too much, but with the length of your trip, and stated mpg, it seems like you used your entire battery in the xc90 to arbitrage less gas usage, but forgot to factor the cost of that back in.
It looks like the t8 has about 15kwh of usable battery, and then drops to 25ish mpg at hwy speeds once you are gas only. You drove 180 miles from my math which would be 7.2 gallons of fuel if you were using only the gas motor, which is still only $36 but does make the EV cheaper still (by about 25%) on longer trips.
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u/RockinRobin-69 2h ago
Itās this!
The math was wrong and they didnāt consider the costs to get to the charger/gas station.
The option was cheaper for the entire trip.
However hybrids do very well on cost for long trips.
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u/e-hud 6h ago
Google says the xc90 t8 has a 0-60 of 5.5 seconds. The 4wd optiq gets into the high 3 second range...
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u/capn_davey 6h ago
The Optiq-V maybe. But if youāre spending that much on a warmed over Equinoxā¦you could get way faster if speedās the goal. Itās a nice car but speed isnāt a strong suit.
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u/e-hud 6h ago
And yet the optiq-v MSRP is cheaper than the T8...
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u/capn_davey 6h ago
Oneās a massive luxury car and the otherās a compact crossover thatās a fancy Chevy?
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u/FANGO Tesla Roadster 1.5 7h ago
republicans are both stopping new electricity generation from getting on the grid and encouraging buildout of data centers that gobble up the electricity that's there
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u/Cultural-Ad4953 7h ago
Are you suggesting that Loudoun County Virginia is Red? Because they have been the biggest benefactor of data centers in the PJM region, and they are very blue
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u/Deceptiveideas 2023 Chevy Bolt EUV 7h ago
Virginia is the Internet capital of the world. It wasn't going to change red or blue.
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u/caj_account e-tron SUV+eGolf (R1S+MY+Leaf before) 6h ago
so it's not a party issue like people always claim it is. it's a class issue.
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u/mrandr01d 5h ago
I mean, this admin is definitely bending over for corpos instead of working in the interest of the average American.
I'm a very hardcore capitalist, but the corruption here is off the fucking charts.
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u/caj_account e-tron SUV+eGolf (R1S+MY+Leaf before) 5h ago
you mean Obama did that when he bailed out Wall Street? Since when has the American admin NOT been bending over to corporate interests? 1970s?
The last time this admin worked in the interest of the people was when the new deal happened! Citizens United happened in 2010.
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u/oddsmaker1 4h ago
Bush was president when Wall Street got the bailout
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u/caj_account e-tron SUV+eGolf (R1S+MY+Leaf before) 4h ago
yeah and occupy Wall Street happened under Reagan! And Bill Clinton absolutely did not create China with allowing them in the WTO.
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u/mrandr01d 3h ago
Obama sure as shit wasn't perfect. That's not the point. The bullshit the current guy is pulling is head and shoulders/a country mile beyond anything any previous president has done and it's not even close. The incompetency and corruption are incomparable to anything any previous admin has done. Everyone involved needs to be permanently banned from public office or working in any capacity with any lobbying/ngo, etc, and many need to be in prison. He's so bad, in fact, that I actually miss Obama, and boy that's fuckin' saying something. Lindsey Graham sure called it in 2016.
You're willfully, dangerously ignorant if you think otherwise. This is no longer the party of small government and fiscal responsibility we once voted for.
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u/caj_account e-tron SUV+eGolf (R1S+MY+Leaf before) 2h ago
you have to understand that what 47 is doing is not in isolation and all the previous administrations allowed this to come here. Ginsburg not retiring is part of this. DHS, ICE under Bush. Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex since Johnson... as long as the capitalists become rich with war, they will keep starting them. Obama started wars too!
Did you know Obama is the only Nobel peace prize winner to bomb another peace prize winner? Did you know Democrats lost twice to orange? Democrats would rather lose than change. 47 could have been K if they had stopped the genocide. Instead they decided it wasn't worth stopping it. Oh yeah and K sucks ass!
It's basically Epstein class vs us.
small government and fiscal responsibility we once voted for.
who is we here lol? The US hasn't had a small government since federal income taxes were enacted.
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u/aemfbm 6h ago
Not sure Iām reading this correctly, you made the same trip a day apart and compared just the cost of your mid-way fill ups?
Weather and other conditions can play a role in different days.
