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Where are the electric savings?

Discussion in 'Prime Main Forum (2017-2022)' started by skierrob, Jul 25, 2018.

  1. MikeDee

    MikeDee Senior Member

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    I lived through the age of Enron and rolling blackouts and subsequent power price hikes, so touche. Turned my hot tub off then and haven't fired it up since.

    So now I've got solar power so things are much better. Still haven't fired up the hot tub however.
     
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  2. MikeDee

    MikeDee Senior Member

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    You guys in Texas have it good economicly.
     
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i have to admit, until you posted, i had you and skier rob confused.:cool:
     
  4. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    • The electric driving experience is so much better (quieter, better response, better performance).
    • Convenience - wake up every morning with a full “tank” (this only applies if you have at home charging).
    • Cost - in my case, electricity runs me 1.5 cents/kWh and will not increase for 35 years.
    • Self reliance. I help the local economy when I charge and spend the gas savings at neighborhood shops rather than sending some of that money overseas and almost all of it out of state.
    • Health - fewer toxins near my driving routes.
    • CO2
     
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  5. Starship16

    Starship16 Senior Member

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    ----USA----
    I think that article (and weather quote) was referring to the city of Los Angeles. The other outlying areas can get much hotter. I recently had 113 degrees. But yes, most Californians are big wimps! I wouldn't last one week in your Texas heat! While in the Army, I spent a summer in Georgia... Holy Cow! God bless those folks. I don't know how they do it! (I pay $3.59 for the cheap gas. For my gas-guzzling non-Prime. :ROFLMAO:)
     
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  6. ed4271

    ed4271 Member

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    My cost is roughly $0.09 per kilowatt. Which brings my cost to fully charge 6.6 kilowatt $0.54 per charge. Because I drive efficiently while driving and use B regenerative braking while in the city and not on highways I have about 2 kilowatts left before I charge the car. I'm starting off with close to 39 EV miles and when I arrive home I have about 6 to 7 EV miles left. My commute to work is 14 miles. At $2.89 a gallon I'm saving a lot of money since I haven't put gas in my car since April 8th 2018 and I have traveled within those 4 + months 3500 MI. So yes buy the car. You will save a lot of money on gas especially if you live in warmer climates.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    o/p pays 25 cents a kilowatt.
     
  8. benagi

    benagi Active Member

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    Basically the same for me. 9 cents a kilowatt. My commute is only 11 miles each way . I’m still driving on the original tank of gas that was in the car of Dec. last year. And it’s only costing me $15/month to charge the car at home. If you have a short commute, you are going to love the Prime.
     
  9. utsug

    utsug Active Member

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    How did you get all that rebates? Are these rebates/discounts still on going?
     
  10. ziggy29

    ziggy29 Member

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    How did you pull that one off?
     
  11. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    In California, one reason Prime is popular is the free HOV with the red stickers I believe were just announced good out to 2022. Prime is also relatively cheap after Fed+State tax credits. After that it gets into what you personally want or advocate for.
     
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  12. Zythryn

    Zythryn Senior Member

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    Solar :)
    I took the full price of the panels, added the expected replacement/repair costs, subtracted the incentives.
    I then divided that by the expected production over 30 years (to account for degradation).

    If I do the same without subtracting any incentives, solar works out to about 12 cents/kWh for the next 35 years. That still is a hell of a deal in my book, since the price won't go up.
     
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  13. PT Guy

    PT Guy Senior Member

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    Texas had the 12th highest proportion of minimum wage jobs, 3.1% in 2017. KY (4.4%), MS, TN, SC, VA, LA, AL, ID, NC, KS, GA (3.2%) had it worse. CA had 0.5%
     
  14. MikeDee

    MikeDee Senior Member

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    No state income taxes, low energy costs, low housing costs, voted most business friendly state, etc. Compare that to California, the rip off state.


    iPhone ? Pro
     
    #34 MikeDee, Jul 28, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2018
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  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    pick your temperature and humidity.
     
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  16. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    Canada or Hawaii?
     
  17. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    Your error is in living in a place with outrageous electricity rates.
     
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  18. Digloo2

    Digloo2 Active Member

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    At 240V (L2 charge), my Prime takes about 3 hours to charge, but it seems to take longer as temps pass 95 or so. For 120V (L1 charge) it's twice that.

    Here in Phoenix, with APS as my utility provider, my break-even cost for EV vs. gas is when gas is around $2.85/gal. Right now, it's around $3/gal.

    While I like the additional mileage I get from a Prius, I'd really like an EV. They're cleaner, and I'd prefer to be able to support renewable energy as opposed to continuing to use gas (even though APS has adopted policies to discourage renewable energy usage).

    That said, a full EV is far more expensive than a Prius Prime because of the batteries. (Chevy Bolt's are around $15k more, for example.)

    So for my particular driving habits and needs, I'm able to get the benefit of a nearly full-time EV with a vehicle that's far cheaper than an EV.

    From an economic standpoint, I cannot see any value in a Bolt or Tesla given the premium cost for 100% EV that goes 150+ miles per charge. There simply isn't that much of a savings of electricity over gas right now.

    And those cars pretty much require L2 charging while taking 7-10 hours to fully charge from nothing. For me, there's simply no benefit in owning a Bolt over a Prime. I'd drive the same mileage and consume the same amount of juice every week. So why spend the extra money?

    The Prime is basically a standard Prius hybrid that gets 55 MPG. The cost per mile for gas is about the same as for electricity.

    But if you've got an F150 that gets 22 MPG, the cost per mile for electricity is HALF the cost of gas per mile!

    I don't know why people try comparing the cost of gas vs. electricity for a Prius when the two are already so close together!

    The REAL BENEFIT is cost per mile of a PRIUS vs. any other vehicle that gets UNDER 30 MPG.

    The Prime's EV mode is just a nice way to flip off Big Oil at a cost that's not much more than a regular Prius, and way cheaper than a Tesla or Bolt.

    BTW, people have different ways of measuring their cost per kWH of energy usage. I just take my total bill and divide it into the # kWHs I consumed. Every month it works out to about the same, which is 17 cents per kWH. Sure, that's not the "incremental" cost, but it actually varies less than one cent per month between winter and summer. I charge up almost fully most days, and that's 8 kWH * 30 which is 240 kWH additional on top of my existing use. In the winter, that actually doubles my bill. In the summer, it's only about 20% more. Anyway, it's about $2.72 in electricty for 50-60 miles, which is about equivalent to a gallon of gas consumed by the hybrid engine that gets around 55 MPG. Again, that's a lot better than your average pickup gets (which seems to be the dominant vehicle on our roads here in Phoenix.)
     
    #38 Digloo2, Jul 30, 2018
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2018
  19. Rmay635703

    Rmay635703 Senior Member

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    Do understand even if electric and gas are the same cost per mile in your area,
    Electric is still cheaper because your maintenance costs drop, sparkie the Volt with 450000 miles has original everything because the gas motor ran much less often.

    With all the intake cleaning, head gaskets, filters and oil changes, running EV is very attractive since all those things happen much less often.

    My Volt only needs an oil change every 2 years under my usage profile
    but if I just ran gas, that would change to every 3 or 4 months, that DOES cost money!

    Also a sticky and n this topic needs to be made.
    Could even include how often maintenance is with and without EV use.
     
  20. sam spade 2

    sam spade 2 Senior Member

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    Some just HAVE to have the latest and greatest but you live in a "high cost" area and that includes electricity.

    In many other areas, there is a cost savings.......but maybe not really enough to justify the extra initial cost.