When to NOT use electric...

[Dubbs]

Bit of help -

A the moment we only charge of a night and utilise the E7 rate we have to get a charge at 4.8p/KW - however my wife is still finding she needs to supplement this with £40 of petrol a week.

I have avoided top ups during the day as our day rate is 11.5p/kw but am now wondering if actually keeping topped up on lecky is the way forward.

My wife seems to think that if she can have the car charged up during the ay as well then it'll pretty much always run on electric during the week.

Anyone else done calculations on this? Is electric ALWAYS the cheaper option than using petrol, regardless of being on E7 dual tariffs?

Thanks

 

[jaapv]

This depends on how much you pay for your electricity, and for your petrol, and the way you use your car and at what speeds, so trying to answer this question requires a rather complicated algorithm...

 

[orkneydave]

I think you'd be better running on leccy as much as possible. Your rates seem quite low compared with mine (I've just changed from 16.45p flat rate to 12p flat rate). I calculated that even at my old rate my running cost would be around 1/3 the cost on leccy than on petrol. I've only just confirmed my order today so haven't actually tried this in real life but anything has to be better than the 25mpg my wife gets with the disco!

Also, I'm not sure about what happens if you unplug half way through a charge and run?

 

[maby]

The arithmetic is not very complex! A charge is worth about half a gallon of petrol more or less - about £2.50 at current UK prices. A charge consumes about 10kWh of electricity. Therefore, the break point is approximately 25p per kWh - if you pay less than that for your electricity supply, then EV running is cheaper than petrol. I have not paid much attention to electricity prices recently, but I doubt anyone is paying more than 13 or 14p per kWh, so we should all be better off on EV. The figures may be significantly different for public charging facilities - their pricing has been changing recently to the point where many of them don't make much sense for a PHEV with its small battery.

 

[geoffshep69]

Exact calculations will vary depending on usage patterns, but I’d say that as a general rule it should pretty much always be cheaper to run on electric than petrol.

A full charge is around 10KwH, so that will cost you approximately £1.15. A gallon of unleaded is around £5.50, and realistically you can expect to get an average of 35 miles per gallon. Therefore, with a full charge costing about one fifth of the cost of a gallon of petrol, you only need to be achieving 7 miles of EV range to start being ‘in profit’. Even in winter, you should be able to get at least 15 miles range from a charge.

 

[MikkB]

Very roughly;

1 full charge at 12p per KWh costs about £1.20 and will give you 20-30 miles range depending on conditions, so say on average 25 miles.

25 miles would take about 0.7 of a gallon of petrol depending on driving conditions (25/35mpg) @ £5.50 per gallon = £3.90

Therefore petrol power costs on average over 3x as much as electric power, even more when you charge on cheaper rate. Plug her in .

 

[Paule23]

I've always worked on the assumption that cost per mile for electricity is about 1/3 of the petrol cost assuming 10-12p kw/h.

As mentioned, about £1.20 for a full charge, in winter driving probably 20 miles, so 6p per mile.

Petrol cost around £5.20/gallon, say 30 miles/gallon urban driving, 17.3p/mile.

Leccy about 1/3 cost/mile than petrol. Get that thing plugged in during the day!

 

[Vijay]

We have a flat rate of 12.9p per Kw/h and top up the charge at least 3 times a day plus an over night full charge.

Mainly town driving during the week, approx. 50 miles a day, so running 98% on EV with motorway's on some weekends when this drops to 45%.

Significantly cheaper to run on electric then on fuel.

BTW - We looked into going E7 and it worked out slightly more expensive as we charge during the day, however, it was still cheaper than using fuel.

 

[Dubbs]

Thanks chaps

 

[Tipper]

....E7 rate we have to get a charge at 4.8p/KW ....our day rate is 11.5p/kw

Who offers that tariff?

Your day rate seems low to me.

 

[Vijay]

....E7 rate we have to get a charge at 4.8p/KW ....our day rate is 11.5p/kw

Who offers that tariff?

Your day rate seems low to me.

Agreed - Best I saw was 16.9p/KW day rate which was what put me off E7

 

[Dubbs]

Scottish power “Help beat cancer fixed price energy” tariff

 

[martini]

....E7 rate we have to get a charge at 4.8p/KW ....our day rate is 11.5p/kw

Who offers that tariff?

Your day rate seems low to me.

I agree, must be having a very high standing charge day rate.

 

[Hypermiler]

Just looked at their prices for that tarif applicable from oct 2017 - nowhere near that. 8 or 9 p night rate minimum
Your day rate is cheaper than most people's normal rate - can't believe you've been using petrol in preference - Get plugged in!

 

[Dubbs]

Great to know, thanks!

 

[Barrington]

You lucky B's In Germany we pay about € 0,27 / KWh, which is about UK PDS 0,24 / KWh. and Petrol today is € 1,30 / Liter. (UKP 1,16 / L)
It makes everything electric a lot less attractive. I have a PV System on my Roof so it is not so bad for me.

Barry

 

[jaapv]

In the Netherlands: Petrol 1.60/litre, electricity 13 - 18 Ec/KWh. - And crazily expensive at public chargers.

 

[Brumgav]

Just been looking at some electricity tariffs here in the U.K., particularly the Economy 7 tariffs which offer cheaper electricity for 7 hours of the night.

Ebico have some good deals depending on your home electricity usage including one that has a zero Night rate, however you can’t use more than 60% of your daily usage at night.

Prices are per KWh and plus VAT (displayed in pence).

Ebico Zero Fixed Tariff - Day 20.8025p,Night 7.6023p, Standing charge Zero per day

Ebico Night Owl v2 - Day 16.5953, Night 0p, standing charge 131.10p per day

Do check their website if you want more information

OneSelect looks to be very reasonable too (inc VAT), Day 14.04p, Night 7.842p, Standing 23.02p

Again check out their website for more information

 

[Tipper]

Those day tariffs are high if you at home all day!

Being retired we're mostly home during the day and use the PHEV locally a couple of times most days plugging in after every trip so it's ready for the next.
We did the sums on charging overnight on Economy 7 but found that the higher day rate not only cost us significantly more for daytime electricity it also would have stopped us charging during the day too.
Our night time usage is mainly the fridge/freezer and standby/chargers, etc, and not much else during the off-peak period after midnight. All house lighting is LED based so low energy and heating is gas fired although we are thinking of adding a heat pump to the underfloor heating for use in the spring and autumn 'shoulders', but still no real electricity usage overnight.

 

[ChrisMiller]

We're in the same position, Tipper. I'm on a fixed OneSelect (mentioned by Brumgav) 'all day' tariff at 12.05p (inc VAT).