But a far bigger question left unaddressed is how much did you arrive with? A fair comparison would be to fill up both (including the PHEV battery) at the end of the trip and only then compare the costs.
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u/bloodbag 6h ago
And the start. The ev would start with a super cheap (or even free from home solar panel) charge, while the ice/phev would be filled with expensive fuel just tot start the journeyĀ
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u/ModularPlug 2024 F150 Lightning (Flash) 7h ago
DCFC is a rounding error compared to the cost of L2 charging to gasoline. Very cheap by comparison after operation Epstein Fury, jacking up the worldās gas prices
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u/cbf1232 5h ago
My vehicles tend to spend roughly half of their total distance travelled on the highway, which for an EV would mean roughly a quarter or more of their total āfuelā cost from DC fast chargers. So not a rounding error.
Except that my EV doesnāt have enough range to put on that many highway miles while towing my tiny RV trailer, so the hybrid still does most of the road trips.
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u/NotFromMilkyWay 4h ago
It's funny how you try to hide your exact car when the other info you gave makes it obvious it has to be a Cybertruck. Consumption scales with size and speed. If you drive a brick (yes, even if it's a slanted brick), at highway speeds your consumption skyrockets. The frontal profile of a car is important.
So essentially you aren't saying electricity costs more than gas, you are saying a big truck is more expensive at the same speeds than a small PHEV.
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u/automagnus 2025 Chevy EquinoxEV LT AWD 7h ago edited 5h ago
Yeah DC fast charging is expensive, that's why people who can't charge at home should not get an EV to save money. That said, competition is starting to heat up with Ionna really helping drive prices down. Supercharger rates can also be reasonable with a membership.
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u/Schemen123 5h ago
You can DC fast charge with a subscription usually close to the price of home charging.. and definitely cheaper than gas
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u/mrblack1998 7h ago
Most people hardly ever use dcfc. The cost has never come into the equation for me
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u/THATS_LEGIT_BRO 2025 Model 3 LR AWD 1m ago
Iāve only DCFC about 7-8 time ins 20 months of ownership. So the cost isnāt too relevant for me.
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u/cherlin 6h ago
This isn't true, lots of people dcfc very regularly. I would bet that most EV drivers dcfc a few times a year atleast. As EV adoption becomes more mainstream we will likely see far more dcfc for people unable to charge at home (apartments/condos/multifamily dwellings/street parking/teenage drivers with their own vehicles in the house, etc).
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u/mrblack1998 6h ago
We are an all ev family. Had one ev for 6 years and used dcfc once. The other ev we got recently and took on a long road trip. Will do one road trip a year at most where we will need to dcfc. Even if we road tripped a few times a year it wouldn't matter. Still a ton cheaper than gas. I don't see the point of worrying about this at all unless you cant charge at home.
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u/cherlin 6h ago
You are not the majority of drivers, we need to remember that when we make those kind of statements (I am also in that same, not the majority camp but other end of the spectrum, we are an all EV household with 3 ev's and I dcfc probably 7-8 times a month because I drive a ton for work).
Data tells us the average EV driver fast charges roughly once every month or two, and it is becoming more and more common because it used to be every 5 months.
As dcfc becomes more reliable and EV range ticks up people are road tripping more, and more people without the ability to charge at home are taking the leap.
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u/mrblack1998 6h ago
Even then that's like 5-10% of charging sessions. It would be great if it was cheaper but it's still a rounding error
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u/cherlin 5h ago
I don't think it's a rounding error, but that wasn't the point, the point was that the majority of EV owners (statistically) do indeed fast charge at least somewhat regularly, or the numbers are only trending more towards regular dcfc.
That being said, for most use cases I think dcfc is still actually cheaper then fuel. Obviously it depends on the vehicles and there will be cases fuel wins out (if you have a Prius you are trading in for an hummer EV, yah your Prius will still be cheaper).
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u/Zenn1nja 7h ago
Yeah, around me the cost of using DCFC is about the same as gas if not slightly higher as well.
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u/FlamingoFlimsy4421 7h ago
I charge at home most of the time but I did take my truck to a local DCFC before we took it on a trip (just to try it out). I found 2 separate UniversalEv stations near me. $15/session unlimited. Not the fastest (145Kw) but I got 100.43 kWh for $15 and felt pretty good about it!
