How Much Does It Cost To: “Charge An Electric Vehicle” Versus “Refuel A Gas Powered Vehicle” in 2022?
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Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly appealing to motorists who are fed up with spending more than $4 per gallon on gas.
Electricity prices have risen in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, notably in those sections of the United States that had been key markets for Tesla’s electric vehicles.
Assuming all other expenses are similar, electric and hybrid cars are simply less expensive to operate than their gas-only equivalents. But, of course, not all costs are equivalent. According to automotive experts, you’ll have to wait years before your fuel savings outweigh the extra money you invested in the vehicle.
It’s been true for years: recharging an electric car is cheaper – typically considerably cheaper – than recharging one with an internal-combustion engine.
That begs the question: Is it still true that refueling an EV is substantially cheaper? The graphs below assist us in determining the answer:
The truth is that filling your gas tank still costs more than charging your EV’s battery.
In several other US cities, such as Boston and San Francisco, electricity tariffs have generally kept pace with gas price hikes. However, over the last several months, adding 100 miles of range to an internal-combustion car has grown more expensive in the United States than charging an EV for the same period of time.
Let’s take another example shall we:
We used the Vehicle Cost Calculator to analyze the cost of driving four 2021 sedans in city settings for a week, each with a little more than 200 horsepower.
To keep things simple, we assumed that gasoline would cost $4.30 per gallon, just like it does now, and that no travel would take place on roads. We calculated that each automobile would go around 200 miles each week, or 28.6 miles per day.
Furthermore, we considered the car would be charged at home at current domestic utility rates (currently about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour). Using charging stations near roads may be considerably more expensive and boost spending dramatically.
What we’ve got:
With an annual fuel (or electricity) cost of $281, or $5.40 per week, the all-electric Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus rear-wheel drive was by far the cheapest vehicle to operate.
The Honda Clarity, a plug-in hybrid, came in second with an annual power cost of $363, or $6.99 per week. No fuel was used in our example because this plug-in hybrid can operate on electricity for 47 miles before transitioning to gas-engine mode.
The Toyota Avalon XLE Hybrid, a classic hybrid, is significantly more expensive to operate. Each week, the Avalon was consuming 4.7 gallons of petrol, or $20, bringing the yearly fuel expense to $1,041 for 242 gallons. Despite this, the Avalon’s electric motor allowed it to earn a fantastic 43 mpg.
Lastly, the gas-only Lexus ES 250 used eight gallons of gas every week, totaling $34.4. Over the course of a year, it equates to 416 gallons at a cost of $1,791. The fuel economy dropped to 25 mpg, yet it was still better than many modern vehicles, trucks, and vans.
These comparisons proved what many people already know: fully electric vehicles are the cheapest to operate.
Will this situation changes?
Is it probable that this will change? While oil prices are guaranteed to drop in the next few months as suppliers raise output, it’s doubtful that energy prices will rise sufficiently to make electric vehicles less cheap during their lifetimes than internal-combustion vehicles.
According to Jeffries analyst David Kelley, the total lifetime cost of ownership of an electric car is around $4,700 cheaper than that of an internal-combustion vehicle, based on February statistics. Over the next several years, he believes the cost differential will widen as more electric cars hit the market and battery prices continue to decline.
