Will Public Electric Car Charging Become More Expensive Than Gas?

I expect public charging cost will necessarily be higher than the residential electric rate. There's the cost of the charger to amortize, and the nature of fast charging is that when somebody wants to charge, then you need a couple hundred kW to do it. Compare that to a typical house with 200 Amp service that can consume a peak of 44 kW (at 220 volts) before blowing the main breaker. That's a lot of energy to draw from the grid during peak demand, or late at night when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

It's a different deal if you can leave your car plugged whenever it's not in use, and the grid can charge it when there's cheap energy to spare. If you need to charge now and fast, the price should be higher because of the higher demand it places on the infrastructure (ie, we'll need to build more coal plants to meet demand

 

#1 this is a regional thing - nothing new to see here ...
#2 If New England electricity is expensive (& from reading - it's gone up >40% in some areas of the region since last year) - all you need do, is follow the money.
#3 the OP's article tells you who the electricity provider is - & from there, you can find the parent company.
#4 The power providers there are just another bunch overpaid executives - VP's to CEO's - all making 12 million to 20 million/yr salary / bonuses.
#5 Overpaid fat cats get bonuses by cutting costs way down. Hey! surely those transformers can last a few more years - wink wink.
#6 Need another bonus? Caught with your "maintenance failure" shorts down? Blame it on the 1% - plug in drivers. Yes!! That's what they're actually doing. "We gotta have more infrastructure money from those rich plug-in people - as they're taxing our pooor grid ".

Keep adding those solar roofs - you new england people, because you'll never stop the fat cats. But you can put the problem back on them, by zeroing out your own electric bills via solar, in many cases. It's not a perfect solution, because the alternative is to go up against City Hall. Good luck with that.
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The opposite is likely to be true because it's true now.

EIA - Electricity Data

Residential (<50kW): ~13 cents/kWh
Commercial (50kW - ~10MW): ~ 11 cents/kWh
Industrial (1MW - ~250MW): ~ 7.25 cents/kWh

 

A couple observations: A factory has set work shifts, and you know it's going to be using a relatively fixed amount of power during that shift adjusted for heat and A/C loads due to weather, which you can somewhat predict. I'm not sure EV charging will be this predictable. Certainly individual EV owners will be completely unpredictable.

So, combine the fact that you never know when an individual EV owner is going to need to take an emergency trip out of state and needs a fast 50 kWh of energy, and that businesses make a profit, and I don't see a public charging station selling electricity for much under 25 cents, even if they're only paying 7.25 cents before markup.

 

i don't think you can make a case for one being more expensive than the other, over time and geography.
both fluctuate and have regional differences, so it's only a matter of living with whatever it is.
at least ev owners have the solar option at home in some cases. for gasoline, i've never found an alternative.

 

Then they won't exist.

 

the mark up on commercial charging will depend on electrical cost, infrastructure and operating costs, and competition. no one can predict it.

 

if big oil is buying up public charging, that can be a problem, and will require ftc oversight for collusion.
in the end, it will give tesla another advantage over ev's made by companies who do not support public charging.

 

Allow me to clarify my comments: I'm speaking specifically to "public" charging, which in my mind is fast charging with a business model similar to a gas station. Or like the Tesla supercharger network. If you want something fast and on demand, it's going to cost more. And you can estimate that cost using multiples of current electric prices. I happened to pick about 3x. You can't give away electricity at cost if you want to pay for installing and maintaining the charger, plus the usual business costs, and come away with a meaningful profit at the end.

If you have an EV that's sitting idle 90% of the time (like most cars), then you should be charging overnight at home, or at work during the day (if your employer offers if), etc. This is how you, the consumer, get low cost electricity for your EV and have a reasonable chance to pay much less per mile than you would in gasoline.

 

agreed. they have to sell for more than they pay, if they want to stay in business.

 

The markup on gas at gas stations is around 10%, which is a far cry from the "3x" suggested by tpenny67.

 

i suppose volume helps, or other income. a lot have turned to convenience stores with the pumps, and no mechanic.

 

I'll admit I don't understand the gas station business model. The gas is a loss leader to get you in so you buy lottery tickets and cigarettes and such:

Coffee, bread are how gas stations really profit - Business - Retail | NBC News

Parking garages and hotels may take a similar approach with EV charging: Cheap or free electrons while you pay $5 a hour for parking.

 

my local mobile owner says he adds 20 cents onto what he pays for a gallon. he's typically high, but i don't know if they all pay the same. some stations may be corporately owned. he makes a good living on the service end, and lottery tickets.

 

the majority of plugins are running around the landscape of Cali .... & it seems the eia website is silent on Cali electricity average costs - which are at BEST, convoluted when it comes to commercial & industrial power rates .... different rates for power in different counties, different times of use, even season & average temps.
That said, yes, generally commercial & industrial rates (speaking Cali) are 'better' than residential, but there's a trick. MAJOR tack-ons. From high voltage transformer fees to kV discounts, to (my favorite) peak 'demand' fees - where (in one acquaintance's county & his large business size) in addition to the per/kWh charge, SoCal edison may charge DOLLARS per kWh, sometimes based on small surges no more than 1kWh during certain times.

One plug in owner from our SoCal group here who is also a business owner ( >250kWh/month, AND <30kWh e/hour w/no spike, ever lasting longer than ¼hr) says recently he went over his businesses' maximum peak by just ½kWh . It jacked the Co's biz for the next 3 months by 4 figures. Here's a screenshot from SCE's Rosemead corporate headquarters showing just a little of Edison's rate fluctuations;


There are over 20 different commercial /industrial rate schedules on their website turning on flat rates, tou, general service business size, monthly quantity, & peak draw. Each document averages about 15 pages long. Then there's another whole set where you can get discounts if you allow the utility company to shut down some of your appliances. Are you a Central Valley farmer with lots of multi 100 HP water pumps? You can get a great deal if you can avoid pumping water at the whim of SCE shutting them off whenever they want .
So yeah, they get power for just a few pennies, but there are lots of fine print. This is why you never see standalone DC quick Chargers around here, like little photo kiosks. The electric bill for a little solo company would kill you. BUT if you have a major strip mall, or multiple high-rises, constantly running elevators & other huge equipment draws, the cost of an extra 30 to 50kW's spiking may be no big deal.
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Public charging is already more expensive than gas in my region. When I charge at home, it's at about $.12/kwh (~$.03/mile). With the gas engine running, I get >50mpg @ ~$3/gallon (~$.06/mi).

The last time I charged at ChargePoint, it cost me $2.86 for 1.25kWh ($2.28/kWh or ~$.57/mi), almost 10x my current per-mile cost for gas.

Needless to say, I haven't been back to a ChargePoint station since my free credit expired.

 

Today was the first time I went to a public charging station and couldn't charge because both stations were occupied. Forgoing the 12 minute charge I would have gotten was replaced by about 2 minutes of charge mode to make it home.

 

When I first got my Fiat 500e, I located two nearby free locations to charge. I quickly learned that it usually wasn’t worth the $$ for the free charge. I’d have to buy a $3-4 cup of coffee, snacks or other junk while waiting for a meaningful “free” charge. I think it would be about the same when I get my Prime.