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

[Learch74]

My latest electric bill arrived today, and I am now paying $.357 kWh. That's the all-in cost. I took the bill total and divided my total kWh used.

I'm averaging 2.1 miles per kWh. / $.357 per 2.1 miles or $.17 per 1 mile.

My Silverado, which I traded in for the Lightning, was averaging 18 miles per gallon. Gas prices are around $3.02 in my area.

Here is how the two compare to drive 18 miles:

• Silverado = $3.02
• Lightning = $3.06

I guess it's a good thing the Lightning doesn't run on eggs.

WOW! That really is bad. I'm in NB Canada and we pay $0.116 per KW. But I put a solar array in, so after the array is paid back from home use in about 12 years, I'm driving for free. Sounds like solar would be a great option in your state, even if for just powering your home.

Sponsored

 

[davehu]

My latest electric bill arrived today, and I am now paying $.357 kWh. That's the all-in cost. I took the bill total and divided my total kWh used.

I'm averaging 2.1 miles per kWh. / $.357 per 2.1 miles or $.17 per 1 mile.

My Silverado, which I traded in for the Lightning, was averaging 18 miles per gallon. Gas prices are around $3.02 in my area.

Here is how the two compare to drive 18 miles:

• Silverado = $3.02
• Lightning = $3.06

I guess it's a good thing the Lightning doesn't run on eggs.

Yikes! 10.4 cents/kwr here in hot springs no increase in the past year.

 

[Calvin H-C]

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.

This is true, and let me give a real-life example. In November 2017, we took delivery of a Ford Focus Electric as a second vehicle to our 2013 Ford Focus with a 160 hp gas engine and 5-speed standard transmission.

In the year prior to having the two vehicles, the ICE Focus was driven about 24,000 km (15,000 miles). In the first year of having the two vehicles, the ICE Focus was driven about 16,000 km (10,000 miles) and the FFE was driven about 24,000 km.

So, our gas use dropped by 8,000 km (5,000 miles) but our electrical use increased by 24,000 km (15,000 miles).

To compare costs, we compared our monthly electrical bills and gasoline purchases for the year prior to November 2017 with the year following. Each month was typically $60-70 lower following Nov '17 than prior. Our monthly electric bill went up, but our gas purchases went down by $60-70 more than the electric bill went up.

I should add that about 95% of all charging that first year was at home. I should also say that this is in Canadian dollars, so sedate the savings by about 30-33% for US dollars.

 

[Monkey]

My latest electric bill arrived today, and I am now paying $.357 kWh. That's the all-in cost. I took the bill total and divided my total kWh used.

At $0.357/kWh, I think I'd be getting quotes on solar. Yikes...

 

[biers]

At $0.357/kWh, I think I'd be getting quotes on solar. Yikes...

No kidding! I want to add it but at 8 cents a kWh it will take a couple decades to break even.

 

[shutterbug]

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.

That is true. My utility helpfully provides all in cost for each TOU period:

The on-peak actually works out to between $0.22 and $0.65 per kWh because of demand charge. Currently, it's requesting about 28% increase in residential rates, but I think the bulk will be applied to on-peak rates, so off-peak and super off-peak will remain a great bargain.

 

[Txxthie]

My latest electric bill arrived today, and I am now paying $.357 kWh. That's the all-in cost. I took the bill total and divided my total kWh used.

I'm averaging 2.1 miles per kWh. / $.357 per 2.1 miles or $.17 per 1 mile.

My Silverado, which I traded in for the Lightning, was averaging 18 miles per gallon. Gas prices are around $3.02 in my area.

Here is how the two compare to drive 18 miles:

• Silverado = $3.02
• Lightning = $3.06

I guess it's a good thing the Lightning doesn't run on eggs.

Finally, I see a post regarding these increased electrical costs. I posted a similar thread over at the other Lightning forum.

My provider is Eversource that serves CT, NH, MA. Here in CT, the price per kWh is now $.36, up from $.24. It now costs $36 to fully charge a SR lightning up from $24 previously. I know I can change service provider and save ~$.07kW, but there is lot of fine print and potential loopholes.

In the cold weather using 80% of the SR battery will yield only 120 (1.5kWh) -150 (1.75kWh) miles and cost $29. An ICE pickup truck getting 16mpg going 150 miles at $3.50gal x 9.375 gals = $33. With high electrical rates (low gas prices) and cold weather (no heat pump) it currently doesn't make financial sense to go with the Lightning. It now seems like the electrical companies are taking their opportunity to benefit from post pandemic pricing. I am not sure what is going on in other parts of the country. I can see this being used as marketing tool against the cost benefit savings of EV's.

