Cost savings between petrol/diesel/electric

[Scorpion]

I bought a battery mower, strimmer and hedge trimmer last year. So much easier than trailing wires across the garden or having to go to the petrol station with a can.

Is that EG (electric gardening)

 

[Jomarkh]

Do you charge them up on a timer over night on your off peak tariff?

 

[drmcw]

I bought a battery mower, strimmer and hedge trimmer last year. So much easier than trailing wires across the garden or having to go to the petrol station with a can.

The gardens quite big though and I might end up with range anxiety

 

[MEH]

So far this year it has cost me more to fill my Zippo lighter than it has cost me to charge my car thanks to supermarkets

 

[Gadget Geek]

Do you charge them up on a timer over night on your off peak tariff?

This afternoon I charged them for free on the solar.

 

[Barrie]

I bought a battery mower, strimmer and hedge trimmer last year. So much easier than trailing wires across the garden or having to go to the petrol station with a can.

I went one better

 

[Iain]

I thought I would put the following together for people to use to help them to judge what they will save if they make the switch to EV (specifically the ZS EV).

The figures are using data from the RAC's Fuelwatch (Latest petrol and diesel prices | RAC Fuel Prices | RAC Drive), MPG estimates and averages from RAC Foundation (https://www.racfoundation.org/motoring-faqs/environment#a31) and electric consumption will be based on 4m/kwh with this taken as a "long term average" not taking into account journey types. I.e. if you do more motorway, then your fuel consumption will be lower, but your batter consumption will be higher and vice versa. I am also basing this on the assumption that nobody is going to be considering to change a supercar (or something fuelled on premium unleaded (99 RON)) with an electric MG

Fuel type	Avg Cost per unit	Average consumption	Cost to travel 100 miles
Diesel	£ 1.89	56.1​	£ 15.30
Petrol (95)	£ 1.83	52.6​	£ 14.84
Electricity	£ 0.28	4​	£ 7.09

Well done and very useful comparison.

Just seems a pity, when you have gone to the trouble of posting useful information someone responds with;- but…………..

 

[awbugritt]

I bought a battery mower, strimmer and hedge trimmer last year. So much easier than trailing wires across the garden or having to go to the petrol station with a can.

I've had battery powered garden machinery for 4-5 years after some scumbags stole all my petrol equipment from my van. In retrospect they've probably saved me money and improved my health as I use my electric equipment commercially every day!

 

[Lovemyev]

My lawnmower is costing more to fill than my EV!

How funny - same here !.
Last time I paid a visit to fill my petrol can for my gardening equipment, I filled the petrol can in seconds !.
Then I looked at the pump - OMG !.
I then went into garage to pay for the fuel and the young guy said :- "Just the 1 gallon ( ish ) then today mate, is it ?".
Me :- "It's for my mower mate not my car, I can run my electric car for a month on what that fuel has cost to cut my grass".
Guy in the petrol station's face - .

 

[drmcw]

How funny - same here !.
Last time I paid a visit to fill my petrol can for my gardening equipment, I filled the petrol can in seconds !.
Then I looked at the pump - OMG !.
I then went into garage to pay for the fuel and the young guy said :- "Just the 1 gallon ( ish ) then today mate, is it ?".
Me :- "It's for my mower mate not my car, I can run my car for a month on what that fuel has cost to cut my grass".
Guy in the petrol station face - .

Yep took a 5 litre can to the petrol station this morning and it was £10 to fill

 

[Lovemyev]

Yep took a 5 litre can to the petrol station this morning and it was £10 to fill

Seriously, you REALLY lose touch of the price people are paying for fossil fuel when you drive a EV for a while.
My visit to the fuel ️ station for my fossil fuel for my gardening equipment, is about twice a year, it help me to keep grounded on why I bought an EV.
I was talking to somebody today who was really into his cars.
He asked me how I felt about the current price of running our cars ?.
I said I was pretty okay with the costs.
He was totally shocked by my responce and gave me a very funny look !.
I then continued to say that I have an electric car.
Arh…………. But there are NOT that much cheaper to run, are they ???.
Then I hit him with the cost break down between fossil and EV.
There was this long silence, followed by :-
“Surely that can not be correct, is it ?”.
I could hear the brain wheels turning in his head .

