Need help calculating electric cost for 2024 Prius Prime in L.A

Americans are spoiled for gas prices. Even at 5 USD thats a steal at peak of 2022. Where I live, gas in 2022 peaked at an equivalent of about 6 USD per gallon for 87 which is the standard available ofc.

Financially, with the spread between electricity rates and gas prices in the US, especially given just how much of the US electrical grid isn't green/renewable/nuclear, its probably not even environmentally friendly to run an EV or PHEV down there in most of the country. I'd probably own just an HEV if I lived there. The same can be said for some parts of Canada too, but much of the most populous areas have hydro/nuclear for most of their load.

Though, the more recent provincial government of Ontario killed a bunch of our renewable electricity contracts for massive solar and wind farms, and funded natural gas power plants to support base load instead. Thankfully they decided to refurbish and fund new nuclear projects in the last year or so vs shutting down those reactors and moving away from nuclear where hydro isn't available. So at least we can keep a more green grid overall for a long time coming.

Personally, I live in a city with hydro electric, and it runs me about CAD 7.4c/kwh. Compared to our previous car we're spending 75% less on energy (gas/electric combined) to run the car. Of course, the previous car was a 2003 Matrix, so not exactly a gas sipper at 21 years of age. And sure, technically the comparison should be to a prius vs a prime to see the cost differential, but given we wanted to reduce our emissions footprint and want to be green too, I figure, its better to compare to the car that used to be the daily driver instead. Heck the cost of getting a 240v charger installed is actually bad for just the one PHEV since it is so cheap to just sit even with the inefficiency of L1, on a 120v in the garage overnight. If we had 2 cars to charge, then having the ability to load share for 2 of them for a higher rate would make it worth it. But even at 15% inefficiency, its 8.5c per charged kwh on a battery that pulls maybe 11kwh of true charge? So less than a dollar. It would take a LOT of charges to make that less than 15c per charge make up the roughly 1500-2000 for the electrical work plus EVSE to run a L2 in our one car garage. To do that kind of retro, we'd need a 2 car EVSE to future proof us, and one of the cables would need to be long enough to run under the garage door for the driveway...

Financially, the car has payments of course (and barring those opportunity cost for the fixed expenditure). But the 5k federal tax rebate applied at point of sale made it cost about the same as a regular prius just without AWD and plus EV range. Then with the annual carbon tax increase, and factoring in what we spend on the direct levies related to the gas we do buy plus natural gas for heating, we get one free car payment a year through the rebate system given our current energy consumption levels. Which is really, quite nice.

What I'm getting at really is that the incentives to switch to a greener vehicle in lots of Canada but especially where I live in Ontario, are definitely there. They're also there in Quebec, since they have a more generous at time of sale rebate than we do offering a provincial as well as federal option. They don't get the carbon tax rebate though since they don't have a carbon tax. Their province implemented a cap and trade carbon program, (the one my province chopped along with green energy projects) that was partnered with California. They get those carbon credits as revenue for social programs and other green investments (like more renewables, retrofit grants, green vehicle and charging infrastructure subsidies etc) vs direct rebates which is the federal program for provinces that don't have their own programs. I think B.C. also has a pretty generous subsidy for green vehicles too.

And importantly Canada recognizes PHEV as "zero emission" vehicles, and I think the US is changing their definition to include PHEVs also. Which will be a big boon to the whole "all new cars are electric cars by 2035" thing which is mirrored on both sides of the border. Purely wanting BEVs to hit that metric was always imo a fool's game. But if we factor in PHEVs, its super achievable. I could see nearly every consumer level vehicle having a decent 75-100km range battery in them by then, with grids being able to sustain overnight charging on 120-240v for everyone to charge their new cars as the older ICE ones begin to phase out. Since, obviously, there won't be an overnight burning of every ICE as soon as 2035 hits.

 

IMHO; on modern ECU driven ICE cars - the ECU will compensate for lower octane levels, unlike old school mechanical carburetors. That's assuming all the engine sensors are working properly.

 

It should compensate for it, and if staying at altitude it should not be an issue, but if anything fails or if I drive down the plateau with lower octane fuel, that is bad news for the engine. It’s just something I’m not willing to risk, even if other Colorado drivers have no issue with it.

One perspective on this:

For my car, the engine is specced for 87, so that’s what goes in it at any altitude, no more and no less. I see it as controlling at least one variable for engine longevity.

 

I've had more troubles with the higher octane gas. I think it's because everyone with a big pickup (that runs on gasoline) is buying the cheapest stuff they can. That leaves the stuff that's been sitting in the tanks at the gas station for too long waiting for me to come along and try to use it.

Also, Colorado had some of the worst winter gasoline for too many years. In driving there to visit the family for Christmas I'd make sure to top off in Cheyenne on the way down and fill up there on the way back home again. That MTBE was terrible.

 

i got 200k miles on my engine and no issues and i do 85 whenever i see it...