Where’s the savings!!!!

[TimmyT]

I gotta be honest. I have yet to see any savings from owning my 2024 Lightning extended range Lariat. The first month cost me roughly $100 to charge that was the month of December. January it looks like about $200 a month to charge. Can somebody please explain where the savings are?I love the truck but wow it’s expensive to power up!

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[sstevetx]

Not everyone sees savings. It depends on many factors such as how much you are paying for electricity where you charge. If you are in areas of the country where electricity is high or you aren't charging at home the majority of the time then it may cost more than an ICE vehicle. In addition, you have lower efficiency in winter months with EVs. The faster you are driving the less efficiency you get as well. Low tire pressure can also play into efficiency.

I had a 60% savings in the last year based only on electricity versus gas costs. I pay on average 13.7 cents per KWh at home including all monthly fees and I only charge at home. I recently used the data from my Emporia charger to see how much electricity I used for the past year. I pulled how many miles I drove in that period and compared it to the monthly average gas prices in my area over the year and MPG I was getting in my last vehicle. That doesn't include other ICE maintenance such as oil changes.

 

[mrau]

Most folks that charge at home do see a savings.

Those that charge at DC Fast chargers the majority of time will not see much savings compared to the current gas prices.

 

[Zprime29]

I gotta be honest. I have yet to see any savings from owning my 2024 Lightning extended range Lariat. The first month cost me roughly $100 to charge that was the month of December. January it looks like about $200 a month to charge. Can somebody please explain where the savings are?I love the truck but wow it’s expensive to power up!

You need to provide more information if you want an answer. How many miles are you driving, city or freeway, what's the weather like, did you put big gnarly tires on it, do you charge at home or at public stations (if public DCFC do you use the membership discount), do you tow a lot, etc....

 

[Ice No More?]

I would agree with the other responses, not enough detail. I did the math before I bought my 2023 Lariat. I was driving an Audi SQ5 (best driving car ever) and getting 22mph around town. I buy electricity at home for 12 cents Kwh and based on $3 dollar gas I am saving 35 to 40% on energy costs. Just my story and not the same for everyone.

 

[hookem752]

$.31 per kwh in Plymouth MA. So the energy isn't cheap

 

[K6CCC]

The first month cost me roughly $100 to charge that was the month of December. January it looks like about $200 a month to charge.

Damn, I would love to ONLY be spending $200 for fuel! I'm currently spending about $500 per month for gas. Even with high California electric rates, I expect that to drop by about 60% when I switch to the Lightning. I expect to almost exclusively charge at home on the lower off peak rates.

 

[jimfigler]

I gotta be honest. I have yet to see any savings from owning my 2024 Lightning extended range Lariat. The first month cost me roughly $100 to charge that was the month of December. January it looks like about $200 a month to charge. Can somebody please explain where the savings are?I love the truck but wow it’s expensive to power up!

So funny this came up today. I did the math yesterday since Dec 2022. Used 13734 kwh according to my emporia vue. 7.5 cents on average so $1030. 28000 miles with my old vehicle at 21 mpg is about 1330 gallons @ $3.25 is $4322, Saved $3292 in 2 years

 

[THX1138]

I gotta be honest. I have yet to see any savings from owning my 2024 Lightning extended range Lariat. The first month cost me roughly $100 to charge that was the month of December. January it looks like about $200 a month to charge. Can somebody please explain where the savings are?I love the truck but wow it’s expensive to power up!

I have solar on my garage roof. Not a lot of panels but enough to generate about 10,000 free miles of driving every year. Of course I pay more to charge in the winter, but I get it back in the summer.

Other savings: with regen breaking, I don't expect to pay as much in maintenance and replacing break pads.

 

[TaxmanHog]

New England, what state & city & utility rate $ per kWh?

 

[kayak1]

Time to move to Maine $0.11 kWh (heat pump rate, solar in the summer).

 

[Evlar77]

I've been an EV owner for seven years and have had varied cars/homes in that time so I've learned a few things.