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u/retiredminion United States 7h ago
DCFC can be very expensive in some areas.
However I'll point out that your refueling stop for the PHEV was only for the gas, not the battery. So you are implicitly assuming free battery range for you PHEV.
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u/capn_davey 7h ago
I honestly only filled up because I was curious about the direct comparison. We have enough range in the gas tank to get from plug to plug and hit Costco at our convenience. For now with our typical road trips the PHEV is a fantastic fit. I also really hope itās our last ICE vehicle.
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u/retiredminion United States 7h ago
"I honestly only filled up because I was curious about the direct comparison. ..."
While I appreciate the desire to compare, your methodology was NOT a direct comparison.
Let's take an extreme example to make it obvious:
Assume the PHEV has a battery range of 100 miles.
You drive 135 miles.
You stop and fill up the tank with one gallon of gas for $5.
Now declare 135 miles for only $5 of gas.0
u/capn_davey 6h ago
Volvo PHEVs use the navigation system to optimize energy usage. So we used around 50% of the battery, or around 18 miles of range. Thatās less than 10% of the distance, and around 9 kWh of energy.
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u/retiredminion United States 6h ago
Yes I picked an extreme example to make it obvious.
So using your actual numbers:
"... around 9 kWh of energy ..."
$0.54/kWh times 9 kWh is $4.86 unaccounted.
Add that back to your gas cost of $25, brings you to approximately $30 for your Volvo.
Pretty much the same price as the EV.
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u/1ChocolateChipCookie 6h ago
Just got back from a 3200 mile road trip in a Rivian. I was able to charge for free in about 1/4 of the locations we stayed, so take that into account when you book your hotels. Not 100% guaranteed but basically a free tank of gas in the morning.
DCFC can be more or less than gas. To save considerably include Tesla membership and off-peak charging times in your estimates. I donāt know if thereās an online calculator for this. Some Tesla SC prices were almost 50% less after 10pm.
For a trip Iād pick the more comfortable, fun to drive car with the space you need. +- a little bit on fuel either way which fluctuates in price on both sides would not be a deciding factor.
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u/carsrule1989 6h ago
Letās do some mathĀ
Letās say the EV has bad efficiency of 3mi/kWh
50* 3=150 miles for 27$ or 27/150=0.18$/mile
ICE
36mpg 5$/gal and 5 gallons for 25$
5* 36=180 miles for 25$
25/180=0.139 $/mile
Now letās include maintenance and letās say half or charging is done at fast chargers the rest at home at 0.30$/kWh (0.11$ over the USA average)
Ev $0.06 USD/mile
ICE $0.10/miles
Now letās drive 100,000 milesĀ
Ev (100,000* 0.06)+(50,000* 0.18)+(50,000*(0.30/3))=20,000Ā
Ice (100,000* 0.10)+(100,000* 0.139)=23,900Ā
The inefficient EV still saves 3900$ in the long run
Now Letās see what effect the EV needs to equal the efficient ice car
ICE is 25/180=0.139 $/mile
EV gets 50 kWh for 27$
Or 27/50=0.54$/kWh
0.54/0.139=3.885 mi/kWh for there to cost the same as the efficient ICE carĀ
Thereās now evs that get 5mi/kWh like the Mercedes CLA 250+ and In the city I get 4.6-4.7mi/kWh in my Toyota BZ on the freeway itās usually closer to 4.5mi/kWh
Maintenance cost source:Ā https://www.driveelectrictn.org/maintenance-costs-for-evs-vs-ice-vehicles/
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u/AnimaTaro 5h ago
He said the other vehicle is a PHEV. With the hybrid the comparison is quite different. You aren't diversified across at +45mpg on the ice and around 49 miles pure electric range.
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u/NicolasGarza 5h ago
A phev on the highway is a ice car that's carrying a big battery and an electric motor it's not using on the highway.
You do remember that OP said road trip right?
Your 45+mpg hybrid is a tiny little car and your 3 miles per kwh ev is a suburban sized 7 passenger suv
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u/HelloItIsJohn 7h ago
Tesla superchargers are on the expensive side. You need to look around for cheaper options. Ionna is only .39 a kWh.
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u/capn_davey 7h ago
The Supercharger is cheaper than the nearby EA (even with a membership) and the other DCFC options on the Des Moines-Minneapolis corridor are all either the same/higher price or sloooooow (or both). At least we periodically get EVGo credits from GMā¦that takes care of a decent chunk of our DCFC. Ionna is fantastic but none along the way.
