Is 44 cents per kilowatt hour expensive?

[andycole]

Hey guys, I'm a new Tesla Model S plaid owner and I just did my first charge and two questions. One is 44 cents per kilowatt hour expensive? And is this rare going to change per town like compared to an expensive fancy town Is it going to be more expensive than like a cheaper not as nice town?

Also, does it matter if I charge it to 100% every time with a supercharger or should I really keep it to like 90%?

 

[karkrazy]

Basic questions to start with: what state are you in (your profile says FL but I didn’t want to assume)? What’s the typical residential rate that you pay for?

To add more context, how “nice” the city is doesn’t really matter. What matters is the type of supercharger (V2, V3), the time of the day, and overall location of the supercharger. So, you’ll need to factor all that in to what you’re comparing $0.44/kWh against.

 

[asterothe]

At home you can charge much cheaper (unless you are in San Diego but even here TOU charging is 15 cents in the night) . SC rates depend on the time and location.
I think 44 cents is in the expensive side for SC too but also in less busy times they charge less.

 

[DesmoDog]

That seems really high for Florida, I always thought they had cheap electricity out there! But then again, I think Tesla sets the rates at the SC's.

I have always heard that it's best to keep the battery at 80-90 for "daily driving" so that's what I did. 80% limit on an SC. There's endless
discussion about the topic, I gave up reading. lol.

FWIW -
For the 1st two+ years I had my Y I charged only at my local 72kw super charger. This was perfect for me since it was only 2 miles away, next to a grocery store, coffee place etc. 18 spots. Never a wait.

Prices were fairly cheap considering I'm in the SF Bay Area where PGE is sort of out of control. But then Tesla rates start changing radically. A brand new 250kw SC near me was only .23 for a good while. But then they all jumped to .53 during the day and have remained there so far.

This got me to look into seeing if it was feasible for me to charge at him since all I have is a 110 outlet indoors. I checked the power rate plans from PGE and switched to their electric car plan. From midnight to 3pm it's .27 per kwh 7 days a week. I found I could reach the car with the OEM charging cable, and gave it a go. So far (2+ months now) I've basically quit using the SC near me. I let it charge from midnight to whenever it gets to 90%. I use the Tessie app (amazing) to control the charging period. I had no luck with the built in "schedule charge" setting from Tesla.

 

[DesmoDog]

At home you can charge much cheaper (unless you are in San Diego but even here TOU charging is 15 cents in the night) . SC rates depend on the time and location.
I think 44 cents is in the expensive side for SC too but also in less busy times they charge less.

15 cents at night!?!??! Wow. What a deal!

 

[asterothe]

15 cents at night!?!??! Wow. What a deal!

During the day it's 80+ after 4PM until PM though. I think SD is one of the worst in the country electric pricewise.

 

[DesmoDog]

During the day it's 80+ after 4PM until PM though. I think SD is one of the worst in the country electric pricewise.

Eighty cents. Ooof. Peak here in Summer is .58 for the EV plan I'm on.

 

[asterothe]

Eighty cents. Ooof. Peak here in Summer is .58 for the EV plan I'm on.

Yup. It's outrageous. Not cheap in North too but not as bad as here.

 

[Mercimek]

We pay 7.4 Canadian cents per kWh at night here in Ontario, Canada. Yiur prices down sou5 are too darn high.

 

[asterothe]

This is SDGE for you. They are monopoly here.

 

[Cosmacelf]

We pay 7.4 Canadian cents per kWh at night here in Ontario, Canada. Yiur prices down sou5 are too darn high.

Ontario has always had cheap hydro power and well run nuclear power, unlike many states down here. The disparity between gasoline prices and your cheap nighttime electricity prices must be huge.

 

[ucmndd]

44 cents per kWh is a out 12.5 cents per mile in a typical Model S.

That’s roughly equivalent to $3.75/gal gas in a car that gets 30mpg.

So yeah, pretty expensive.

 

[asterothe]

An the gas is 6 dollars here so…

 

[ucmndd]

An the gas is 6 dollars here so…

Yeah, expensive is all relative… I’m in San Diego right now actually, renting a Model Y from Hertz. Just supercharged it for 50 cents/kwh, but the gas station across the street here in La Jolla is $6.49…

 

[Black306]

$0.44/kWh is crazy expensive, IMO. Only time I have seen close to that was at a Supercharger station. Even then, I don’t think it broke $0.40/kWh.

15 cents at night!?!??! Wow. What a deal!

 

[andycole]

So I'm in South Florida. This was actually in Boca Raton at a supercharging station at the mall. So I'm now thinking 44 cents per kilowatt hour is way too much and I should not go back there again or at least not at that time. It was around 5: 00pm.

It seemed really high to me. I thought it would be paying like 20 cents because as someone mentioned above that's like paying almost 4 hours for gas as the equivalent which defeats the purpose of driving an electric car lol.

 

[teko]

It seemed really high to me. I thought it would be paying like 20 cents because as someone mentioned above that's like paying almost 4 hours for gas as the equivalent which defeats the purpose of driving an electric car lol.

Don't think it will be any cheaper to charge for much longer. They'll come for that sweet money soon enough.

 

[Darmie]

First off, outrageous price, but I'm sure it's all about what state and how busy the chargers are. Here in Texas, they are around the 30 to 36 cents. Most cheaper during off peak times.
Your Tesla Plaid has great range. I would recommend not charging over 70pct at any given time and only charge to 55pct for any of your daily driving.

As far as charging to 100pct, you can follow more of the data that AAKEE has shared.
As noted here, "Calendar aging is the thing that causes most degradation for the first about 5-8 years of the battery life."
This chart sort of explains it. If you are leaving your battery above 55pct there is more degradation over time. technically, there is a 4 to 5% buffer than what is reported on the screen so 50pct shown is actually 55 pct. Past there is where you see calendar aging degrading the battery over time.

Now onto some lighter news. If this new type of Nuclear power works out, maybe we'll see cleaner and cheaper electric in the future.

Dow's Seadrift, Texas location selected for X-energy advanced SMR nuclear project to deliver safe, reliable, zero carbon emissions power and steam production

corporate.dow.com

 

[RSpanner]

15 cents at night!?!??! Wow. What a deal!

Ours is 9.6 cents per kilowatt hour...not tiered . Sorry, the state is now full and borders are closed.

 

[maximizese]

My residential electricity rates through TOU-Prime with SCE have changed drastically. It is now $.65/kWh during peak hours between 4pm-9pm, but essentially $.23 during 9pm-4pm. The 4.8kW solar array more than offsets the increase in rates over the years, but I cringe for those who didn't or couldn't install solar before 2016. I believe my $10K investment (after tax credit) paid for itself in less than 4 years thanks to more favorable rates and an arbitrage between generation and consumption.

Now if only utilities weren't so monopolistic and revenue sensitive.