It's now cheaper to drive a gas vehicle in Massachusetts.

[thecoloradokid]

@BostonJeff I feel bad for you, my man. You don't have access to a Time of Use energy plan where cost of electricity is cheaper at certain off peak times of the day?

I live in Denver, and our provider has set up Time of Use, so charging my Lighting at off peak times is $.07 a kWh.

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[ZeroOptionLightning]

FWIW upstate NY is not bad ($0.133 per kWh) right now...

Also..Mass and NYS offer heavy tax incentives and subsidies for household solar. Although the environment(weather) is not the best for solar, payback period is reasonable due to cost and incentive.

2023 Solar Incentives and Rebates (Top 10 Ranked States) (ecowatch.com)

Philly burbs here. Our bill just went up 25% to .15 / kWh. My electric bill is now over $600 a month.
I hate it.

 

[FordLightningMan]

I just got a $579 electric bill, EV is definitely getting close to parity with gas. The difference is I can't go in my backyard and hope to strike oil, but solar panels are an option. I could complain, or I can take matters into my own hands to bring down my cost. That's something I could never do with an ICE vehicle.

 

[luebri]

I am lucky even with the 20% bump in rate this year. On a 3-tier Time of use rate schedule (Peak, Off-Peak, Standard) I can charge off-peak at night and early morning for ~.07 / kWh. My monthly average of 1000 miles @ 2 Miles / kWh costs me $35. My Nissan Titan @ $3.00 / Gallon would have been $215 for that same mileage.

 

[flyin525]

In NC I’m paying .05 per KWh from 10p-6a and .08 other times with the EV rate. I figure with the cost savings for non-ev electric use, my truck electricity is nearly free.

 

[MichaelCA]

PGE in Cali is a joke. But atleast in my area I can get 11c a KW during the night with the EV plan. Localized electricity providers are so much better.

 

[jimfigler]

Depends what the comparison is.

When it comes to price per kWh vs gas, the cost that matters is the incremental cost of the electricity you bought for the truck.

If you were paying $100 before ($20 connection fee + $80 electricity) for 800kWh, or you paid $180 now ($20 connection fee + $160 electricity) for 1600kWh, then your truck doubled your electricity usage, but it does not double the cost.

It's responsible for half of the kWh usage (800kWh of the 1600kWh), so by the "all-in" method, it used $90 of electricity (half of $180 total bill), BUT in reality, it only increased your bill by $80 ($180 - $100) because the $20 connection fee happens whether you bought any electricity or 2000 kWh.

So, the cost per mile should be based on $80/mo, not $90/mo, because that's how much your Lightning's electricity actually added to the bill.

But unless you have a HUGE connection fee (I don't know, you might not have that at all!) driving the Lightning is probably still pretty darn close to gas because electricity is so expensive compared to gas where you're at.

I believe some people quote rates that don’t include both delivery and supply charges. While You may pay $0.05 per kWh they charge you about the same to ‘deliver’ it so in the end you are paying $0.10. But I agree you can leave connection fee out of the equation, NYSEG calls it ‘basic service fee’ and it’s $20. But taxes and other fees that increase with the total usage should be factored in the cost. Mid summer NYSEG is going to offer a two tier managed incentive EV plan that I’m interested in. part of the plan includes deep discount on Wi-Fi connected EVSE like Juice box. They use the connection to monitor like they do with Wi-Fi connected thermostats

 

[RickLightning]

Parts of my electric bill are fixed, like a meter cost. Therefore, EV charging, which is incremental, should nor include any of those fixed costs, only per kWh costs.

In my case, it makes only a 1 cent difference, but make sure that any fixed costs are not included since you would incur them without any EV charging. I'm at 15.5 cents for my EV charging.

 

[Blainestang]

I believe some people quote rates that don’t include both delivery and supply charges. While You may pay $0.05 per kWh they charge you about the same to ‘deliver’ it so in the end you are paying $0.10. But I agree you can leave connection fee out of the equation, NYSEG calls it ‘basic service fee’ and it’s $20. But taxes and other fees that increase with the total usage should be factored in the cost. Mid summer NYSEG is going to offer a two tier managed incentive EV plan that I’m interested in. part of the plan includes deep discount on Wi-Fi connected EVSE like Juice box. They use the connection to monitor like they do with Wi-Fi connected thermostats

Yes, agreed. Delivery and supply and fuel and such charges that are charged per kWh should be included. Fixed charges shouldn’t because you pay those whether you charge your Lightning or not.

