Hacker News Reader

Comment by dirtdobber | Hacker News Reader

My car only gets 26 miles to the charge, which, believe it or not, is more than enough for my daily use (I live within 5 miles of my work). That being said, I'm not actually convinced that I'm saving money when I look at my electricity cost vs cost of gasoline. Still, the added convenience of just plugging in when I get home and hardly ever having to stop at a gas station is nice.

View on HN

Have electricity cost of <7€ now for 100 km. Petrol cost was close to 20€. Plus I save a lot on repairs. Previous car was old and I got tired of lying under it.

I guess car choice and calculation behind it is very individual. I never wanted Tesla, but got best trade—in conditions there.

It's costing me roughly $4.50 per charge (we pay ~$0.30/kWh and it takes roughly 15kWh to fully charge). My MPG is ~20mpg, and gas costs around $3.50 per gallon, so I have roughly the same fuel costs whether I'm charging or putting gas in the tank.

I am saving a bit on repairs as well. I was spending close to $1500 a year on maintenance for the old car (but it was 8 years old and had 100K miles on it). We also had a nice tax incentive for buying EVs/PHEVs, so that helps.

Where are you located that you’re paying $0.30/kWh but also only $3.50/gal for gas? Is this at-home charging? Some kind of seasonal or peak time of use rate?

I'm on the east coast of the US in a large metro area. My last electric bill was $585 and I used 1800kWh for the month, so my costs are roughly $0.32 cents per kWh currently.

Gas at the closest station to my house is currently at $3.40 (according to Google Maps)

EDIT: I don't see anywhere on my bill that I'm paying a peak rate. I do charge my car at night though, so I wouldn't be surprised if I'm paying the electric company extra just to do that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com