Running costs

[JamieM]

Hi all

I'm considering changing from a petrol Kodiaq to an Enyaq, purely based on running costs due to additional commuting miles now I am no longer working from home.

While it's easy to calculate traditional ICE mileage costs, I'm struggling to find a straight answer on how much an Enyaq actually costs to run.

Looking at a 60, likely to be charging at home. I may be able to charge at work and also have solar panels at home which will help, but on a worse case, charging at home overnight without solar panel, can anyone advise what sort of £ per mile I would be looking at please?

[Walter Eagle]

Oh, this is the real how-long-is-a-piece-of-string question, isn't it!?

If you regard traditional ICE costings as 'easy' then a similarly relaxed approach gets you to an EV cost too.

The actual cost of electricity to you from your supplier is easy to identify.
For me, first there's a ludicrous 60p/day standing charge. My whole household usage is about 10kWh/day (everyone's will be different according to your domestic set-up), so that averages about 6p to every kWh.
The actual tariff I'm on has an overnight rate of ~9p/kWh. So each of these kWh's will cost about 15p.

Consumption in an EV is very variable, according to season of the year, driving style, etc. But it should be easy at present to achieve a figure of 3-5miles/kWh

Divide the cost by the distance and you come out maybe 3-5p per mile.

Like you, I have solar panels and some days I can trickle charge the car directly from them for free.
I also have domestic storage batteries, and again I can transfer that battery charge to the car. It may be a mix of free solar or cheap overnight electrons.

What you do suddenly realise is what a complete rip-off public charging points are! 60-70p/kWh in some cases.
I mean, it's not as if they have any delivery costs, like fuel stations. A mark-up at that level is unacceptable in my view.

[Ken3966]

I can charge my vRS at home off peak for around 2.25p a mile.
At my daughters home is about 9p a mile.
At nearby open to all Tesla charger it works out at 16p a mile.
At other sites it can be up to a £1 per kW so 28p a mile.
At National Trust, if you can find one it is zero as free.
In Scotland it can be a lot cheaper charging away from home.

Basically if you can’t charge at home you are not saving much at best and at worst it is significantly more expensive.

Bear in mind the £1k for a home wall charger to recoup.
Bear in mind the significant cost difference between EV and ICE to recoup.

Whilst I love my car and will not go back to ice by choice it is more a lifestyle decision at the moment, not a way to save money, unless you have a company car and can also get large tax benefits and perhaps free charging at work thrown in.

[RichR]

For the purposes of estimating things, a useful rough average for a mix of town and motorway driving would be around 4.2 miles per kWh for a 60 and 3.8 mile per kWh for an 80 (those are typical figures - I'm well aware that some people don't get that much, or get more). Range varies a lot as it does in a petrol/diesel car, but over a year it averages out.

So if you get off-peak electricity at 7p per kWh, then a 60 will cost around 1.7p per mile (80 about 1.9p per mile). If you have a Zappi or similar charger that can direct surplus from your solar to the car rather than the grid, then obviously that can go down to zero when it's sunny enough. For me, my panels can produce just over 4kW on a good day, and the house uses around 0.3kW most of the day, giving over 3kW into the car. I have 10kWh of house batteries, so they get topped up on off-peak electricity overnight, allowing me to charge if it's not sunny at the overnight rate during the day for a little bit.

Public charging is a lot more expensive, but it depends on how long your average journeys are as to whether it's an issue. If you rarely do more than 200 miles in a day, then you'll probably never need to use them - so the <2p per mile figure applies. This is where the consideration of 60 or 80 matters - whilst an 80 is heavier and doesn't do as many miles per kWh, it does go further due to the larger battery. For example I know I can get from my house in North Yorkshire to around Birmingham, Cambridge, Newcastle or Carlisle and back without needing to use a public charger if I drive sensibly. I regularly drive to Cornwall, and my charging stops are short (perhaps 15 minutes), only adding about 40% at usually two stops (basically the time it takes for me to visit the toilet and get a cup of tea). You only need to add as much charge as you need to get to your next stop, not run it down to 0% and charge to 100% every time.