 

[lakeguy55]

I think the days of justifying an EV purchase based on "fuel" savings are numbered. It's only a matter of time before the governments come after EV's in some way to make up for lost gasoline tax revenue, and the added loads on the electric grid will need to be funded somehow.

In many places, the parity is already there. 'I drove an electric car on a 350-mile trip and the numbers don't add up' - Stoke-on-Trent Live (stokesentinel.co.uk)

 

[Yellow Buddy]

Look…I have to apologize. This is 100% my fault. Here’s why.

I purchased my first EV in 2014. The national average for gas was roughly $3.75/gallon at the time. It then dropped and continued the drop as I bought more EVs and transitioned my entire household to EVs and solar. The price of gasoline dropped about 50% since that time.

In March 2020, I needed a truck. So I sold two EVs and bought a gasoline truck. Nation average was $1.93/gallon at the time but turned and increased to an peak around Aug 2022 after a 260% increase.

I took delivery of my F-150L that last week of August. Price of gas has dropped roughly 33% since then.

So I apologize to everyone. I fully expect gas prices to drop to $0.99/gallon now. I promise to let everyone know when I buy another ICE vehicle.

 

[plucas005]

Fellow masshole here. I've been saying it for years MA has one of the worst ratios of electric to gas for EV adoption. Most utilities don't currently offer a time of use plan so we pay the same, way-above-national-average rate 24/7. Fortunately the most recent state climate bill "Requires distribution companies to submit proposals for time-of-use rates for charging EVs" so hopefully the EV equation will look more favorable soon.

 

[boggle]

Anyone that says EVs are cheaper than gas clearly has never dealt with the monopoly that is Eversource. I'm thankfully locked into a service+delivery rate of $0.2353/kWh, but Eversource just jacked residential increases for service up to $0.242/kWh BEFORE delivery + fees. At the new rate of $0.36/kWh, assuming a 2.2 mi/kWh Lightning against an ICE vehicle averaging 22 mpg, break even would bring gas back up to $3.57/gallon (currently $2.90 in my area).

 

[TaxmanHog]

Southern Mass, National Grid energy delivery company with energy generation from Constellation

I installed brand new service to isolate my garage from the house for various reasons, mostly to be able to use the FCSP at its maximum potential, while my motorcycle hobby shop is the second reason, power for lights, equipment, HVAC in the workshop are no longer in the house circuit, so I'm attributing all of the the base connection fee for that purpose at a trivial $7.00 a month.

Constellation has a flat rate energy contract to a coop of cities and towns in Mass at the rate of $0.1047 / kWh, my most recent billing cycle dec/jan I consumed 1330 kWh, but I used my Emporia Vue2 monitor to measure the kWh sent to the truck, 520 kWh or $54.44

National Grid receives a bunch of distribution fees and issues certain credits, winter rate is $0.1375 x 520 kWh = $71.50

During that period I drove the truck 1,149 miles, but during this time frame I also used DCFC at EA and Charge point to help mitigate the cost of operation 283 kWh at a cost of $36.54 yielding cost for fast charging at 12.91 c/kWh. I usually do this at the end of a regional road trip between NH & Mass where the SOC is low enough to take advantage of peak charge curve charge rate stopping at 80%

Summary
Home charging of $125.94 for 520 kWh is 24.22 c/kWh
DCFC charging of $36.54 for 283 kWh is 12.91 c/kWh
Cost per mile driven in the period [[125.94+36.54]/1149] = 14.14 c/mile

My baseline prior driving cost was an F250 XLT with 6.7 powerstroke, avg 15 MPG, the cost of diesel over the last four weeks has hovered around 4.90 a gallon, if I were still in the F250 for this period, my cost per mile would be [4.9/15] = 32.67 c/mile

Diesel minus electric cost per mile [[0.3267-0.1414]*1149] = $212.87 more in my pocket

These numbers represent regular driving without heavy loads or towing.

I'm enjoying the creature comforts of the Lightning vs my former truck, it's quiet operation, advanced features and functions and the fact that it could be another source of emergency energy on the rare occasion we have a prolonged blackout, 3 incidents over the past 5 years.

Pro Power on board will help with my racing pit operations, and I plan to offer my buddies an opportunity to connect for free so we can shut down several portable gas generators on site. speaking of racing trips, my costs should be consistent if not better because I will pull more DCFC during those trips, but the total cost will be higher because the MPK drops by half!!

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