Electric Vehicle Economics

[fizzycyst]

About a year ago we bought a new Nissan Leaf. I'm thrilled with it. Almost every time the topic of this car has come up in conversation, someone has asked me about the economics associated with it. So I thought I would do the math and post it here for everyone to see. Before I provide the results, I need to point out all the variables that go

Comments

[ext_1109315]

Are you able to discharge from your car back to your house (and the grid)?
If so, you can use it as a large battery, charging the car when rates are low,
and discharging it, back to your house, when rates are higher.

[fizzycyst]

There was talk of this becoming the norm in the distant future, but it is not so at the moment. In any case, I'm not sure I would call it a "large" battery - at capacity it holds roughly 25 kW-hr. In the Summer, when the peak and off-peak rates are substantially different, that can add up to decent money, but then it becomes difficult to schedule driving, especially since it takes a bit over 4 hours to fully charge from empty.

I should say that the time-of-use billing that works well with this car (because I charge it in the wee hours, which is obviously off-peak), also dovetails nicely with our PV solar panels. In the Summer the panels produce more energy than we use during the very high rate peak hours during the day (and we store up credit at that rate), and then we consume the bulk of our energy off-peak.

[ext_1109315]

My recent training in solar array design and installation is what led me to the suggestion. Glad to see that you've got some installed.