Filling up for $2, no problem if you have an EV

These days there is a lot of ink being spilled over the economics of EVs. Some of it better written than others. Even the “pro-wallet” Canadian Taxpayer’s federation has chimed in (source), claiming it will cost “billions-of-dollars” to have us all driving EVs. Then we have the Toronto-star reporting monthly savings of more than $500 per month (source). Confused yet? Well there is a lot of nuance to it, but a much simpler problem is to look at the “cost-of-filling up”, so lets start there. We find that with our 2018 Nissan Leaf, cost of filing up from empty to full can be less than $2.

Generally EVs are cheap to run, but cost more to buy. For example, my Nissan Leaf, costs about $2 to fill up from near empty. Lets explore this. To start with, from “a few percent” indicated state of charge, to 100 % indicated state of charge, is about 32 kWh worth of electricity. While the Leaf has a 40 kWh indicated capacity, about 10% of the top is only accessible under ideal conditions, and the other 10% is kept in reserve “below-zero”, which leaves 32 kWh.

There is a lot of nuance to EV economics, the price for that 1 kWh varies quite a bit, (more on that here https://electriccaradventures.ca/2022/08/08/cost-of-fuel-electrons-vs-gas/), but using my home charger at the ultra-low overnight rate I access the cheapest rates around 3 c/kWh (source), to which we add 2.5 c/kWh transmission charge, so, 32 kWh * 5.5c/kWh = 176 c < $2.

While newer EVs have larger capacity batteries, which naturally might cost a bit more to charge up, hence you are likely to cross that $2 threshold. For example, the 87 kWh gross capacity Nissan Aryia would set yo back about $5 (source).

Also, I am admittedly ignoring the cost of the home-charger. Which cost me about $2000, mostly owning to the 40 m distance from the panel to the garage, and that armoured outdoor rated cable is pricy. But, over 10 year life, assuming 20k km, and 5km/kWh efficiency, we arrive at 5c/kWh charger cost, which interestingly, is more than the cost of the electricity, but still, a far cry from $25 a gas car driver would pay for the same 200 km, I can get out of my Leaf (source), and a lot more convenient as I just plug in my car in my garage, no gas station trip required.