Real Cost Per Mile Of EV Driving

[Dstretty]

My Octopus go day rate has just risen from 41 to 44p. This now means just to break even you have to use over 40% of total at night. That also means that even if you charge your EV during the cheap overnight period your REAL driving cost is NOT 12p per unit as the average unit price per day work s out at nearer 30p per unit. My previous Octopus bill actually showed night usage cost and day cost and gave an average of 29p per unit. This, even with exclusive charging using the night time EV tariff gives the real cost of EV use and for me works out at 9p per mile (average 3.2 miles per kWh my MG ZS EV). For comparison my petrol car costs around 14p per mile same type of driving. The EV is still cheaper per mile in fuel but nowhere near enough to offset the extra cost. Based on my car, my tariff, my EV and my driving.

 

[drivethru]

My diesel ICE does 21-24p a mile.
9p is lovely for me.

 

[mailmannz]

Why are you on octopus go when there are better and cheaper ev rates available?

 

[Jomarkh]

What is your annual mileage?
I think you need to be doing 6-8k for Go to work well depending on what you can time shift.
If you have an Ohme EVSE then try the numbers with IO.

 

[Amun]

The EV is still cheaper per mile in fuel but nowhere near enough to offset the extra cost. Based on my car, my tariff, my EV and my driving.

I'm just using the standard tariff at the moment, but even then I seem to be under 10p a mile, which is quite a bit less than the 21p a mile that my ICEV costs.

However, the fuelling cost per mile pales into insignificance compared to the cost per mile due to depreciation - there's no way that buying a new BEV is cost effective unless you're doing lots of miles.

 

[Cocijo]

whatever way you cut it the surge in energy prices has really further impacted the EV dream.
If anyone was like me - I used to charge almost exclusively at 5p/KwHr and my day rate electric costs were low too as was the now ridiculously high standing charge cost.
Rapid chargers were expensive at about c35p but still cheaper than domestic day rates these days! It was so cheap to run an EV. It was never going to last was it? If you get a cheap rate now you’re hammered on the day rate.
Road tax is coming plus additional cost for cars over £40k (+£390) is being phased back in for EV’s and this will hit a lot of EV’s meaning the road fund licence will be over £500/year. £40k list price is now not a lot and easily exceeded given EV prices.
It can still be cheap to run an EV if you can get a good cheap rate and are fortunate enough to be able to charge at home most of the time - but it‘s only going in one direction.
Overall you have to want an EV as taking into account the full ownership cost and high purchase price they are an expensive option.

 

[Dstretty]

What is your annual mileage?
I think you need to be doing 6-8k for Go to work well depending on what you can time shift.
If you have an Ohme EVSE then try the numbers with IO.

My annual mileage is about 6000 which as I said is just on the cusp of making GO cheaper overall. The new rise in the day rate from 41p to 44p may tip the balance the other way, although summer might have an effect as well. I still actually PREFER driving EV though!

whatever way you cut it the surge in energy prices has really further impacted the EV dream.
If anyone was like me - I used to charge almost exclusively at 5p/KwHr and my day rate electric costs were low too as was the now ridiculously high standing charge cost.
Rapid chargers were expensive at about c35p but still cheaper than domestic day rates these days! It was so cheap to run an EV. It was never going to last was it? If you get a cheap rate now you’re hammered on the day rate.
Road tax is coming plus additional cost for cars over £40k (+£390) is being phased back in for EV’s and this will hit a lot of EV’s meaning the road fund licence will be over £500/year. £40k list price is now not a lot and easily exceeded given EV prices.
It can still be cheap to run an EV if you can get a good cheap rate and are fortunate enough to be able to charge at home most of the time - but it‘s only going in one direction.
Overall you have to want an EV as taking into account the full ownership cost and high purchase price they are an expensive option.

Agreed, not to mention the removal of the £5000 grant! I used to be on economy 7 years ago and there was always a usage balance to take into account as the day rate was always much higher than the std rare. The problem is that electricity prices are linked to gas and not linked to cost of production so are artificially high.

My diesel ICE does 21-24p a mile.
9p is lovely for me.

Crikey you must be driving a lorry! My diesel cost was based on my 3 litre diesel BMW which I use for longer journeys as well to avoid the ridiculously expensive non home chargers and the time wasted on the journey. Would certainly not have an EV as my only car though I do prefer driving my MG ZS EV to my BMW!

Why are you on octopus go when there are better and cheaper ev rates available?

I think you will find that there are now not any cheaper EV rates available to new customers.

 

[drivethru]

Crikey you must be driving a lorry! My diesel cost was based on my 3 litre diesel BMW which I use for longer journeys as well to avoid the ridiculously expensive non home chargers and the time wasted on the journey. Would certainly not have an EV as my only car though I do prefer driving my MG ZS EV to my BMW!

Not really, it’s a 2016 2.0 litre automatic diesel and most are my journeys are very short.

Unless my calculations are flawed…

£99 full tank (1.66 per litre)
370 Miles

£99 / 370
26p per mile

I can get 470 Miles on a full tank doing motorway Miles

£99 / 470
21p per mile

 

[Dstretty]

Not really, it’s a 2016 2.0 litre automatic diesel and most are my journeys are very short.

