Is it cheaper to refuel your EV battery or gas tank? We did the math in all 50 states.

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
The main gist I got from this article was, if you are an EV driver and can avoid charging via Level 3 chargers you should. And a gallon of gasoline adds about 50 cents in climate damage per gallon.

https://apple.news/A7gZPHq1-Sm-9qqkhcm4j5g
So EVs are cheaper everywhere!

Or climate damage is almost 3$ per gallon.
https://media.rff.org/documents/RFF-DP-06-26-REV.pdf?itid=lk_inline_enhanced-template (It’s over a decade old)

But at any cost between $0.50and $3.00, is it time to consider a carbon tax?? Cheap oil and gas will be hard to leave behind.

As a personal experiment I’m seeing if I can charge 100% off of Teslas level 3 supercharger. It’s free for me and only minutes from the house and 2 minutes from an establishment we frequent at least 5x a week. So far it’s not been an issue. I will need to keep it topped up with a bit more he once school starts.

I really think many people will opt to keep their biggest ICE vehicle they own (anything minivan and bigger) and opt to add an EV rather than replacing that biggest vehicle. (
 
  • Like
Reactions: sloeffle
Free for me off of surplus solar. My plug in hybrid used 16KWh to fully charge and I have 2100 KWhr surplus on net metering so it will be a while before I burn it up.
 
But at any cost between $0.50and $3.00, is it time to consider a carbon tax?? Cheap oil and gas will be hard to leave behind.
Yep, if you add in some of the other things. They called it out as one of the last paragraphs of the article

Quote from the article:

Every gallon of gas adds about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, equivalent to about 50 cents in climate damage per gallon, researchers estimate. Accounting for external factors such as congestion, accidents and air pollution, according to one 2007 estimate by Resources for the Future, the damage bill is closer to $3 per gallon.

As a personal experiment I’m seeing if I can charge 100% off of Teslas level 3 supercharger. It’s free for me and only minutes from the house and 2 minutes from an establishment we frequent at least 5x a week.
As I understand it from the article, if you have to pay for a Level 3 charger it costs almost as much as gas does. I should've of been more specific in my original post. I'd assume you are grandfathered into Tesla's supercharger network ? If you buy a new Tesla, don't you have to pay for charging on their network now ?

Quote from the article:

Fast chargers known as Level 3 — nearly 20 times faster — can top off an EV battery to about 80 percent in as little as 20 minutes. But that typically costs 30 to 48 cents per kWh — a price equivalent to gasoline in some places, as I later found out.
 
Looks like we are in one of the best states to have an EV. With this sunny summer, our miles are free, but even if traveling, it's a lot cheaper.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sloeffle
Over 8k miles since January and a total of $7.60 in Supercharging costs. Free charging at work and solar at home so no charges from the grid. The supercharger cost was $ .38/kwh and average about 3 miles/ kwh so even supercharging is a few pennies cheaper than current price of gas per mile.
Free Tesla charging is no more on new purchases with the exception of some limited offers with certain model purchases.
 
Free for me off of surplus solar. My plug in hybrid used 16KWh to fully charge and I have 2100 KWhr surplus on net metering so it will be a while before I burn it up.
Just had solar installed but I’m waiting til next year to get a EV. Unfortunately my utility won’t do credits past one month But the rate is $0.123 per KWh around the clock so if I need to buy some power it won’t break me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EbS-P and sloeffle