Recharging a Tesla can be free if you live close to a Supercharger, but what if you don’t, what are the economics of recharging at home each night? After spending some time with the Model X P100D, its time to break it down.
The P100D has a 100kw battery pack, made up of thousands of small lithium-ion battery cells. These are heated and cooled accordingly to find the right balance between performance and longevity. That battery pack is large and therefore takes a long time to charge at home, up to 24 hours if you were empty, you won’t be.
When charging the car at home in Australia, you’ll connect the included 240V charger from the wall, to the car. At 10 Amps, this will provide around 8km of range every hour you have the charger connected. The idea here is that you’ll top up each night, pay a few dollars and as a net, be well ahead of what you’d pay to refuel your tank every week or 2 at the petrol station. As a comparison, at the Supercharger, I was able to get more than 480km of range for every hour, remembering the charge rate slows near the end as the battery reaches capacity.
For the month of May, our 4 bedroom home typically uses around 13.53 kWh per day. Our current energy plan with EnergyAustralia has that cost estimated at A$4.67 per day.
On the days I connected the Tesla to the charger, the 21st, 22nd and 23rd, the usage obviously rose. Our highest usage day was the 22nd where we used 34.99 kWh which cost (estimated) $12.09. If we compare this against what an average day of electricity usage, we used 21.46 kWh more energy, correlating to a cost of $7.42 to recharge the car. This extra cost translated to a couple hundred km of range. Given we receive a 30% discount for paying on time, the actual cost in the worse case (charging from 8PM to 8AM) would cost A$5.194.
What is important to understand is that my usage was a little atypical in that I was reviewing the car, so took journeys I wouldn’t in normal ownership. This means in a normal week, you’re much more likely to pay a couple of dollars per night, or around $10-15 per week depending on your power rates. This represents a significant reduction in the running costs of an EV, as compared to an average petrol, diesel or gas-powered car.
Tesla’s recharging page offers a comparison slider that allows you to compare a Model S or Model X against petrol vehicles. Its important to note these however they assume competitive SUVs achieve just 10.5litres per 100km at $1.15 per litre
If I owned a Tesla, I would leverage the nearby Wodonga Supercharger and for an average week, may only need to recharge once, avoiding costs at home. If I was to travel for a holiday, I’d look for accommodation that offers destination charging (included in the cost of the room).
With Tesla’s chargers in high demand internationally, the decision has been made to begin charging for charging now. New Tesla purchasers will receive 400 kW of free Supercharging credit annually which is good for around 1600 km. After you expend your free credit, power from a Supercharger is costed at 35c per kWh. Energy Australia charges per kWh start at 37c per kWh and reach 40kWh with a 144c supply charge per day. Tesla’s clearly able to get a better rate commercially that private customers, which means you’ll likely still benefit from charging at the Supercharger than at home. That said, you need to consider your distance from a Supercharger and the convenience of charging in your own garage.
Those who purchased a Tesla early will continue to enjoy unlimited recharging for the life of their vehicles, but if you can manage to refer someone else who buys a Tesla, you get back on the unlimited train.
A supercharger is meant for fast charging on long trips. If possible one should preferably charge at home on a daily basis.
There is a additional wear on the battery with the fast charge. This will over time reduce the charging speed.
I was also a bit concerned when reading the “I’ll just use my local supercharger” line. Anyone who does this when they have the ability to charge at home is crazy. Plugging in at home is one of the biggest conveniences to EV ownership. It takes 10 seconds to plug in and you’re full in the morning. So easy. It also ensures the superchargers are available for those who actually need to charge fast – the ones on road trips.
Ok so it’s important that I explain the location. There’s 6bays at the local supercharger, most of the time there is only 1 or 2 others there. If this changed, like when the model 3 arrives, I agree, home charging would be better, much like a gym membership.
Thanks very much for your article. Just a couple of additions. Fuel is now hovering at $1.57 a ltr and if you shop around AGL for example can charge your car all day for $1. I think fuel will still rise and EV will just get better and better in costs all round.
Shut up and take my money… !!!
My home electric cost for a MX 90D for the past 15 months averaged $33.45 USD per month. I put 29,000 miles on the cars; use Superchargers on trips at no additional cost. So, less that 2 cents per mile for the life of the car so far.
Origin Energy in NSW (no, I don’t work for them) that I get is about 31c KWh with 91c per day supply change.
That’s cheaper than a charging station (but not as fast obviously). Do you know if multiphase (3 phase) changing is possible for faster charging?
I recently went through buying Solar and ran the numbers against most providers.
Origin came out best is most scenarios. It’s worth cracking open a spreadsheet and running the numbers. I use about 15.5KWh per day on average and I found the estimates costs varied by more the $1000 annually from best provider to worst provider.
In my case, origin gave the best feed in tarriffs, but generally, their tarriff rate was low and the daily rate was low.
They do pay on time discounts too. 25% is the best case (assuming no solar) but a work friend just got 28%.
P.S. I would call myself thrify, and am happy to share my detailed research. Of course, you should run your own numbers, but hopefully a headstart saves you time and money in the process.
P.S. Remeber, Lower daily service change is generally the most important factor. e.g. 31c Vs 37c = 6c * 15KWh = 90c cheaper. so if the daily supply is more than 90c vetween you current and say, Origin, then swtich. In the case of Origin, it’s actually 144c-91c =53c cheaper (per day). So I would save $1.43 per day, or around $521 Per Year… just be being with Origin Vs Energy Australia.
Regards,
N.