Real electric car charging costs creep back above the price to fuel gas vehicles

The latest EV charging cost comparison against the fueling of gas vehicles made with the Anderson Economic Group's real-world methodology brings bad news for midrange electric car owners for the first time in 18 months. The direct expenditures to travel 100 miles in a midrange gas-powered car last quarter were US$11.29, whereas even with a predominantly home charging schedule, it took the average electric car driver US$11.60 to cover the same distance.

The price gap to drive an electric car becomes even larger if its owner used mostly commercial chargers instead of charging at home. In this case, for example on longer road trips, it cost 27% more to charge the average electric car than to fuel a gas car. The AEG methodology takes into account several variables, such as the prices of gas or electricity, the costs to operate a fuel pump or EV charger, as well as state excise taxes and the deadhead miles needed to drive to a station, in order to arrive at the real-world fueling expenditures for both types of powertrains.

When premium gas-powered vehicles are compared with performance electric cars, however, the Q4 calculations are in favor of the EVs. The average luxury ICE vehicle consumed close to US$20 worth of energy expenditures to travel one hundred miles, while premium electric cars were at US$16 even with predominantly commercial charging. The caveat is that, while the calculations are done with the average 12,000 miles per year scenario and the regular 5-year amortization schedule for the home charging equipment, the expenditures are based on the Michigan taxes and price of gas or electricity.

Still, back in the fall when energy price inflation was rampant, Tesla drastically increased the Supercharger rates in California, bringing the price to charge its electric cars on par with the fueling of legacy vehicles there, too. The Supercharger rates have subsequently fallen both in the US and Europe, but so has the price of gas, so it remains to be heard if this quarter it would still be slightly cheaper to fuel an ICE midranger than an electric car.

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