Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Cost of running an EV this winter

My wife bought an EV Smart Cabriolet over a year ago when we were paying circa 12p per unit for electricity. In reality it has a range of 90 miles in the summer if you turn the aircon off, but realistically only about 55 miles in the winter. With a 17.6 KWh battery this was costing about £2.12 to completely recharge giving us 40 miles / £ in summer and 26 miles / £ in winter.

At the October price of 52p per unit this has now shifted to 9.83 miles/£ in summer and 6miles / £ in winter.

If the Auxilione forecast is correct (hopefully it isn't) that we will hit £1/kWh this will reduce further to 5.11 miles / £ in summer and 3.12 miles / £ in winter.

By comparison my Cobra (which has the worst thirst issue I own) can do 2.3 miles / £ based on £1.70 per litre and the Range Rover shows an average over the last 6100 miles equivalent to 3.8 miles / £.

For the first time ever, I might be able to tell my wife that I have been prudent with my car purchases.

That really is food for thought, but what a bargain your good ladies Smart was at the time in running costs.

This winter is going to be a really tough one for vulnerable folk I'm afraid, more donations to the local foodbank and at National level the Salvation Army is called for I think by us fortunate one's with toys.

Sobering thought that. I thought EVs were pollution free & the electricity magically made itself. Someone somewhere is making a shedload of cash. The cap I understood from the Beeb is based purely on gas prices i.e. it assumes the cost / kWh of electricity made from a generation plant run on gas. Why oh why then aren't we seeing a discount if like me you buy supposedly 100% renewable power implying no gas is used? I thought renewables are well over a third of our power generation & their generation costs should be static / not rising as fast as gas.

Also the power companies are paying peanuts now for PV solar on the FIT tarrif. I get £0.0741 per kWh and they sell it at £0.52. Whichever person the new PM is I hope they get a grip on this rip off.

I do my calculations the other way round, in cost per mile.

At 60p/KWh (which is what I'm expecting my rate to be this winter), my Mini EV will cost 16p/mile in winter, 13p in summer, and actually it's much less than that in practice as there's generally excess production from our solar panels we can use. at £1.84/litre (current price of diesel round our way) the Defender costs 30p/mile.

When the 'leccy goes up to £1/KWh the Mini will still only cost 26p/mile to run in winter and we'll still have the solar panel output.

The big problem with trying to sell home produced solar energy back to the gris is that it tends to get produced at times of low demand (summer daytimes) and there's no means of transforming back up to the 40kV of the transmission network, so it's only available within your local distribution network.

Much better strategy is to increase local battery storage capability to use it oneself.

Am I missing something ? our Audi A1 returns 60 mpg and petrol here is £1.60 a litre thats approx 12p per mile.

Yes that is probabaly what I will do with my recently installed system. What goes against the grain a bit is paying (in Jersey) £10k for 10KWh when for £27k I can get 52KWh with a free car thrown in.

I have now waited 10 months for my batteries to be installed. Lots of excuses but the supplier still misses the inverter. The payback at 52p kWh is under 5 years & I could be off grid May to Oct.

I get about 30mpg in the Plus8 . Varies on weight of my right foot!
Current local cost of petrol is £1.60/l. So £7.20/gal.
That’s 24p per mile.
I am wondering how long the current energy price rise will last for.
A recent Which report compared ownership costs of an EV versus the nearest ICE version of cars. Breakeven was several years due to the high up front purchase cost of the EV compared to ICE. The ongoing fuel/servicing etc costs savings of the EV were not enough to reduce the higher purchase cost.
I haven’t had a breakdown of my soon to increase costs from the energy supplier.
If the wholesale cost of gas is the underlying reason for the price hikes then I hope the “ standing charge” remains unchanged, after all, the last hike in it was to partly pay the surviving supply companies to absorb the costs from the ones gone bust. The standing charge should at worst be influenced by inflation rate scrutiny but only for the basic infrastructure maintenance and investment plan. The companies are unlikely to reduce dividends to shareholders/ executives are they?
The convoluted pricing where green sourced renewable energy is mixed in with non-renewable looks a bit like imaginative market-speak. A lot of spin being put out.
Fergal Sharkey was interviewed on TV this morning. A big campaigner on water issues. Some interesting comments about the lack of investment that seems to have been at the expense of profits! Sewage dumping appears to be likely be continuing with little deterrent. He stated that the government seem to be relaxing the limits.
Soap Box time.......
Meanwhile the current Tory leadership campaign is being used as a “reason” to defer any action! Waiting for the new leader! The candidates are pmaying to the very small number of Tory Party members who will vote them in. It looks like a case of that is a priority over running the country when things are going pear-shaped. What odds on a General Election before Christmas?

You have to hope for a GE but Turkeys don't vote for Xmas & they will I hope get a strong message from us when a GE happens. The standing charge is increasing from 37.92 p to 46p per day for electricity and for gas from 27.72 p per day to 28p per day at respectively 7.34 p per kWh going up to 15 p per kWh.

Why the standing charge is increasing is beyond me

Like you John, we have been 100% renewable (no gas) for the past two years with EON but still pay £70 a month compared to £20 three years ago on non renewable - go figure..

Historic recent past oil at around £600 pa but currently about £900.