Cost per mile to drive electric car Nissan Leaf?

Question

I was looking at electric Nissan Leaf. It has this EPA Sticker (34kWh to charge / 73 miles average distance / 99 MPG) . Basically it takes 34 kWh to charge the battery and the car could go 73 miles. I live in Huntington Beach, CA and we have Tiered electrical rates. Tier 4 is $0.27, Tier 5 is $0.30 per kWh. Tier 1-3 are cheaper, but I am in Tier 4 with my regular usage. Based on that at Tier 4 it would cost me $0.27*34kWh to charge = $9.18. Hence I will be able to go 72 miles for $9.18. At the same time assuming average price of gas of $3.60 (in Huntington Beach, CA - Nov 2011), i should be able to buy 2.55 gallons of gas. Based on that 72 miles divided by 2.55 gallons is 28.23 miles per gallon. The EPA sticker has 99 MPG... What is wrong with my math?

Answer 1

Playing with the figures yours are pretty close to right and there is a real big difference if your Electric is cheap

Answer 2

Depends on the age of the battery.

Answer 3

A car with an internal combustion engine that gets 25 mpg will require $1,800 in gasoline (at $3 per gallon) over a year of driving (15,000 miles), which works out to $0.12 per mile.

The Leaf can be programmed to start charging in the wee hours, when off-peak electric rates apply—a feature that makes consumption economical.

At $0.11 per kwh, the Leaf costs $0.026 per mile to operate, or $396 for 15,000 miles—a savings of about $1,400 (per year).

There is a really informative article at the website for Popular Science magazine specifically about the Nissan Leaf where you can find a lot more info about the Leaf, here is the direct link to the article below.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/rev…

I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers!