How much does Tesla add to electric bill?

m2s2 · Sep 18, 2014

Trying to figure out how much the Tesla is adding to my electric bill. I received it at the end of June and drive approximately 80 miles 5 days a week. I have 4,539 miles on it.so about 1,800 miles a month. I am using the hpwc at 80 amps everynight to recharge. On the past two months our electric bills seem to have increased about $200 a month which seems high. But we also live in South Florida and some is probably due to increase do in airconditioner usage. I need to call electric company to compare bills to this time last year and also check on rate increases.

I'm also concerned about the hpwc efficiency as I noticed the handle was very hot the other day when I unplugged it in the middle of charging. I plan to call Tesla as I've read in this forum about others with Heat issues. In the meantime I cut the amps way down to 60amps as I hope the will be less heat and a more efficient charge.

Any input on what the Tesla does or should add to the electric bill much appreciated
Thanks

Evbwcaer · Sep 18, 2014

About half way down the page below is a tool where you enter your daily driving mileage and electric rate and you will get a good estimate.

Tesla Charging | Tesla Motors

Great Dane · Sep 18, 2014

1400 miles cost me about 57 dollars mixed driving
it will be more when you drive interstate speeds, above 60 mph

ToddRLockwood · Sep 18, 2014

For every dollar I spend charging my Model S I used to spend $4 buying gasoline for my Audi.

BlueTan85 · Sep 18, 2014

I'm paying about ~$66 a month on electricity for my car using special EV time of use rates, charging only after midnight.

If I still had my gas-guzzling Audi I'd be paying 3x that for gas.

I was hoping I'd be paying even less for electricity.

TexasEV · Sep 18, 2014

At 10 cents per kWh, it costs about $1 per hour to charge at 40A and $2 per hour of 80A charging (which is completed in half the time).

pgiralt · Sep 18, 2014

m2s2 said:
Trying to figure out how much the Tesla is adding to my electric bill. I received it at the end of June and drive approximately 80 miles 5 days a week. I have 4,539 miles on it.so about 1,800 miles a month. I am using the hpwc at 80 amps everynight to recharge. On the past two months our electric bills seem to have increased about $200 a month which seems high. But we also live in South Florida and some is probably due to increase do in airconditioner usage. I need to call electric company to compare bills to this time last year and also check on rate increases.

I'm also concerned about the hpwc efficiency as I noticed the handle was very hot the other day when I unplugged it in the middle of charging. I plan to call Tesla as I've read in this forum about others with Heat issues. In the meantime I cut the amps way down to 60amps as I hope the will be less heat and a more efficient charge.

Any input on what the Tesla does or should add to the electric bill much appreciated
Thanks

I would expect to see your bill increase by approximately $70 per month based on the numbers you gave. That's 1800 miles at 350 Wh/mi (you're probably getting lower than that so I was erring on the high side here) which is 630 kWh of power per month. Add 10% for charging inefficiencies (this includes the heat you feel on your HPWC - it's going to get hot when you're pumping 80A of current through there) and you end up with 693 kWh.

I can't quite figure out what this rate schedule means (the Duke Energy schedule for NC is much less complicated) but in looking at this:

http://www.fpl.com/rates/pdf/Residential.pdf

It appears that you're probably paying around $0.10 per kWh of power. That means that 693 kWh would cost you $69.30. At the national average of $0.12 it would be about $83 (again assuming 350 Wh/mi which is on the high side).

N4HHE · Sep 18, 2014

The Trips page shows kWh use since you reset the particular trip odometer. That should tell you how much power you used.

Lloyd · Sep 18, 2014

If you have enough solar, it costs you nothing! Granted Solar is not free, but if you have the capacity, then the use is free.

jerry33 · Sep 19, 2014

My average of 1875 miles per month costs about $40.

