ICE v Electric: Cost and Emissions

MC2 said:
It means he fills up, resets the trip odometer, plugs it in at night, waits until he fills up again, sees how many gallons he put in, then calculates how many miles he drove per gallon.

I know it’s wild to not have a computer do calculations, but that’s how everyone used to calculate mpg.
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Okay. That makes sense.

My father logged every gas station stop. My brother did the same when he got a car. He calculates more stats than my father did (he's a physicist). I logged gas when I got a car. My brother's daughter has been doing it for a decade, although she's not quite sure why. :)

I logged almost every charge session for the first RAV4 Prime. Keep a log of gas on separate pages of the little notebook. Now logging for the new RAV4 Prime. My daughter is only logging gas for the first RAV4 Prime. With over 40,000 miles and commuting daily, not going to learn much more by logging charge sessions.
 
How much did you spend for gas and electric to drive 40k? What does it work out to mpg-wise?

Everything I've read indicates a mile driven on electric is about half the cost vs ice.

My dad wrote all the stuff down too. It was the 70s.

On my CRV I did the math on my first two tanks and it matched the digital within 1/10th of an mpg. Now I just accept the digital as reality.
 
Harvey said:
How much did you spend for gas and electric to drive 40k? What does it work out to mpg-wise?
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Sorry, not going through the notebook to add everything up that I've written down for almost 2 years. My very rough guesstimate is that I've driven 10K EV miles and the other 30K were for trips that were at least 250 miles one-way. Included driving 1900 miles to Colorado last December. Not exactly typical usage.

What I'm more clear about is that when I'm home for a month straight, I usually only need about half a tank of gas. Meaning 7-8 gallons. I drive 2-4 times a week. Most of the time I come home with EV miles left.

My daughter is commuting about 15 miles 1-way for her job. With 42-45 miles EV range, she doesn't need to use any gas assuming all she does is go to work and back home.

When we were considering a PHEV, the SUVs with only 20 miles EV range didn't make sense to me. For our situation, 40 miles has worked out well. For my husband, the $7500 tax credit made a significant difference. Otherwise we might have gotten a RAV4 Hybrid in 2020 closer to home instead of waiting several months for a RAV4 Prime that required driving to NY to buy it.
 
MarzNC said:
Sorry, not going through the notebook to add everything up that I've written down for almost 2 years.
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I wasn't asking for that. Just a ballpark for what it costs to charge and how far you can drive on that. If that's not possible without going through 2 years of notebook I get it.
 
Tjf1967 said:
How much did your electric bill go up? Rough guess
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Couldn't even begin to guess. My husband is the one who cares about what we pay for electricity. Plus it's become a moot point since we installed three banks of solar panels this summer as part of putting on a new roof. Insurance paid for most of the roof due to storm damage in recent years. He found a company that could do the roof (unusual material) and solar panels at the same time. Living in the southeast, our bill has always been higher in the summer months than in the winter. We have a large house with two heat pumps.

Harvey said:
Just a ballpark for what it costs to charge and how far you can drive on that.
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Remember I have a PHEV that is only driven a few times a week as a BEV. Quite different from a BEV such as a Chevy Bolt, or Tesla Model Y with range of 250 miles or more. I can charge up fully overnight on household current and that's about all I do. I don't think about the cost any more than when I'm charging my cell phone.

A old friend of my husband's is visiting us from Texas this week. He's on his second Tesla. Moved up to the Model Y in 2022 from a Model 3. To fully charge on 120V takes a few days. To fully charge on 240V takes a few hours. That's why installing a Tesla fast charger with solar panels at home makes a big difference. His trip from Texas included driving straight to Washington DC in three days to start with. He'll head to Florida to visit another old friend after he leaves NC. He's a bachelor who only has one car and naturally frugal but willing to pay for quality over low price when fixing stuff around the house.

August 18, 2021
apnews.com

Edmunds: How to calculate an electric vehicle's charge costs

One of the challenges people have with electric vehicles is figuring out how much they cost to operate.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
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When I was at the Carrboro (next to Chapel Hill) EV Rodeo as part of the display of PHEVs, BEVs, and Hybrids, a retired couple stopped by and asked a few questions. Wife was very interested but apprehensive about range on long trips. Even though I'd already said the RAV4 Prime was a Plug-in Hybrid and I didn't even carry a charging cable on long trips, she still asked if I had trouble finding a place to charge when away from home. She was clearly just starting to learn about the possibilities of having EV power in addition to a gas engine. Husband just wanted to go see the Teslas.

I've charged away from home at three places (Aug-Oct 2022). Two were when I was staying in a private home using an outdoor outlet. The only time I've charged on a public Level 2 charger was at a motel in SC that had a two free chargers for guests. They were apparently installed with money from the state as part of encouraging tourism. The motel was in a small town right next to I-95, an hour from Savannah and 90 min from Charleston. We topped up the traction battery while we ate the free breakfast just for fun.
 
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