Gas vs Electric Cost, tipping point

There are more reasons than economic ones (like ecological ones including lower pollution, selfish ones like driving feel, practical ones like the ability to plug in where you happen to be, common sense ones like the time you have available to charge or fill up, etc.) to choose gas vs electric.

Don't overthink it. Like the Prime manual says...charge it when you can. You're driving one of the most efficient and lowest polluting vehicles in the world regardless of fuel source.

But since you are thinking in terms of money cost:

In New Jersey, and most of the world, electricity is cheaper than gas when charging at home. Tipping point? Approximately 20 cents a kilowatt is competitive with today's just about $3 per gallon prices, so, with New Jersey's average rate of around 16 cents per kilowatt, it's cheaper to plug in at home if you can. (Of course, people in New Jersey have an relatively cheap gas, and they may have a hard time learning how to plug in, since they aren't allowed to pump their own gas . I'm kidding, but remember that you weren't even allowed to buy a Tesla in New Jersey until 2015 )


Charging on the road? It's a crapshoot (the dice term...we're being classy here!) For a Prius Prime, charging on the road with a public charger is typically either totally free, or significantly more expensive than driving on gas (if they are billed by the hour).

 

You're on the right track in post #2, @lmans66. It's even more accurate, once you have a few tanks for a database, to figure your miles per gallon with the price of gas and the miles per kWh with the cost of electricity. I find in my PiP that it's about 3 cents a mile on electric and about 5 cents on gas at our present prices.

 

This discussion has come up numerous time in PC. For example, see:
Gas or electric where is the break Even Point | PriusChat
To plug-in or not to plug-in... | PriusChat

For me, living in very high electric rate area, at current rate of gas, I am right about break-even point. Given a choice, I'd rather plug-in and run on EV than HV. It is much smoother and quieter, and no emission. Choice is yours, that is the nice thing about PHEV, unlike regular hybrid or pure EV.

 

Most of the ones I see charge either by the kilowatt-hour or by the hour. The ones I'm seeing here in Oregon currently seem to be charging about 18-22 cents per kilowatt-hour. (By contrast, residential power in our area is about 9-10 cents per kWh, we do have cheaper electricity than most folks.) That would make it roughly the same as using gas, or maybe *slightly* cheaper. If you figure 4 miles per kilowatt-hour, at 20 cents per you'd be paying 5 cents a mile using a public charger at that rate. With gas at $3 per gallon and (say) 50 MPG to make the math easier, you're paying 6 cents a mile to use gasoline. So in this case, if you have the time to spare for the charging, using EV and charging up is probably slightly cheaper, but not by a whole lot.

Roughly speaking using "quick napkin math": If you can get 50 MPG in HV and 4 miles per kWh in EV mode, the break-even point is when a gallon of gas is about 50/4 = 12.5x more than the cost of one kWh (though each person has to find their own equilibrium based on "plugging in" [no pun intended] their own economy results in HV and EV). So when a charging station wants 20 cents per kWh, in this example that is more economical than using HV when gas is more than $2.50 a gallon.

 

i drive ev as much as possible, and pay no attention to gas or electron prices. if i wanted to save money, i'd be driving a yaris.

 

I mostly agree, I wanted a PHEV for reasons that go beyond cheaper operation per mile (i.e. the quiet operation and the "greener" aspect of it). But this thread was specifically about the cost and where the "tipping point" is in terms of choosing to plug in or use EV mode.

That said, even if I have EV capacity left if I'm about to drive quite a few miles on the interstate, I'm probably going to switch to HV mode unless I have enough EV capacity left to get home and charge up (and I won't be going anywhere for at least a few hours).

 

i know, it's about the 50th thread on the piping point since prime came out. and there are 50 more over in pip country.
don't mind me, it's too early to start tippling.

 

Don't forget you can avoid the warm up penalty for short trips by plugging in.

 

good point! short trips would have a whole different tipping point.

 

We have a 2016 Volt. Here on the northwestern Oregon Coast our electric rate per KWH, is $.114. This is computed by the entire bill, what you pay, with all taxes, surcharges, delivery fees, etc., divided by the KWH used. Gasoline, reg. 87 octane at Costco in Warrenton Oregon is the least expensive anywhere in the area at $3.099 per gallon.

Our Volt when running just on gas has been averaging for the month 56 mpg, and 4.5 miles per KWH on electric. Electric is still the least expensive fuel in our case. A full charge of electric, 16 KWH, this includes the estimated 2 KWH for charging losses cost $ 1.83 for a full charge with a usable 14 KWH.

14 KWH X 4.5 miles = 63 miles cost ($1.83). Gas to drive 56 miles = cost ($3.099).

This is summer driving, of course electric range drops to about 45 miles of range in the dead of winter, and gas mpg to about 50 mpg or so. When gas dipped below $2/ gallon and electric was the same price, $.114 / KWH, during winter it was basically the same cost to drive on gas as electric..

 

Wow!!! I really need to move. Here in California, we pay between $0.21-$0.27/ kWh!! Gas is about $3.50 so it seems to be close to a wash.


iPhone ?

 

yeah, but think of what you'd be giving up.

 

Subtle reminder:



Just one example of a California weekend.

 

Who's your electricity supplier? I have PSEG and it comes out roughly .165/kWh for me.

 

It is quite simple to calculate for me. With gas, I get a little more than 50 miles per gallon. Give the $3.5 gas price, the gas cost is 7c/mile.

With EV mode, I got 5 miles per kWh, and the electricity price is 27C, then my cost 5.4c/mile.

Yeah, I know the price is cray, thanks to Democratic Republic of California.

 

That's right - for short trips on gas alone, the Prime can still deliver in the low 40's thanks to the warm-up cycle - so for short trips, make sure to compare the breakeven point to, let's say, a 40 MPG car. In that case, even Bisco's $.24/kWh electric rate starts looking good in comparison to gas prices a little under $3/gallon... and it's zero emissions in town and the engine gets less wear and tear.

 

that's why my wife uses my car instead of her hycam for anything within ev range. keeps her mpg average up as well.