 

[Maximus]

Fuel type	Avg Cost per unit	Average consumption	Cost to travel 100 miles
Diesel	£ 1.888	45​	£ 19.08
Petrol (95)	£ 1.832	40​	£ 20.82
At Home Charging
Electricity	£ 0.283	3.6​	£ 7.87
Octopus Go	£ 0.075	3.6​	£ 2.08
Legacy Go	£ 0.050	3.6​	£ 1.39
Public Chargers
Instavolt (120kw)	£ 0.570	3.6​	£ 15.83
Gridserve (60kw)	£ 0.480	3.6​	£ 13.33
Osprey	£ 0.490	3.6​	£ 13.61
PodPoint (50kw)	£ 0.260	3.6​	£ 7.22

Excellent

 

[ChrisVanRock]

Fuel type	Avg Cost per unit	Average consumption	Cost to travel 100 miles
Diesel	£ 1.888	45​	£ 19.08
Petrol (95)	£ 1.832	40​	£ 20.82
At Home Charging
Electricity	£ 0.283	3.6​	£ 7.87
Octopus Go	£ 0.075	3.6​	£ 2.08
Legacy Go	£ 0.050	3.6​	£ 1.39
Public Chargers
Instavolt (120kw)	£ 0.570	3.6​	£ 15.83
Gridserve (60kw)	£ 0.480	3.6​	£ 13.33
Osprey	£ 0.490	3.6​	£ 13.61
PodPoint (50kw)	£ 0.260	3.6​	£ 7.22

 

[ChrisVanRock]

That’s more like it … if using motorways for work , IONITY or the major players you ain’t far off ICE …. I think if you have home chargers , some discounted cards … you can balance it out … good geeks like me it’s great … but with all the hassles of charging - the price differences won’t persuade many to swap

 

[hmadsen]

I think the simplest way to answer this is does any current EV owner believe that running an ICE would save them money.

Objectively, right now, when i only calculate the price of the "fuel" it would have been cheaper for me to drive my diesel, than my EV, if i did not have a home charger.

Diesel is right now about £1,84 per liter. My diesel did 20 kilometer per liter, so that comes out as roughly 9 pence per kilometer. (In Denmark)

My EV does 4 kilometers per Kwh, and if i charge at a CCS fast charger, the cheapest i have found is 57 pence per kilowatt.

So a kilometer on electricity from a CCS fastcharger is 14,25 pence.

If i charge from a public 11 KWh destination charger the cheapest i get is 40 pence, which comes down to 10 pence per kilometer, which is just about the same.

I charge in my own driveway, and use as much of my solar power, to essetially charge "for free" so for me it is definitively a good deal, but for anyone in a flat, with no access to a home charger, and needing to charge the car at a destination charger or CCS fast charger, right now it is not a good deal, if they have a diesel like the one i had.

Offcourse, these calculations vary. If you have an older petrol car, that only does 10 km per liter, the calculation will look a lot different, and make it a good deal no matter where you charge

 

[awbugritt]

The other big factor is the high price of an EV at present, although economies of scale and more used vehicles will eventually bring prices within reach if more people.

 

[SeanP]

Or you could just live in Scotland and use the governments Charge place Scotland chargers, loads of them all over the place and the majority are free. Had an EV for nearly a year and spent £0 on charging, have a home charger but never had to use it....

 

[Paulie68]

That’s more like it … if using motorways for work , IONITY or the major players you ain’t far off ICE …. I think if you have home chargers , some discounted cards … you can balance it out … good geeks like me it’s great … but with all the hassles of charging - the price differences won’t persuade many to swap

I think you're wrong about that, everyone keeps harping on about long motorway trips and public fast charging costs, but a very significant number of people commute less than 30 miles each way on a daily basis and have off street parking, meaning they're almost always able to access low cost overnight charging at home.

You have to be as dumb as a rock to not be seriously considering switching to an EV if you're planning to buy a new mid to high spec. car now.

Apart from fuel, the tax and servicing savings are enormous as well. In my own case, (And I only cover about 12k pa.) I'm now saving about £4000 per year compared to my last large petrol car. That's just routine stuff as well, not taking into account the huge additional periodic costs that just don't exist on an EV such as timing belt changes and similar.

 

[ChrisVanRock]

Yes I meant really if you are doing lots of travel … I only do a large trip once a month for work and I am quits in .. but if I was going that 400 round trip weekly with all the hassle I have charging I can see people not going it .. I actually like the hassle of charging as I am geeky and I use bonnet etc .. but with my company giving me 22p a mile it’s getting tight if I used Ionity … I of course will never go back to Ice …love my ZS

 

[Paulie68]

Seriously, you REALLY lose touch of the price people are paying for fossil fuel when you drive a EV for a while.
My visit to the fuel ️ station for my fossil fuel for my gardening equipment, is about twice a year, it help me to keep grounded on why I bought an EV.
I was talking to somebody today who was really into his cars.
He asked me how I felt about the current price of running our cars ?.
I said I was pretty okay with the costs.
He was totally shocked by my responce and gave me a very funny look !.
I then continued to say that I have an electric car.
Arh…………. But there are NOT that much cheaper to run, are they ???.
Then I hit him with the cost break down between fossil and EV.
There was this long silence, followed by :-
“Surely that can not be correct, is it ?”.
I could hear the brain wheels turning in his head .

I start off by advising it costs me about 10% of the cost compared to running a similar ICE car. If I can convince them I'm not joking this usually has one of two effects. They suddenly get very curious indeed, or they get visibly annoyed and find an excuse to not carry on the conversation, it's fascinating just how huffy the latter types can get.