It is the same rate at the Tesla Superchargers around me.

 

[ivan256]

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)

What a giant vat of greenwash that site is!

I live in Massachusetts. I own a residential grid-tied solar system.

System costs in MA are higher by at least the value of the residential energy credit compared to other states. But actually higher than that even, due to the way permitting for electrical work is handled here.

The property tax exemption is a joke, since solar systems do not increase the value of your home. Especially once they are 10+ years old or if you sign a lease or energy purchase agreement. In those cases they actually make your home less marketable.

Net metering comes with limitations (for example I'm limited to a 6KW system) and requirements (for example I have $3500 in useless redundant cutoffs that serve no safety or utility purpose whatsoever). Plus since you're probably charging at night, you still end up paying all the fees on your charging electricity, since you sold your net-metered PV during the day for just the generation rate.

It was still worth installing a system here when the SREC programs were good. But those days are over. It probably won't be worth it again until battery prices drop further.

 

[G-Zeus]

I'm in MA, and I lucked out a couple of years ago when I moved into a town with its own municipal electric company. Regular rates are around $0.13/kWh, which is amazing. They will apologize this year when they have to bump it to $0.15/kWh.

I have a solar co-generation plan with full net metering, which is great.

And now that I have a Lightning, I paid the cost to install a new meter off of the incoming lines, and wiring into my garage, for an L2 charger (2x60A lines, so when my wife gets an EV she can have her own L2 charger). This new meter is attached to the town's TOU plan, so from 11p-7a it is only costing me $0.012 / kWh. (Yes, that is 1.2 cents / kWh!!!) During regular hours it's the same $0.13/kWh rate up to 550 kWh, then they "penalize" the overuse at $0.30/kWh. I never plan to charge outside of 11p-7a unless I'm having some range issues, so I will never hit that "penalty" -- oh yeah, and they gave me a ChargePoint charger for free too! (Ok, the "tradeoff" is that they could disable charging between 5p-9p on high usage days... but I never plan to charge at those times, and would rather full lock in these amazing rates). It's literally costing me 50 cents a day to keep my truck charged, and driving about 100 miles every day. Versus hundreds of dollars for my ICE vehicle. In my case, that's a significant savings, but I realize that I'm the super exception.

I'm convinced that electric costs and rate plans are going to be a very important real estate "amenity" - up until I moved, I never would have realized there were towns with cheap electric service, versus the state-wide monopolies!

 

[TaxmanHog]

I'm in MA, and I lucked out a couple of years ago when I moved into a town with its own municipal electric company. Regular rates are around $0.13/kWh, which is amazing. They will apologize this year when they have to bump it to $0.15/kWh.

I have a solar co-generation plan with full net metering, which is great.

And now that I have a Lightning, I paid the cost to install a new meter off of the incoming lines, and wiring into my garage, for an L2 charger (2x60A lines, so when my wife gets an EV she can have her own L2 charger). This new meter is attached to the town's TOU plan, so from 11p-7a it is only costing me $0.012 / kWh. (Yes, that is 1.2 cents / kWh!!!) During regular hours it's the same $0.13/kWh rate up to 550 kWh, then they "penalize" the overuse at $0.30/kWh. I never plan to charge outside of 11p-7a unless I'm having some range issues, so I will never hit that "penalty" -- oh yeah, and they gave me a ChargePoint charger for free too! (Ok, the "tradeoff" is that they could disable charging between 5p-9p on high usage days... but I never plan to charge at those times, and would rather full lock in these amazing rates). It's literally costing me 50 cents a day to keep my truck charged, and driving about 100 miles every day. Versus hundreds of dollars for my ICE vehicle. In my case, that's a significant savings, but I realize that I'm the super exception.

I'm convinced that electric costs and rate plans are going to be a very important real estate "amenity" - up until I moved, I never would have realized there were towns with cheap electric service, versus the state-wide monopolies!

Wow, what a great deal!!!

 

[G-Zeus]

I'm in MA, and I lucked out a couple of years ago when I moved into a town with its own municipal electric company. Regular rates are around $0.13/kWh, which is amazing. They will apologize this year when they have to bump it to $0.15/kWh.

I have a solar co-generation plan with full net metering, which is great.