Btrflyl8e · Sep 19, 2014

After about 6 months of driving I compared my usage to the same period last year and it came out to about $50/mo. I then took the total energy used from the trip screen and did the math that way as well to validate. Pretty much dead-on. Better than that $300/mo I was spending on gas!

voidptr · Sep 19, 2014

It's really difficult to answer without knowing what your cost per kWh is. You can get a quick estimate by assuming 3 miles per kWh: (Miles Driven / 3) * $kWh, unless your driving style is consistently more than 330 wH/mile or you're burning a lot of energy off books. You will lose some in the summer in Florida if you leave the car in the sun all day to recool the cabin and battery.

I didn't rigorously track my usage until I got the Tesla, but as best as I can figure I pay about $30-$40 a month for about 800 - 1200 miles at $0.11/kWh, compared to about $150 gasoline before, and I drove that vehicle probably about 2/3rds as much per week as I do now.

Great Dane · Sep 19, 2014

jerry33 said:
My average of 1875 miles per month costs about $40.

Hi Jerry33 that is nice and cheap, what is the cost of electricity in Texas
and are you on a special rate by time of day?
Thank you

ThosEM · Sep 19, 2014

I'm trying out the following to track this:

Figured out what the cycle date is for electric meter reading, and I reset Trip A on that day each month, after reading out the kWh on Trip A from the previous month.
The bill comes in a few days later and I use the rate there per kWh to calculate what my cost was for the kWh in the prior month.
Since the kWh on the trip record doesn't include charging inefficiency, I multiply by 1/0.85 assuming 85% efficient charging for my NEMA 14-50 at 40 Amps.

Short of installing a submeter for your charging outlet (which you can do for a few $100), this is about the best one can do.
In your case 1800 miles should be about 500+ kWh on the trip record, or 600+ with inefficiency, which at my rate of $0.14 is about $85.
For a car with 25mpg, that would be about $250 of gas.

We used to drive two cars to work, but now we car pool with the Tesla, and double our savings.

smartypnz · Sep 19, 2014

Really hard to pin down. Couple things happened at once - got Tesla, solar panels.
Where our electric was about $700 a year (live in place where no heat or air conditioning needed), and our Gasoline was $5000 per year.
We now pay $1200 per year for Electric - $0 for Gasoline. Add about $800 per year for the solar system.

This is with a combination of some free SC stops as well as an occasional overnight with friends who feel better about having us plug in at a 3 mile per hour charge.

So, as I said - can't really give a good number. But 38,000 miles in 16 months.

I suspect anyone will be pleasantly impressed.

bollar · Sep 19, 2014

I track daily consumption. Our rate is 9.6 cents per kWh, but most is offset with Solar:

House of Grue 17.000kW

yobigd20 · Sep 19, 2014

$0. I've been mooching off a free L2 charger at a parking garage and a supercharger that's on my way home.

lol

DFibRL8R · Sep 19, 2014

This is a graph generated from our utility bill data that shows our monthly electricity usage prior to the Tesla (red), with the Tesla (green) and with the Tesla and a 6kV solar system (yellow).
To date we have put around 35k miles on the Tesla in 19 mos of ownership. As you can see, our electricity consumption went up about 10 kWh per day most months (less in summer due to not driving kids to school).

ecarfan · Sep 19, 2014

Before we got our Model S our electric bill averaged $85/month (we do not have AC and our heating is natural gas). We charge at night during off peak hours using an HPWC. Since last January our bill now averages $150/month. So far we have put almost 16K miles on the car.

So we are spending about $65/month to charge our car, and are saving hundreds of dollar a month that we used to spend on gasoline.

Our monthly electric bill is still so low that from a strictly economic point of view a solar PV system won't save us any money. But I still plan to do it someday.

jerry33 · Sep 19, 2014

Great Dane said:
Hi Jerry33 that is nice and cheap, what is the cost of electricity in Texas
and are you on a special rate by time of day?

There's no TOU.

I left off two months, so it's really 1695 miles per month and not 1875. Electricity is 9 cents.

How much does Tesla add to electric bill?

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