One of the common misconceptions handed down for the last few years is that the electricity cost to run an electric car is almost negligible. Tesla has talked about 135 mpg. Others have talked about 100 mpg electric cars. First off, citing mpg in a vehicle that does not use gallons is fraudulent. What needs to be cited is fuel cost per mile. Then you can compare gasoline to electric vehicles. What none of the electric acolytes seem to understand is that this comparison hinges on two very important factors: The price of gasoline and the price of electricity. Now there is some truth to the claims that electric vehicle can cost pennies a mile. That is if you live in West Virginia, where residential power costs 7 cents a kWh. But if you live in Rohde Island the cost is 18 cents a kWh. The average cost of residential electricity is 12 cents a kWh.

So how do we compare this to gasoline prices? Well there are two pretty decent data points. The first is the proposed Chevy Volt. They claim to get 40 miles range on 16 kWh of battery pack. I asked an engineer at the SAE Convergence conference last month if that was reasonable or wishful thinking and he thought it was fair based on his years of work at Ford on their electric vehicle program. So the Chevy Volt will be a, well I can’t use the profane adjective, so lets just call it a cracker-box. It will be very light and very underpowered. I estimate the performance and size to be comparable to a 36-mpg car. Only the gasoline car will get better range and use less energy since it is not hauling around 16 kWh of battery pack on the mostly hiway miles that American drivers spend their time. Knowing 16kWh gives you 40 miles and knowing 36 mpg, you can solve for equivalent cost of varying electric and gasoline prices. Here is the chart.

You can see that those lucky folks who live in West Virginia can drive around on the equivalent of 1 dollar a gallon gasoline, pretty nice. And since gasoline costs $2.10 a gallon over there, that is like having a cracker-box car that does 75 mpg. That is pretty nice, a long way from 135 mpg, but still pretty nice. But what about that 18 cents a kWh gasoline? Well that is like paying about $2.60 a gallon. That is OK, but it sure is not the pennies per mile that the eco-zombies keep chanting over and over.

The happy thing is that, in general, electric cars might still save the average non - Californian some bucks, ignoring the greater purchase price of the car. Then again we should all pressure PG&E to allow electric car owners to use off-peak power at 13 cents a kWh. But if you sign up for PG&E’s current plans you can bet you will be charged way more for your daytime electricity, so this may not justify the electric car anyway. Plans are invented by actuaries to make PG&E more money. So we really need a special deal for electric car owners that can grab off-peak power at 13 cents or less, but then not get raped for turning on the AC at 4:00PM. Good luck with PG&E, I would rather wait for personal nuclear reactors and go off the grid completely. Remember utilities are right up there with the phone company and the cable companies for rapacious behavior. Until you do get that sweetheart deal from PG&E, don’t think you will be saving any money by driving an electric car in California, as long a gasoline is closer to 3 bucks than it is to 4 bucks.