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Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by gnicholas on Sunday September 02, 2018 @03:53AM (#17896099)
I bought a used C-MAX plug-in hybrid and was told that with the EV plan offered by PG&E, I'd save money versus gas. Only after I purchased did I learn that the EV plan gives you cheaper charging at night only if you're willing to stomach very high rates during the day. Since I work from home a lot and have a toddler, this is a non-starter for my family.

So we pay roughly the same amount per mile with electricity as for gas — and I'm in CA, where gas is expensive. We do save a tiny bit when we get to charge for free or at a subsidized rate somewhere. But I think most of the savings comes from not wearing down our brake pads on the hills in our neighborhood, and not having so many moving parts to wear out. These savings are not huge when amortized over the number of miles driven.

Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by rypskar on Sunday September 02, 2018 @05:15AM (#17896296)
>in CA, where gas is expensive

That actually made me laugh. It might cost more than in other US states, but is almost free comparing to most of Europe [1]. Average size of cars and engines, larger car with larger engine use more gas, also tell a lot of price compared to income, and it you compare traffic in Europe and America you will also see that Americans pay way to little for gas

[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/221368/gas-prices-around...

Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by sokoloff on Sunday September 02, 2018 @07:36AM (#17896623)
I'm in MA (home of $0.20/kWh electricity) and my LEAF gets about 21 miles per dollar of energy. A comparable gas car would get ~13 miles per dollar of gasoline.

I think you're likely still saving money on the electric portion of your driving, as CA rates seem to be slightly lower than MA rates from a cursory Google search.

Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by gnicholas on Sunday September 02, 2018 @12:44PM (#17897564)
We pay a bit more than this for electricity, on the margin (they give you low rates on the first chunk but then it goes up from there).

But most of the difference is that our vehicle is nowhere near as efficient as yours. The 9kW/h battery only goes about 18-20 miles on a charge, and it costs more than the $1 that you pay to get that many miles.

Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by davidgould on Sunday September 02, 2018 @05:22PM (#17898731)
C-MAX only gets 2 miles per kWh? They should call it C-MIN. Most electric cars get around 4 miles per kWh.
Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by davidgould on Sunday September 02, 2018 @09:46AM (#17896977)
I don't understand this calculation. Does your toddler use a excessive amount of electricity? Do you work at home running an aluminum smelter?

Snark aside, when we got our Chevy Spark EV in 2013, we switched to the EV rate plan and it has saved us a lot. I work at home too, and but the peak hour use on the EV plan is quite small, so the higher rate is balanced out by having the car automatically charge during off-peak.

Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by gnicholas on Sunday September 02, 2018 @12:37PM (#17897545)
It means I have to run the AC in summer and heat in winter for much of the day. The age of my child is relevant because older kids are in school during the day.
Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by davidgould on Sunday September 02, 2018 @05:14PM (#17898681)
I'm in the East Bay, so don't really need AC and have gas heat so the EV plan works for me. What part of PG&E service area do you live in?
Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by gnicholas on Sunday September 02, 2018 @06:40PM (#17899084)
I'm on the peninsula. This summer has been very mild so we've gotten off easy, but I certainly can't count on that most years. Since you can't switch plans frequently, I didn't want to take the risk of switching.
Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by davidgould on Sunday September 02, 2018 @08:08PM (#17899363)
How much use do you get out of the pure electric range on the C-MAX? I have a Chevy Spark EV and can make almost all trips I need. My longest is Oakland to San Jose and back. It has only 18kWh battery, but in warm weather we see 4.8 avg miles per kWh.

Perhaps solar would help solve your daytime rate problem? Or a car with more battery?

Re:Electric Vehicles’ Day Will Come, and It Might Come Suddenly by gnicholas on Monday September 03, 2018 @12:28AM (#17900321)
Wife's commute is 15 miles roundtrip, so we get good use out of it. Just wish it took less kWh in to get the same number of miles out.