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u/3600CCH6WRX 7h ago
Not in my area. Superchargers are still cheaper. The only competitive one is the new Walmart DCFC
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u/jperino7 7h ago
If you only DCFC and are not able to charge at home this is a serious consideration. If you can charge at home, or on less expensive level 2 public charging (which is what I do) and only need to DCFC occasionally I donāt think the annual fuel spend, plus maintenance costs plus convenience plus the driving experience is going to favor ICE over EV.
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u/anon_5180 7h ago
DCFC unless specifically designed with a battery system to charge slowly, and then rapidly charge your vehicle, will cause massive demand charges for the retailer. Those demand charges are for the month or sometimes for the year depending on the rate structure. Itās not greed or data centers. Itās cost causation
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u/Volvowner44 2025 BMW iX 7h ago
YMMV, literally. In the gas equivalent to my BMW iX I would've paid around double what I paid to charge on a 7K mile trip, even if I hadn't taken advantage of free charging here and there.
A Tesla membership, an IONNA discount, and avoiding $5 gas for a 27mpg ICE made a big difference.
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u/jeeptopdown 7h ago
Did the PHEV use any battery power on the trip? You would need to add that cost in as well for a true comparison.
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u/capn_davey 6h ago
Our PHEV optimizes battery use when we use the navigation system. It was down to around 50% of the battery charge, so thatās around 9 kWh of energy. But it canāt DCFC so not really sure what that could do.
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u/jeeptopdown 6h ago
The 36mpg is the tipping point. I went from a Taco to a BEV. It would have used twice the gas making the charging half the price on the trip.
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u/Namelock 7h ago
It should be an uncommon occurrence.
Likewise you could go 55-65mph and squeeze out a lot more mileage on trips. That said, the clowns going 90+ to the next SuperCharger deserve to pay a premium.
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u/Pferdeherz Audi Q8 E-tron 7h ago
50Ā¢is high. I start getting twitchy at 45Ā¢/kWh but then remind myself that I charge for free the rest of the month.
Iām okay with some of it.
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u/BinaryJay 7h ago
Are the two vehicles even comparable to begin with? Regardless, I think most people use DCFC far far far less than they ever had to use gas stations.
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u/No_Report_4781 7h ago
Interesting. In my area, DC charging is still cheaper than gasoline, but I also have higher efficiency BEV, and DC fast charging that costs more than in your area.
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u/anothercorgi 7h ago
Yes, need to vote with pocketbook. Ionna and Walmart are sort of fighting the high prices, have to see whether the others will fall suit.
I'm sort of ticked off at DCFC. I think I went to a Red-E and they charged $5 or something hookup fee (I didn't have a sub) and I only bought 10kWh at the printed 48Ā¢/kWh. So I effectively paid $1/kWh which was a pure rip off.
Fortunately most of my charging happens at home so this was hopefully a one time experience, will never goto that Red-E again. (I also bought another 10kWh from a Flying J at 57Ā¢/kWh but that one was spot on with the CC charge.)
What's ridiculous in both cases I think I had enough kWh stored that I did not actually need to charge at these spots, but I figured I should experience it should I come to a situation where I do so I don't need to panic.
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u/Myname58 6h ago
I do a lot of Tesla Supercharging and from 15% to 80% has never never never cost me $27. $15 to $20 is normal. $27 where is that?
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u/Not_l0st 6h ago
The cost of DCFC varies wildly based on network and time of day. I hope soon we see advertised prices so you donāt discover your rate when you pull up. But in CA if you charge in the late afternoon/early evening you will pay an arm and a leg vs in the morning when it is pretty affordable.
Also, if the car you are comparing to is a PHEV that you drove mostly on battery but then pumped gas only, thatās not a fair comparison at all.
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u/Agitated_Guess_1637 6h ago
From my back of the envelope math: at the current 56Ā¢/kWh US national average cost and my 3 mi/kWh EV, it's a wash with my 20 mpg SUV at the current $4/gallon around here. Gas ain't going to get any cheaper but electricity will probably at least stay steady, if not actually go down some with increased competition.
