What is more profitable, an electric car or an internal combustion engine car: I think in rubles and kilometers

Modern electric cars attract the attention of potential buyers not only with large displays in the cabin, insane acceleration dynamics and zero emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. The main advantage of an electric car is that it is more profitable to drive than an internal combustion engine car, because electricity is cheaper than gasoline. Of course, about a million more factors affect the final driving experience, but I decided to deal with the economic side of the issue – for this I had to fill out two sheets of A4 and create six spreadsheets in Excel, but the result speaks for itself. Yes, driving an electric car is really more profitable, and much more so.

Important: all calculations made below are purely theoretical – taking into account the characteristics of the roadway, traffic jams and climatic conditions, they can differ greatly from the real ones.

How do we calculate the cost

To begin with, let’s imagine a situation where a driver needs to drive from point A to point B in an electric car whose battery has not yet degraded, and the distance between these points is one thousand kilometers. The driver gets into the vehicle with 10% of the charge, arrives at the “gas station” and charges the battery to 100%, after which he sets off. Of course, no one discharges the car battery to the limit, so we take into account that about 10% needs to be charged again. Accordingly, to get to the final destination, the driver of the cars described below will need to be charged 3-4 times.

A few things need to be clarified right away. The first is that the car will travel that much only in calm weather at a temperature of about 20-25 ° C on dry asphalt at a speed of about 60 km / h with the air conditioner turned off and without stops, followed by a start. That is, never. The real power reserve of the same SR-version of the Tesla Model 3 is about 280 kilometers, if the car has just left the dealer and the battery has not yet degraded (this does not happen in Russia), so in reality a used electric car will travel about 250 kilometers. The second is that in winter the power reserve drops, and very much. Like a smartphone battery in extreme cold, an electric car battery does not tend to work in sub-zero temperatures. And thirdly, commercial charging stations, depending on the type and power supplied, can charge more money per kW, which is worth considering (for example, some fast chargers charge 17 rubles per kW, and slow ones charge only 8 rubles).

Tesla Model 3

I propose to start calculations with one of the most popular electric cars in the world – a Tesla sedan, which is produced in the USA, and although it is not officially sold in Russia, it is quite common on the roads. I want to note right away that the article is not about the very first car in the line, produced since 2017, with the name Long Range (or LR), but the basic Standard Range model, which was released in 2019. Yes, Tesla first released the top model, and only then the base model, which, in fact, is the most popular, because it is more affordable. The “base” has a built-in battery with a capacity of 52.75 kWh, and thanks to it the car can travel an average of 350 kilometers without recharging. Accordingly, the driver will need to charge four times – each time from 10% to 100%, that is, 47.475 kW per charge. As a result, at the end of the journey, the driver will have 10% of the charge left to get to the parking lot, for example.

It turns out that he needs 189.9 kW for a 1000-kilometer journey, but given that 10% is still left at the end, the net consumption will be 184.625 kW – rounded up to 185 kW. If the driver charged the car at home from the outlet, then the price for 1 kW would be 5-6 rubles in large cities and about 3-4 rubles in the regions, and at night it would be 2 rubles. The problem is that charging an electric car from an outlet at home will not work, because the driver is on the road (and charging from an outlet can take 10-22 hours), so you have to use the prices at charging stations. If you do not take into account expensive and fast charges, the price for 1 kW is an average of 8 rubles – and we will use it. It turns out that the lucky owner of the Tesla Model 3 of the Standard Range model, a trip of 1,000 kilometers cost only 1,480 rubles – only 1.48 rubles per 1 kilometer, or 148 rubles per 100 kilometers. Now any driver of an internal combustion engine car has already begun to multiply his consumption per 100 kilometers in his head, but wait – everything will be fine in the end.

nissan leaf

With the Nissan Leaf, the situation is approximately the same – the 2018 model in the basic configuration travels 320 kilometers on a single charge under ideal conditions, and its battery capacity is 40 kWh. But this car can be bought new or with minimal battery degradation, plus it’s lighter, so the actual range of the vehicle is about 280 kilometers. With the same route, the car will have to charge the same 4 times, only 36 kW each, and upon arrival at point B, about 40% of the charge will remain in the “tank”. This means that Nissan Leaf will spend 128 kW of energy or 1024 rubles per 1,000 kilometers – 1.024 rubles per kilometer or 102.4 rubles per 100 kilometers.