And now that I have a Lightning, I paid the cost to install a new meter off of the incoming lines, and wiring into my garage, for an L2 charger (2x60A lines, so when my wife gets an EV she can have her own L2 charger). This new meter is attached to the town's TOU plan, so from 11p-7a it is only costing me $0.012 / kWh. (Yes, that is 1.2 cents / kWh!!!) During regular hours it's the same $0.13/kWh rate up to 550 kWh, then they "penalize" the overuse at $0.30/kWh. I never plan to charge outside of 11p-7a unless I'm having some range issues, so I will never hit that "penalty" -- oh yeah, and they gave me a ChargePoint charger for free too! (Ok, the "tradeoff" is that they could disable charging between 5p-9p on high usage days... but I never plan to charge at those times, and would rather full lock in these amazing rates). It's literally costing me 50 cents a day to keep my truck charged, and driving about 100 miles every day. Versus hundreds of dollars for my ICE vehicle. In my case, that's a significant savings, but I realize that I'm the super exception.

I'm convinced that electric costs and rate plans are going to be a very important real estate "amenity" - up until I moved, I never would have realized there were towns with cheap electric service, versus the state-wide monopolies!

Ok I just got my first TOU bill. It turns out that the very low quoted rates were for "energy cost" ONLY, and not energy cost + distribution - despite how they compared it to the regular rate, which does include both of those charges. They need to update their terms information, that's pretty annoying!

In case anybody is interested, when I factor in the all-in costs here's what I get:

• TOU all-in rate for off-peak charging: 11.6 cents / kWh
  • Energy charge: 1.2 cents / kWh
  • Distribution charge: 5.5 cents / kWh
  • Transmission charge: 1.4 cents / kWh
  • PPA: 3.5 cents / kWh
• Regular every-day all-in electricity rate: 18.7 cents / kWh
  • Everything the same as TOU except Energy charge = 7.2 cents / kWh

(if the numbers don't add up, its due to some rounding)

So it's not as cheap as it initially seemed, but it's still a pretty good deal! It's basically $50/month to charge, versus $300-400/month for gas.

Even though it cost me a bundle to get a new meter installed with 2x60A lines into the garage ( and now I won't get my ROI as quickly as I had hoped), I do have piece of mind knowing that getting everything as cheap as possible, the electricity coming off the street and not taking any capacity from my breakers in my house, I have very good amperage for charging, and I'm future friendly for the next EV car with no more electrician costs to install!

 

[lakeguy55]

Another viewpoint

https://jalopnik.com/driving-100-miles-in-an-ev-is-now-more-expensive-than-i-1850031874

 

[broncoaz]

My latest electric bill arrived today, and I am now paying $.357 kWh. That's the all-in cost. I took the bill total and divided my total kWh used.

I'm averaging 2.1 miles per kWh. / $.357 per 2.1 miles or $.17 per 1 mile.

My Silverado, which I traded in for the Lightning, was averaging 18 miles per gallon. Gas prices are around $3.02 in my area.

Here is how the two compare to drive 18 miles:

• Silverado = $3.02
• Lightning = $3.06

I guess it's a good thing the Lightning doesn't run on eggs.

I live down on the cape, I sold my Lightning for this exact reason except my Silverado work truck was a diesel averaging 27 mpg. I was paying 34 then 38 cents per kWh then, but now it’s up to 41 cents per kWh, thanks Eversource. I had a thread about it when I sold the truck, many people blasted me various reasons, it’s good to see others coming to the same conclusion about the EV’s in Massachusetts as I did.

I considered adding solar, but the $52K cost of entry plus replacing the roof on my home was not appealing. Sure I’d make the lion’s share back over 7-10 years, but I’m looking to buy a new home soon so I’m keeping my powder dry.

 

[Toby57]

I live down on the cape, I sold my Lightning for this exact reason except my Silverado work truck was a diesel averaging 27 mpg. I was paying 34 then 38 cents per kWh then, but now it’s up to 41 cents per kWh, thanks Eversource. I had a thread about it when I sold the truck, many people blasted me various reasons, it’s good to see others coming to the same conclusion about the EV’s in Massachusetts as I did.

I considered adding solar, but the $52K cost of entry plus replacing the roof on my home was not appealing. Sure I’d make the lion’s share back over 7-10 years, but I’m looking to buy a new home soon so I’m keeping my powder dry.

52k would buy a lot of gas and or kwh. Well over ten years of gas in my ice. But read above, they are not counting that They should, it is money they paid to fuel their ev.

Sponsored