So here it is…I’ve driven about 1000 miles in my Tesla Model S for an approximate cost of $36 (360 kW-hr at $.10/kW-hr). And no tailpipe emissions. Not bad.
If your car gets 16 mpg and a gallon costs $4, that’s $0.25 / mile vs $0.036 / mile– about a 7x difference.
UPDATE: My friend Aaron pointed out that in Texas (see this map), in terms of emissions, an electric car is competitive with an efficient ie 35 mpg car. Then another friends of mine, Packy, pointed out that natural gas economics have changed since the data used by UCS in the NYTimes map and that that’s changed the balance between coal vs. gas power. And this change skews things significantly in favor of electric cars (again, in terms of emissions).
So at face value that looks fantastic. I do have concerns though. I can see from your photo that your car cannot even calculate the energy used correctly. Trip A shows different Total Energy than Trip B considering the same miles. The electrical engineer in me says that we need some test and measurement to verify these estimations. Have you thought about measuring the consumptions used from the outside rather than the inside? My assumption is that the readings shown are from data collected from discharging the batteries which is definitely not the same amount as the energy required to charge the batteries. It should be fairly easy to measure the kW-hrs that you are actually using to charge the car. Knowing how smart and resourceful you are I am sure that you can put together a good Test Stand to measure the input kW. That is data that would be difficult to refute. Any thoughts?
Hi Jacob, Yeah, I noticed that discrepancy too… weird how one trip meter shows a different energy consumed from the other though they appear to have been zero’ed out at the same time.
Basically you’re suggesting a kill-a-watt for the outlet I plug my car into. Good idea, I wonder if someone makes one that I could buy! Also, pretty soon I’ll be able to check these numbers against my electricity bill. Back to the home energy measurement, some time back I setup a TED5000 to measure my home energy consumption (http://rakeshblog.wpengine.com/2010/01/24/saving-money-on-electricity-with-ted5000/). I’ve since stopped using it but I could probably plug it in but setup it up to measure only the electricity on the one breaker that’s feeding my car. Weekend project! I’ll let you know what I find out.