Hummer EV

The situation with the Hummer EV looks less pleasant due to the insane weight. This pickup truck has a 212.7 kWh battery as standard, which allows it to travel 400 kilometers. Taking into account the fact that no one will fall below 10% of the charge, the actual power reserve from charging to charging is about 350 kilometers. It turns out that the pickup truck will have to be charged three times (taking into account the fact that it had 10% charge when leaving the house) at 191.43 kW. Considering that upon arrival at point B, about 10-15% of the charge will remain in the “tank”, in total you need to recharge by 553 kW or 4,424 rubles. This is 4.424 rubles per 1 kilometer or 442.4 rubles per 100 kilometers. All because of the huge battery and weight of almost four tons.

Evolute i-PRO

The Evolute i-PRO electric car boasts a 53 kWh battery, thanks to which the car can travel up to 420 kilometers according to the passport. This, of course, is under ideal conditions – in fact, the real mileage is about 380 kilometers, but drivers leave about 10% of the charge in reserve, so we will assume that the driver drives 350 kilometers from charge to charge. It turns out that you need to charge the car three times at 47.7 kW, plus, upon arrival, there will still be about 15% of the charge. Taking into account the unused energy, it turns out that the owner of a Russian electric car will spend 135 kW of energy on this route – 1,080 rubles per 1,000 kilometers, 1.08 rubles per 1 kilometer of travel and 108 rubles per 100 kilometers.

Porsche Taycan

I also wanted to calculate the cost of a trip on a premium electric car, so I took the Porsche Taycan 4S as the basis – the company’s most affordable electric car. In the basic configuration, it has a battery with a capacity of 79.2 kWh, on which the car can actually drive 350 kilometers. That is, given that we always leave 10% in reserve, the car will travel about 320 kilometers from charge to charge. It turns out that the car needs to be charged three times by 71.28 kW (from 10% to 100%) and once by 20% (15.84 kW) to get to point B. In total, it turns out 229.68 kW or 1,837.44 ruble. This is 1.83 rubles per 1 kilometer or 183.74 rubles per 100 kilometers.

Compare costs with an internal combustion engine car

If we take an average sedan and a trip along the highway for a distance of 1,000 kilometers at a consumption of 7 liters per 100 kilometers and the price of 95th gasoline at 52 rubles, then the figure will be 3,640 rubles – this is 3.64 rubles per 1 kilometer of the way, or 364 rubles per 100 kilometers. If you do not take into account an electric pickup truck weighing 4 tons, then any electric car will be at least twice as economical. For the same segment of the journey, the Tesla Model 3 will withdraw 2.5 times less money from its owner’s account, the Nissan Leaf and Evolute i-PRO are 3.5 times more economical, and the expensive Porsche Taycan exactly twice.

But there are two important “buts” here. The first point is that no one will travel such a huge distance in electric cars, because the driver will have time to grow old during the charging time. Even the fastest charging stations charge the car from 10% to 100% in about one and a half to two hours, but there are very few such charges in Russia. Slow charges will take 3-6 hours to fully fill the battery for the Nissan Leaf and Evolute i-PRO, and up to 8 hours for the Porsche Taycan and Tesla. No one will stand at the “gas station” for so long. And if you still decide to charge the car with some newfangled fast charging, then the price for 1 kW there will be 17-22 rubles – in this case, a trip to the Evolute i-PRO, for example, will turn out to be 600 rubles cheaper than on an internal combustion engine car . Not so good anymore, right?

Naturally, an electric car is a car for the city to go to work, shopping, to the gym or to the movies. And in a city where ICE cars consume not 7, but 12-14 liters per 100 kilometers due to frequent stops and traffic jams, an electric car will be even more profitable – not two or three times, but five to seven. Here, too, the math is very simple – let’s say you drive 1,000 kilometers a month around the city with a consumption of 12 liters per 100 kilometers – this is 120 liters of gasoline or 6,240 rubles a month. We multiply by 12 months a year and get 74,880 rubles – this is how much an average driver spends on fuel in an internal combustion engine car. The owner of the Evolute i-PRO, who puts the car on charge overnight or uses the most affordable options close to home, will spend only 12,960 rubles on “fuel” over the same period. This is almost six times less. Moreover, most city charges (at least for now) are completely free, and parking spaces are too.

Of course, these are very rough comparisons, since everyone has different tasks, different driving style and different cars. Someone has a powerful BMW with all-wheel drive, which accelerates from standstill to hundreds in 5.5 seconds, but at the same time “eats” 16 liters per 100 kilometers, someone prefers huge SUVs with a consumption of 20 liters per hundred, and someone then, on the contrary, he drives a small car with a consumption of 6-7 liters in the city. Yes, and everyone drives an electric car in different ways – someone presses the pedal to the floor, and someone has never accelerated faster than 60 km / h. But if we consider the average values, it turns out that an electric car is six times more economical in the city and two to three times more profitable when driving on the highway than an internal combustion engine.