[Ken3966]

Your doing better than me then as I can’t make Leeds to Cambridge and back quite on 100% charge in vrs, even driven extremely frugally and sticking to 65 on 70 roads. Averages 3.9 on that trip down. Going home now and not bothering with staying at 65, so averaging 3.3 at halfway stop.

[Walter Eagle]

I can charge my vRS at home off peak for around 2.25p a mile.
At my daughters home is about 9p a mile.
At nearby open to all Tesla charger it works out at 16p a mile.
At other sites it can be up to a £1 per kW so 28p a mile.
At National Trust, if you can find one it is zero as free.
In Scotland it can be a lot cheaper charging away from home.

Basically if you can’t charge at home you are not saving much at best and at worst it is significantly more expensive.

Bear in mind the £1k for a home wall charger to recoup.
Bear in mind the significant cost difference between EV and ICE to recoup.

Whilst I love my car and will not go back to ice by choice it is more a lifestyle decision at the moment, not a way to save money, unless you have a company car and can also get large tax benefits and perhaps free charging at work thrown in.

Could you break down how you've calculated your home charging cost? Tuppence-farthing per mile is brilliant! Very economical.
If I ignored my electricity standing charge and just calculated from my usage cost I might get to somewhere in that region, on a good day, downhill, with the wind behind me.
Love to know your hints and tips ... !

[Enyaq]

Why would you include the standing charge in any calculation? You are going to incur that anyway...?

After nearly 8000 miles my car is saying an average 3.8 miles per k/wh. We are on E7 at just under 14p a unit off peak rate, so less than 4p a mile.

For me that easily beats any ICE car I would ever own.....

[RichR]

Your doing better than me then as I can’t make Leeds to Cambridge and back quite on 100% charge in vrs, even driven extremely frugally and sticking to 65 on 70 roads. Averages 3.9 on that trip down. Going home now and not bothering with staying at 65, so averaging 3.3 at halfway stop.

To be fair, it's pretty close getting to Cambridge - Peterborough and back I rarely need to charge, but just north of Cambridge I'm getting home with about 4% :O I'm probably doing more A roads than you, as I don't join the M18 until almost at Doncaster. I generally average about 3.6 on the A1M, around 60-65mph, climate control set to 19C. Bear in mind my Sportline is lighter than your vRS due to not having the extra motor...

[Walter Eagle]

Why would you include the standing charge in any calculation? You are going to incur that anyway...?

After nearly 8000 miles my car is saying an average 3.8 miles per k/wh. We are on E7 at just under 14p a unit off peak rate, so less than 4p a mile.

For me that easily beats any ICE car I would ever own.....

But you can't just ignore the standing charge. It's part of the cost of the electricity. And it's not some virtual accountants/bookeepers quirk of costs - it's real.

[chillyboy123]

I would agree to ignore the standing charge.

If you was running an ICE car instead of an EV you would be paying the standing charge regardless.

A EV does not increase the standing charge so ignore it.

---------------

I am currently on Octopus Intelligence.

29.56p / kw in the day
7.5p / kw at night.

Charging only at night, with a couple of public charges over the year. My usage averages out to be around 2.5p a mile.

But if I wasn’t on the Intelligence tariff my rate would be 26.5 p / kw (ish)

So if your peak rate differs on your EV tariff to your standard rate and you really want an accurate price per mile. You need to include the difference of slightly increased household cost of now been on an EV tariff.

I went down this rabbit hole a few months ago to work this out exactly, taking into account cheaper household costs at night. I think it’s still only highly around 2.6p per mile.

-----

The car did cost more than the ICE car I would have bought instead.

But if I calculate the following,

Reduced per mile fuel costs.
No tax for my first 3 years of ownership
Reduced service cost.
No parking charges in my local town centre with green permit.

If I keep the car 5 years which I intend doing, the overall cost per year of buying, owning and running the car are about the same, if not slightly less than the car I would have bought.

But the Enyaq is far better, with many more gadgets and is by far way more relaxing and easier to drive. I also no longer have to go to petrol stations.

And I don’t mind driving anywhere knowing it’s only going to cost 2.6p per mile.

I may have had to think twice before a journey like a day trip to the coast with the prices of petrol been so high over the last two years.

£4.16 in electric versus £32 in petrol, that’s before you start with the ice cream

Everyone’s experience of EV ownership will of course be different. But for me it’s a positive one.