Research Firm Claims Most cars still cost more to charge than to fill up with gas
Fueling a regular F-150 and charging a Lightning might cost the same, but fueling entry and midlevel cars still costs less than plugging them in.
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The whole article and the report, nowhere is it explained how they get their numbers. What fuel prices or electricity prices have they used, what mileage for the cars. It's kind of crucial info, and not really difficult to calculate either.
Yeah because the article is absolute bullshit. The bias was immediately evident.
Then why'd you post it? 😅
It's provocative. It gets the people going.
Is this your first day on social media? People post 1 + 1 = 3 and get a ton of angry corrections.
I think thats a little simple to say that it's only posted because it provocative. Cultural opinions shape policy and the future of public transport is important.
Because I saw the article on my newsfeed and clicked to see what it was about. I risked the impression I editorialized the headline by adding the “Research firm claims” but thought it might help readers here make up their own mind.
I think it's good to read and criticise the materials that "opponents" read.
The report gives a quick summary of what they include, but not any details or math.
The cost of underlying energy (gas, diesel, electric)
State excise taxes charged for road maintenance
The cost to operate a pump or charger
The cost to drive to a fueling station (deadhead miles)
Elsewhere it says it assumes 12k miles in a year and is focused on the midwest and Michigan in particular. As it so happens, Michigan charges for registration based on the car value. EVs cost more than ICE vehicles in the same market segment most of the time. This would fall under excise taxes that they include.
I wouldn't be surprised if they also tacked on the cost to install a L2 charger once as "cost to operate a pump or charger" — intentionally ignoring that it's a one-time fee to support EVs at a home. With those two data points they could easily add >$1000 to the cost to "charge" an EV for one year if that is what they wanted to do.
The people making the report clearly picked criteria that sounds reasonable but also intentionally misleads people. Not a surprise.
I could give an easy estimate for the costs with napkin math. A quick gooble search says that a long-range EV might require up to 100 kWh of power to charge (high estimate) and where I live the electricity cost is about $0.11/kWh. That's $11 for a "fill up" of a long-range EV.
A tank of gas that could get me 300 miles is closer to $40.
$11 < $40.
I've got real world math that basically backs this up (you can find my other comment in this thread if you want all the juicy details): My honda accord got 22mpg and had a 17 gallon tank, and gas here is $3.87. $66 to fill up and drive 374 miles = 17.6 cents per mile. My Model 3 Long Range has 77kWh usable and gets about 3.7 miles per kwh, my electricity is 15 cents per kwh (until i get solar next year), so $11.55 to fill up and drive 285 miles (so 4 cents per mile).
Yes the accord got about 90 miles more range, but cost 3 times as much to fuel and that range only matters (to me) on road trips, and my range has yet to be an issue in my model 3.
In fact I'm going on a 6 hour drive next week and according to ABRP I'll only have to make one 10 minute stop halfway to charge in order to get to my hotel (where I can charge up for free)
Dang that's some poor mpg for a Honda unless it was a big engine Accord
I drive a V6 accord and this seems accurate.
I have the Acura equivalent with the same/similar motor ('07 3.5L) and it feels really low. I'm getting 27 combined mpg if I don't try to be efficient and 24ish if I'm constantly accelerating hard.
Yeah it was the v6, I primarily drive at either 80mph or stop and go traffic, and I live in a super hilly area
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