Electric bill cost for the leaf?

How much do you usually drive a day and how much has your electric bill cost just for the leaf? I want to hear what the owners have experienced.

Our bill is about $30+ for 1200 miles... at 9 cents a kW it comes out to about 2.2 cents a mile. I figure I'm spending about 1/10 per mile to drive this car than our previous! The only type of car I know of that stands to pay for itself in it's lifetime in gas savings.

$0.11 per kWh (current Austin Energy rates, ~23% increase (Texas-sized inflation) looming on the horizon)
4 miles/kWh (from dashboard)
100 miles per day would be $2.75

GaslessInSeattle said:

Our bill is about $30+ for 1200 miles... at 9 cents a kW it comes out to about 2.2 cents a mile. I figure I'm spending about 1/10 per mile to drive this car than our previous! The only type of car I know of that stands to pay for itself in it's lifetime in gas savings.

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thanks for the info I was expecting it to be like a lot more than that, that's pretty cheap for the cost of gas.

I drive about 10 miles per day, more on the weekends, and I haven't seen any measurable difference in my electric bill.

adric22 said:

I drive about 10 miles per day, more on the weekends, and I haven't seen any measurable difference in my electric bill.

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No difference in my bill. I drive about 500 miles per month. At $0.05/kwh, what is that, $5-$10? :lol:

Reddy

xTKMxCaboose said:

GaslessInSeattle said:

Our bill is about $30+ for 1200 miles... at 9 cents a kW it comes out to about 2.2 cents a mile. I figure I'm spending about 1/10 per mile to drive this car than our previous! The only type of car I know of that stands to pay for itself in it's lifetime in gas savings.

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thanks for the info I was expecting it to be like a lot more than that, that's pretty cheap for the cost of gas.

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Electric motors are very efficient compared to internal combustion engines. Even still, I'm sure I'm not the only one who was surprised at just how cheap they are to drive! Spread the word!!!

We had ~ 5000 miles this year since January, at ~ 3 miles/kWH and $0.046 (Thanks to PV, I pay mostly the lower-tier rates for Seattle City Light) this will be ~ $77.

xTKMxCaboose said:

thanks for the info I was expecting it to be like a lot more than that, that's pretty cheap for the cost of gas.

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Your original question isn't very useful, esp. w/o any context as to your electricity rates, location, rate schedule, tiers and your usage vs. those tiers. There's a HUGE variance in electricity costs by state. See http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_factors_affecting_prices" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/fig7p5.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

See some of the links at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=155508#p155508" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and the reply the followed.

It also depends on whether you choose to break out the marginal costs of adding a Leaf or some other electrical device vs. lumping it into your total average cost. I suppose one could argue that once it's part of your household, it's not longer countable as marginal?

For example, from http://www.seattle.gov/light/accounts/rates/docs/2011/Jan/2011Jan_rsc.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, if you lived in Seattle, the most it could add to your bill is 9.56 cents/kwh. If you lived in PG&E land (like me) and let's say you were already at tier 4, each kwh would be ~33.3 cents (almost 2.5x the cost)! Electricity in the cheapest tier on the E-1 schedule (non-time of used based) is ~12.2 cents/kwh.

To give a better example, gas at a cheap station near me right now is $3.35/gal. My lifetime avg on my 06 Prius is ~45 mpg. My cost per mile for fuel only would be ~7.44 cents/mile.

If I got 3.16 miles/kwh efficiency, as measured from the plug (including charging efficiency losses), at 9.56 cents/kwh, the cost would be ~3 cents/mile. If the rate were 33.276 cents/kwh, the cost would be ~10.5 cents/mile.

I am driving about 1200 miles a month costing $40-45 per month based on the 12-5 AM "special" rate of $.14 per KWH on a separate meter here in San Diego. It would be much worse if I was on the house meter with the "tiered" rate schedule.

Rates are lower than mine in most of the lower 48 states especially with government operated utilities like BPA coming in around $0.04 per KWH anytime day or night rate.

xTKMxCaboose said:

How much do you usually drive a day and how much has your electric bill cost just for the leaf? I want to hear what the owners have experienced.

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I haven't noticed anything in the electric bill itself. Energy costs vary wildly because of weather, surcharges, etc. I notice the electric bills more when the kids or in-laws are here cooking and taking showers!
BUT, I have calculated the cost, which is less than $12.00 per month in the last 4 months, and I drive about 1,000 per month mostly commuting to work.
The energy cost in my leaf is about 20% of the per mile fuel for my wife's car. And it's a Smart fourtwo!

"out the door " cost after taxes, etc is about 10.2 cents/kw or around 2.5 to 2.9 cents per miles. have had car 4 days short of 11 months, have about 11, 300 miles and average $5-7 a week in electricity costs.