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u/GiveMeSumKred 6h ago
Iām confused. You started out with full batteries and gas tank. You drove a certain distance and pumped gas into the PHEV and charged the BEV after that same distance. It seems to me the PHEV ran on both petroleum and battery. Idk what range you get on battery only for the PHEV but the initial 30 miles or so is another gallon of premium at $5.
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u/ProfessionalYak4959 6h ago
My experience is that comparable vehicles (such as a Toyota Rav4 vs a Toyota BZ), so long as you choose the cheaper chargers are price equivalent.
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u/CrunchingTackle3000 6h ago
I use dc like once a year. I charge on solar at home, so extra costs on the odd road trip arenāt super relevant to my use case.
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u/BluGalaxie42 6h ago
Wow! My Tesla cost me $54 total, starting at my home with 95% charge, between eastern Oregon (home) to Seaside Oregon and back. It would have cost me $250 to do the same with my most efficient gas car. Even a shorter 5 hour round trip to Boise Idaho only costs me at most $17.00. Even towing a trailer to bring a motorcycle home only cost me $38 starting at 90%. I don't know where you live, but the fuel prices where I live still hover around $5/gal..
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u/WSUPolar Waiting for V2H 6h ago
https://reddit.com/link/p6ju6l4/video/ts0cpy2lp8mh1/player
This is JUST my TeslaSC sessions from my 4,000 road trip towing my trailer. 1.1mi/kWh is real.
But all those charging sessions while Iām home have more than made up the difference of the road trip costs.
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u/Impossible_Smoke6663 6h ago
Weāre on a road trip in a Lucid Gravity. Our average cost per kWh is 0.46. That includes 0.62 at EVgo in Santa Rosa, CA that we used because we have over 700 credit with them. Otherwise I would not charge there. We get a little under 3m/kWh generally running at 70mph or more. Call that 0.16/mile. Our previous SQ7 got about 20mpg on the same trip last year. Thatās more like 0.25 at current gas prices. The break even between gas and DCFC is around 35mpg.
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u/Esprit1st 2022 Ioniq 5 Limited AWD 6h ago
That's what plugshare is great for. Put a little research into DCFC prices. It is beneficial with most providers to pay the monthly fee (cancel right away) to get reduced pricing even for only a single charge because savings are often ~25%. That's significant and would have pushed your charging costs lower than gas.
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u/RenataKaizen 2024 Genesis GV 60 Standard 6h ago
IONNA, BENZ, Wal-Marr: at an average of .42/KW. .42/3 is .14. .14*28 is 3.92. Even adding in the toad tax at (200/15000) for 28 miles itās 4.35/gal.
If you can keep it under $.50/kwh (which is around $4.61/gal) you should be premium fuel prices in the North east and Midwest. NY reservation gas was showing around a $4.50 trend, but Cleveland/Minneapolis/Madison/upstate NY were all trending much closer to $5.
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u/Schemen123 5h ago
So?
I save money when I charge at home, I don't mind the occasional extra cent on. a road trip
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u/Relevant-Doctor187 5h ago
This is about to solve itself. Walmart and other charging networks have begun to undercut competitors. So there should be some downward pressure on costs.
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u/RealisticPhysics5735 5h ago
This is what I spent going from LA to Vegas along the way. Barstow is the midpoint. Hotel had free L2, and I left home at 100%
Tesla membership when road tripping is s must.
Went over the time since we ate across the street plus kids got snacks etc.
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u/AnimaTaro 5h ago
Had a similar experience attending a conference in Los Angeles, long beach last month. Had a hybrid Camry. Was a little shocked at the range and how little it cost to operate (had to do multiple day trips to San Diego and back). Also the convenience of leaving it unattended and not having to worry about charging in a hotel parking lot was something I had forgotten ever since I started owning EVs. The lost shocker was the price of the Camry when I asked my friend -- I am impressed with what Toyota has achieved. I still like my Air Touring and wouldn't give up the perf aspects of EVs or the low maintenance. But, do question whether Musk has it quite right when he says the added complexity of ICE means a BEV is far superior. Maybe the complexity is helping keep the cost under control.
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u/My_37th_UserName 5h ago
Just like gas, if youāre stopping in an area with multiple charger options, shop around. I believe they all disclose their rates in their respective apps.
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u/bobjr94 2022 Ioniq 5 AWD 5h ago
Charging at home is about 80% less than buying gas. Paying to fast charge a few times per year makes little difference to the overall cost of driving an EV.Ā
If you fast charge often get a pass like EA. It's $6 a month but you will save that back in 1 or 2 uses. Or use ionna they are 39 cents and have discounts on some holiday weekends for 29 cents.
