How much does it cost to charge electric cars? Low rate to travel unit distance is an advantage of an electric vehicle compared to an internal combustion engine vehicle.
Have you read how economical an electric car is?
Battery Electric vehicles are a green vehicle having zero tailpipe emission. As we know, an internal combustion engine burns the fuel and converts chemical energy to mechanical energy to move the conventional vehicle.
Combustion of fossil fuels pollutes the environment. Burning of 1 liter of gasoline emits around 2.3 kg of carbon dioxide!
An electric car typically travels 5km for 1kWh of electricity. Tesla users statistics and review shows an average 200Wh energy consumption for 1 km journey.
How much does it cost to charge an electric car? Cost to charge an electric vehicle mainly depends on the price of electricity.
If the unit price of electricity is more, the cost to charge an electric vehicle will also be more.
Cost to charge electric cars
Electric car batteries stores electric energy to propel the vehicle. The capacity of the battery decides how long an electric vehicle travels.
Cost of battery constitutes the lion share on the initial cost of an electric vehicle.
Electricity is being generated from different sources.
- Hydel power station
- Thermal power station
- Solar power stations
- Windmills
- From tidal energy
Electricity is also generated from fossil fuels which are non-renewable. Renewable sources of energy such as sun, wind, etc. reduce environmental pollution.
Energy cost from non-renewable sources is more than that of the cost of electricity from renewable sources.
An electric car charges from charging stations. As we discussed earlier, there are three types of electric vehicle charging stations – home-based, private, and public charging stations.
Sometimes a private charging station provides charging facility for an EV for free. In this calculation of electricity cost to charge an EV, we are making a few assumptions.
Anyway,
Let’s have a few valid assumptions to calculate the cost to charge electric cars.
- Unit electricity prices around $0.11 in the US
- An electric car consumes 15kWh energy to travel 100km
- The efficiency of the charging circuit is 88%
- Average distance traveled by car is 21560km
Cost to charge an electric car is divided into 3
- #1 Cost to charge electric cars to travel 1km
- #2 Cost to charge the battery fully
- #3 Cost to charge an electric car for a year
#1 Cost to charge electric cars to travel 1km
Now let’s see how much it costs to charge electric cars.
The efficiency of the charging circuit is 85 to 92%. We take efficiency as 88%. It requires 150Wh to travel 1km. To charge 150Wh with an efficiency of 88% needs 150/0.88 Wh electricity. It’s 170.45Wh.
So energy price would be 170.45*0.11/1000 = $ 0.0187
To travel 1km electricity cost would be $ 0.0187
#2 Cost to fully charge the battery
The battery capacity of an electric vehicle is not unique. For example, Tesla Model S has a battery capacity of 75kWh. The total cost of electricity to charge the battery from 0 to full capacity (in any case if it happens) is $9.375.
Nissan leaf with 30kWh capacity needs $3.75 to fully charge the battery.
#3 Cost to charge an electric car for a year
How do we calculate the average cost to charge an electric car for a year? The distance traveled by car in a year varies vehicle by vehicle and year by year.
But statistics show a passenger car travels around 21560 km per year in united states. With the assumption (which is not a simple guess) we can calculate the energy cost to charge an EV throughout a year.
The electricity cost to charge an EV for a year is about $403.17.
Conclusion
Electric cars travel using electricity as the energy source. Cost to travel unit distance in an electric vehicle is less than that in a conventional vehicle.
With valid assumptions of electricity cost, the efficiency of charging circuits, and energy consumption per unit kilometer, the total price of electricity to charge an EV is around $0.0187.
Key points
- Cost to charge an electric vehicle is less than that to fill gasoline in a conventional vehicle
- Running cost of electric cars is lesser than that of IC engine vehicles
- It costs $0.0187 to travel 1km