Unless my calculations are flawed…

£99 full tank (1.66 per litre)
370 Miles

£99 / 370
26p per mile

I can get 470 Miles on a full tank doing motorway Miles

£99 / 470
21p per mile

If you are thinking you use all £99

If you think you use £99 to travel 370 miles at £1.66 per litre yes. That is 29mpg town and only 36mpg motorway which is terrible. But the only accurate way is to fill the tank, zero the trip, run to reserve then refill tank and you have actual miles driven and actual fuel used. This is the method I used to accurately work out my mpg on my BMW (3 Litre auto) and currently £1.52 per litre (£6.90 per UK gallon), works out for me at around 35mpg local and 50mog motorway (and I'm not a slow or economy driver). If your vlacs are correct I suggest you get your car looked at as for a 2 litre diesel you'd figures are terrible. What Car is it?

 

[drivethru]

If you are thinking you use all £99

If you think you use £99 to travel 370 miles at £1.66 per litre yes. That is 29mpg town and only 36mpg motorway which is terrible. But the only accurate way is to fill the tank, zero the trip, run to reserve then refill tank and you have actual miles driven and actual fuel used. This is the method I used to accurately work out my mpg on my BMW (3 Litre auto) and currently £1.52 per litre (£6.90 per UK gallon), works out for me at around 35mpg local and 50mog motorway (and I'm not a slow or economy driver). If your vlacs are correct I suggest you get your car looked at as for a 2 litre diesel you'd figures are terrible. What Car is it?

It's a skoda superb - it's a big car.

Im not a light touch driver either, most of my trips are short with stop start traffic in London. I don't think anything is wrong with the car, as you suggest.

 

[Cocijo]

Why are you on octopus go when there are better and cheaper ev rates available?

Like what?

 

[Jomarkh]

Like what?

IO Intelligent Octopus

 

[Dstretty]

It's a skoda superb - it's a big car.

Im not a light touch driver either, most of my trips are short with stop start traffic in London. I don't think anything is wrong with the car, as you suggest.

I had a SEAT Altea XL MPV DSG auto with the same engine and that never dropped below 36mpg anywhere and much more, over 50mpg touring. Yours really does sound as if it needs attention. How old is it?

IO Intelligent Octopus

Only available for a limited number of charger and EV makes, so not for everybody.

 

[CarlMG4]

My 2p.. on Octopus standard (33p/kWh) until OHME fit our Home Charger, at which point we'll switch to Intelligent Octopus (40p/day + 10p/night)

Currently getting around 4mile/kWh, which is just over 8p per mile, will reduce to around 2p per mile when on IO tariff.

Our day usage will cost 20% more because of the increase in day rate with IO, but we only use 200kwh/p/m (home usage) so the increase is approximately £12 per month on our normal usage, but the difference in price between charging at 33p or 10p is around £50/pm based on my mileage of 800miles/p/m.

My cost per mile for diesel on the Honda CR-V was around 20p/mile.

 

[Cocijo]

My 2p.. on Octopus standard (33p/kWh) until OHME fit our Home Charger, at which point we'll switch to Intelligent Octopus (40p/day + 10p/night)

Currently getting around 4mile/kWh, which is just over 8p per mile, will reduce to around 2p per mile when on IO tariff.

Our day usage will cost 20% more because of the increase in day rate with IO, but we only use 200kwh/p/m (home usage) so the increase is approximately £12 per month on our normal usage, but the difference in price between charging at 33p or 10p is around £50/pm based on my mileage of 800miles/p/m.

My cost per mile for diesel on the Honda CR-V was around 20p/mile.

200kwh a month peak rate home usage is very good. I use around 15kwh a day and that’s not really using any high rated stuff.

 

[CarlMG4]

200kwh a month peak rate home usage is very good. I use around 15kwh a day and that’s not really using any high rated stuff.

We are a family of 4 but aren't big electricity users somehow. We don't use any electrical heating. Our gas usage is lower than average too, mostly.

I think background usage according to the smart meter is around 300w/p/h electric.

We can probably shift some home usage to the off-peak hours with IO when it goes ahead, we have a whisper quiet washing machine and it's a game changer.

Edit (clarity): our standard background usage, i.e most of the time, is around 100-120w. And when we are home, watching TVs etc, the background usage is around 300w.

Recalculated our home usage and it's between 200 and 230kwh per month on average.

 

[Cocijo]

We are a family of 4 but aren't big electricity users somehow. We don't use any electrical heating. Our gas usage is lower than average too, mostly.

I think background usage according to the smart meter is around 300w/p/h electric.

We can probably shift some home usage to the off-peak hours with IO when it goes ahead, we have a whisper quiet washing machine and it's a game changer.

Yes - I’m around 300 watts/hour background usage.

 

[Amun]

I think background usage according to the smart meter is around 300w/p/h electric.

We're the same.

I'm a bit confused, though. Unless my maths is wrong (which it could well be) doesn't this equate to 7.2 kw per day - which equates to 2,268kw pa or 219kw per month?

This would imply that you use no electricity at all other than background, if your "200kwh/p/m (home usage)" is correct.

 

[Cocijo]

Yes. Your maths is good. Based on my meter the 300w can vary although it’s usually around there for me. My monthly peak rate use is much higher that 200 kWh. even though I take advantage of cheap off peak rates.

 

[CarlMG4]

We're the same.

I'm a bit confused, though. Unless my maths is wrong (which it could well be) doesn't this equate to 7.2 kw per day - which equates to 2,268kw pa or 219kw per month?

This would imply that you use no electricity at all other than background, if your "200kwh/p/m (home usage)" is correct.

I mean background when we're home but not cooking, but with TV on etc.

Edit: Right now with no-one else home using electric it's 118w background.

Edit 2: last week we used 47kwh of electric, without charging the car. Less than 7kwh per day.