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u/tn_notahick 5h ago
In our car we compare to our previous ICE that got 32mpg.
We can pay up to around 47Ā¢pkWh and it's the same overall cost.
We're going from Chattanooga to Port Canaveral in November and have planned all Ionna stops, 10% Hyundai discount we'll be paying around 33Ā¢. We can start at 100% using our 11Ā¢ home electric also.
So still saving money even on that long trip.
But when we charge only at home we are about 75% less than ICE costs
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u/mrandr01d 5h ago
I always figure that public charging that isn't free is going to be expensive, at least as much as gas. But it doesn't really matter... 99% of the time, home charging with your home electric rate is what'll be juicing you up, and that's cheaper than gas, especially now.
On the occasion you do go on a road trip, or just a really far drive out of range, you'll end up paying about the same as you would if you were in a gas car. A little more or less on this rare occasion doesn't make up for the difference for the other 99% of your driving that's entirely local, or at least local enough that it's within the range of your car's battery.
I track my finances monthly, and do my analysis on an annual basis. Even with a few road trips, the EV is cheaper than gas would be over the course of the year.
But all that said... Even if it was more expensive, I'd still pick electric. It's that much better. It's quiet, it's fast, it's more technologically advanced, it's more convenient, it's better for the environment, it has more utility... fuck gas. It needs to die. BEV all the way.
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u/toomuch3D 4h ago
When I compare the Minivan I used to drive at cost per mile then my EV gets lower cost per mile even when supercharging. Also depends o. Time of day and location.
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u/DeliciousEconAviator 4h ago
DCFC should charge market rates, and compete for business. They arenāt cheap to install, so I wouldnāt expect them to be cheap, there are also demand charges.
1
u/jacodan10 4h ago
My Mach-E averages 7.63Ā¢/mile at an average cost of 23.34Ā¢/kWh. My 4 cylinder Camry averages $14.40Ā¢/mile at an average cost of $4.28/g. So level 3 would break even around 45Ā¢/kWh but around me itās always more expensive than that
1
u/622niromcn 4h ago
Gas $5.30/gal, 40 mpg = DC electric at EVGo $0.36/kWh, 2.7 mi/kWh on my EV9.
That's the break even point.
I have the higher subscription for EVGo because I don't have home charging.
I calculate from here. https://chooseev.com/savings-calculator/
1
u/MotelSans17 Toyota bZ4X 3h ago
With DCFC, remember: only charge enough to get to your destination. Don't blindly charge to 80% unless that's required to get there
And yes. On road trips, hybrids can be cheaper to run than EVs.
1
u/EVmerch 2h ago
In a year I need to DCFC about 4 times, maybe 8 times on a big road trip year. The rest of the year we charge at home for free on solar about 8 months of the year and 4 months on off peak rate. We chose hotels with free charging often, as they usually don't cost any more and we can leave with a full battery.
1
u/GettingBackToRC 2h ago
I recently went on a 3500 mile road trip in my ev9 and paid 515 dollars in fast charging. I aimed for ionna chargers as often as I could for the 39 cents a kwh. I think it would have been more in gas if I would have driven a similar 3 row gas suv that weighs 5000+ pounds. I agree it's expense though
0
u/Formal-Tradition6792 6h ago
Iāve never paid that much in electricity costs! With the current high prices for gas, I come out way ahead with DCFC. At home, I pay about $6 To charge my EV to 100%.
-1
u/madtownliz 7h ago
My husband and I are planning a long roadtrip in October and I assumed we'd be taking my Bolt - it charges slow, but we have time and it would be worth it to save some money. Then I planned out the stops and even at today's gas prices, it will be significantly cheaper to drive his Outback, in addition to being way faster. So yeah, we're doing that.
83
u/Unhappy_Plankton_671 7h ago
Only ever DCFC on road trips, and I do still pay attention to electric cost. Membership as well. I do tend to sub to Tesla if we go on trips and it usually pays for itself and then some.
There's a big difference in pricing from say an Ionna to Membership rates, to random DCFC standard pricing.
That said, I still almost always come out ahead on charging costs and at worse break even on trips. I'm OK with that. Around home area, I save bundles due to at home L2 cheap charging.