1. Owning an EV makes the most sense if you can purchase it for a similar price as an ICE equivalent. If it's 10k more then you won't make this up in savings most likely.

2. Home charging is the best way to save. Many power companies are now offering special EV programs if you own your home and have a garage. For instance, in FL l have FPL and their EVolution program includes a charger, install and unlimited electric for $31 a month. That's huge for me.

3. Is your commute long enough that your home charging can provide savings over gas? If your daily commute is only 10 miles, there's not much opportunity to save. I drive 100 miles a day, so I'd spend $600 a month on an ICE F150. Instead I spend $31 a month in electricity. Big savings for me.

4. The more you home charge, the better your opportunity to save. There's little to no fuel savings on DC fast charging from gas, but there are still some locations that are 30 cents per kwh, but the Fast charging range of cost is pretty substantial depending on the location and provider.

5. Service and maintenance. Definitely can save money here. No oil changes and less moving parts. Most EVs are pretty well made. I've had very few issues and none that weren't covered under warranty.

6. Road tripping. EVs don't have the range of many larger gas vehicles. So if you take a lot of long road trips that require DC fast charging the stopping, charging, waiting can be frustrating for some. It works best when you enter your route ahead of time and see the stops and prepare yourself for the added time so you're not upset about it.

Anyhow that's been my experience. EVs fit my life quite well, but admittedly they're not for everyone. If you can't charge at home or work for free or low cost, I wouldn't recommend them in that scenario. Good luck!

 

[spacepirate]

Don't forget the $ (and time) that you save from not needing to do ICE-type maintenance like oil changes, etc.

I've owned EVs of one kind or another since 2013 and significantly lower maintenance costs is one of the best hidden benefits of owning an EV. There are just a lot fewer moving parts that need to be taken care of.

 

[JvdMaat]

Yeah, Mass is expensive. I did the math on my wife's old 2014 F150 vs her new Lightning. At current gas prices ($3/gallon), her old truck doing 15mpg, and the Lightning doing 1.6mi/kWh.
Going off that, it cost about $0.20 per mile in gas, which is $0.32 in gas to get 1.6 miles.
And we pay $0.33 per kWh at home. So the Lightning EV is actually more expensive to charge at home than her gas vehicle was. That really caught me off guard until I saw Average energy prices for the United States, regions, census divisions, and selected metropolitan areas : Midwest Information Office : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Owning an EV is cheaper than gas everywhere except New England, California, and Hawaii (potentially depending on their gas prices.. Those are also higher)
All the places online that say EVs are cheaper to charge at home than gas never mention the caveat of the few states where electricity is more expensive or on par with gas prices.
(At the efficiencies (15mpg vs 1.6mi/kWh), electricity should be less than 10% of the cost of gas to make home charging cheaper (so if gas is $3, you need to pay less than $0.30 for electricity. If gas is $4, you can pay as much as $0.40 to break even))

 

[Joe Dablock]

From my 2 and a half years of owning 2 electric cars (22MME 60k miles and 23 Lightning 31k miles) I have found tremendous fuel savings if I charge at home, but for retail purchased charging the savings is minor. If I had to do all retail charging, I probably would not own EVs. The MME’s EPA rating is 100mpg and the Lightning EPA rating is 70mpg. These numbers seem pretty realistic for home charging. But in the 2 and a half years, I have also saved about $2k in periodic maintenance. Based on EV EPA ratings and the EPA ratings of the vehicles they replaced (25 mpg and 15 mpg), I estimate that I have saved $10k in fuel costs. $12k savings total so far!

So far both vehicles have performed flawlessly. But once these vehicles are out of warranty, any major repair could wipe this savings away. This is the great unknown!

I looked into extended warranty, but their monthly cost and their max mileage (175k) just didn’t motivate me to take that route. I’m gambling that both vehicles will make it to 175k miles without a major repair and after that I will drive them until they die and then throw them away!

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