At what point does my hybrid become uneconomical to charge?
 

With all the talk of the impending cost of living crisis and the energy price cap going up 50% in April and then up more in October has anyone worked out at what cost per KWh plugging your hybrid in no longer makes sense economically?

I’m currently paying £0.16/KWh so if my V60 Recharge with its 11.6KWh battery was going from 0 to 100% it’s approx £1.93. (Although I believe that it’s never going to be at 0% as the system always keeps something in case it needs AWD).

My fix ends in March and according to Moneysavingexpert the max right now for a variable tariff is approx £0.21/KWh. This puts a charge at about £2.44.

If the price goes up in April to £0.30/KWh then it becomes about £3.48 …

Is it better to look at something like Octopus Go where you get 4 hours overnight at £0.075/KWh, £0.87 charge… but have a higher rate for the other 20 hours?

According to the app our driving is averaging about 70% on electricity and my last fill up with petrol was at £1.39/litre.

So many questions… what’s everyone else’s experience or ideas to mitigate the impending price rises?

Also is there anywhere in the car settings or app you can see exactly how much electricity each charge uses? The system must surely record this but I can’t see it anywhere…

I am currently on the Octopus go tariff as I have another electric car. Between 00:30-4:30 it’s 5p a kWh and outside of those hours it’s 13p a kWh. So to charge my EV it costs about £2.5 in the cheap hours. Benefits of having a home charger is I can set a schedule to only charge in the off peak hours.

Just wait for the government to introduce fuel duty, and add a similar tax to electricity used for the purposes of charging a car.

Its coming...ive advised Mrs Familyman to enjoy it while she can.

We’re headed in the medium term towards a pay as you drive pence per mile charge model, it’s probably the only way that all of the often conflicting factors can be accounted for. Fun fun fun!

That’s a good deal! They’re currently quoting 7.5p/kWh and 29.64p/kWh for the two day parts !!!

Here's my quick calculation.

Our XC90 probably does around 25mpg on petrol around town. At £1.40/litre of petrol, that's £6.36 per 25 miles.

On electric, we can get up to 25 miles. For an 11.8Kwh battery to charge from zero, that'd be 54p/kwH as the tipping point where petrol is cheaper.

We're not at 54p/kwh....yet....

However, on electric, it is nicer to drive, and it's keeping the towns cleaner (not going to get into where the pollution is generated!).

Also - V60/V90 will achieve more than 25mpg around town I'm sure, so your tipping point may be reduced.

Having a second EV myself, home charging is a long way away before it becomes cost adverse. However, for myself with only occasional around town driving for the EV, the dual rate does not work as I would not benefit from the reduced overnight cost when they hammer you on the day rate for my household use.

Not sure if the PHEV's can use the fast chargers, but the crazy high cost per KW at the Ionity chargers, makes no sense in my opinion.

If you have a wall charger, the related app should show the electricity used per charge and cost

This seems a pointless post to me? As a company car driver you will save £100s a month running a full EV.

As a green person you can feel better.

However if you buy a 40-60 thousand pound car and then wonder when it’s more viable to run I would say don’t pay that for a car in the first place….

I do agree. You spend a fortune on a car and then worry about saving 47p here and there :) It gives us something to get excited about in a world where motoring is becoming ever more dull :)

If you look after the pennies then the pounds look after themselves.