Some people say that because I don't drive much, the savings of an EV doesn't make sense.. But lets examine that. I drive about 10 miles per day during the week, and often 30 or 40 on the weekends. So that is roughly 420 miles per month. Now that amount of driving has been so little that I haven't even been able to show a specific change in my electric bill as the monthly variation is more than the overall increase.

However, lets say I was driving a Chevy Tahoe. That would consume about 28 gallons of fuel for the month. It would probably be more than that since my calculations are based on 15 mpg in the city. However, since my trips are so short the engine will not have warmed up to operating temperature, probably dropping that figure to 10 or less for most of the trip. But even at 28 gallons of fuel, at $3.50 per gallon that works out to be $98 per month.

So over a 5 year period the Tahoe would use about $5,880 in fuel. My Leaf will have used about $300 in electricity. Don't forget to factor in $800 for the 20 or so oil changes (assuming every 3 months) and at least 3 emissions inspections. That is another $60. So the Leaf saves me $6,440 in operating cost over 5 years.

I pay about $20/month for about 800 miles/month. Previously it was about $90/month in a Prius. 10 years ago it was about $75/month in a Dodge Intrepid, back when gas was $1.72/gallon. If (when) gas hits $5/gallon that Dodge would cost me $225/month and a Chevy Suburban SUV would cost me $325/month.

I do almost all my charging with a timer at night during lowest EV TOU rates. Your mileage may vary - extremely - based on your electric rates and usage patterns.

xTKMxCaboose said:

How much do you usually drive a day and how much has your electric bill cost just for the leaf? I want to hear what the owners have experienced.

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Most days I only drive 10 to 20 miles. I have only had the car a couple of weeks, but most of the time I plug the car into my off-grid solar system. On the days we have good sunshine electricity is free. Coal SUX

I need to take some new pictures of the Leaf, but you can see my solar system at this link.
http://www.evalbum.com/3175" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

KJD

Hello,
Here are my numbers.

Sept
Picture removed - Photobucket sucks

Nov
Picture removed - Photobucket sucks

Hi bowthom,

Have you seen this thread?

As I posted earlier, Since I had the Carwings update done on 8/3, my Dash and Carwings miles/kWh numbers seem to match.

Even more interestingly, the daily Driving Records/electricity consumption now seem to accurately reflect the kWh delivered from my Modified L2, as best as I can calculate by recharge time.

Has anyone tried a 100% charge to Turtle discharge drive since having the update?

What total electricity consumption (kWh) did carwings report-and do you believe it to accurately reflect total battery capacity?

If you have a meter at the wall, what L2 charging efficiency percentage did it show for your recharge, using the Carwings energy consumption report?

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http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5423" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From the looks of your report below, I assume you have not yet had the NTB11-041 update?

It looks like you are seeing variable charging efficiency, of about 80-90%-correct?

Have you tried to use your info to calculate available battery capacity at different battery temperatures?

You seem to report that CW has underreported your "miles driven" by close to the same 2.5% that I also have seen, but it is not a constant for you? Mine is 2.5% off for each individual day of driving.

How close is your "actual" m/kwh to that reported on your screen, as opposed to your dash?

Before you have this update done, you may want to check a day’s odometer miles against the same day's CW “miles driven” daily report, as well as another source, and re-check the same after the update.

I suspect Carwings was actually wrong from delivery, and understated mileage by the same 2.5 % as I have seen since the update, and that I just never noticed this relatively small discrepancy.

This could also explain the similar (identical?) 2.5% discrepancy between “dash” and “screen” miles/kWh, which have remained the same on my car, both before and after the update.

Meaning the higher screen number (4.4 m/kWh screen, 4.3 m/kWh dash, on my car since delivery) rather than the dash, may be correct.

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http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5423&start=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

bowthom said:

Hello,
Here are my numbers.

Sept

Nov

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Back on topic.

I drive about 800 miles per month, using a little over 200 kWh, from the wall.

This cost me about $25 a month when I was on PG&E E1 rates.

Now that i am on E9 (as long as that lasts) The electricity costs me about $10-20 dollars a month over my home-only E1 bill in May through October.

And now that I have E9 (6 months of) "winter" rates, I am charging essentially for free, with a $38 total bill last month, about the same I paid for my home power alone, last November....

About 1,000 miles per month; at current average of 4.2 miles/kWh it comes to about 238 kWh plus losses (let's say 260 kWh).

With Ultra Low Demand rates of 1.25 cents plus fees and taxes, I pay about 5.75 cents per kWh.

That is about $15 per month ($71 saved compared to driving the former, and very fuel efficient ICE)

@ 30 miles a day, more on the weekends with PG&E tiered rate with a second meter and charging only at night, we are spending about $11/month.