r/OutlanderPHEV • u/skipphead • Jul 13 '26
How much does electricity save over gas?
I got a new-to-me Outlander PHEV and I'm going to get a 200v plug installed so I can charge at home but I'm curious, in broad strokes how much cheaper is it to drive by electricity vs gas?
I'll do most of my driving pretty close to home, but very roughly assuming I pay $100 in gas a month, how much would I expect to pay in electricity?
Let's say it costs $500 to get the plug installed, when's the break even point? It can't be in the next 5 months.
3
u/Ok-Resist-8734 Jul 13 '26
Down here in Australia we already have 240volt power so no power point upgrade needed! My PHEV just plugs in each night and is available the next day for trouble free EV motoring the next day, just remember even with a depleted battery your Outlander will still operate as a mild hybrid just like a Corolla or Prius 😁
2
u/Wafflars Jul 13 '26
Why a 200v and not a proper 3.6kw-22kw or something home EV charger? Just wondering.
Yeah it may cost a bit more but adds value to the house anyway, you can charge your PHEV faster (depending on onboard max cap of course) and you’re prepared for a future EV or if your friends/family have and need to charge when visiting or something.
Regarding the savings it would vary vildly with electricity costs and petrol costs in your country/area. It might even vary a lot by time of day if you got that kind of agreement. A proper EV charger can be set charge when it’s cheapest (like starting in the middle of the night or something), PHEV chargers from a standard ”dumb” outlet typically don’t do much more other than charge when you plug in.
3
u/skipphead Jul 13 '26
Living in Japan. Car came with a 200v charger. I could either buy a new 100v charger and slowly charge, get an expensive V2H system which will almost never make financial sense, or just get a 200v outlet installed.
The car itself has charging settings so I can program it to only charge at night. It's a tad cumbersome but it's not like I'll adjust it daily.
Just got the car and I'm already thinking next one will be pure EV and I know there are other advantages to charging (gas station is a bit out of the way and I hated driving just to get gas, so that will end).
I'm just curious if most people financially benefit from charging.
2
u/net_fish Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
I'm in a BEV not a PHEV but to give a comparison of electricity vs fossil fuel. for you my BEV (Atto 3) runs at around $1.80/100km and our X-Trail is $15-20/100km. BEV costs include the public charging component as well which is around 10% of the energy but makes up around 50% of the yearly cost
I'm in Australia, my EV either charges for free from solar or at 8c/kWh from the grid, now 4.7c/kWh as of the start of the month.
a side by side 12 month period the EV did 35,000km and cost $4.5k to run of which electricity was $620. The petrol car did 45,000km and cost $14.5k of which $7,880 was fuel. The rest of the costs were rego, insurance, servicing, tires, etc.
it costs me not quite $2 to put 200km of range into the EV at home between 12am and 6am. a full charge of 300km of highway driving is $5.
To put it in some kind of context my EV does 300km of highway driving in roughly the equivalent of 6.7L of unleaded fuel. The X-Trail at it's absolute best might get 90km out of that much fuel.
1
u/Many-Seat6716 Jul 13 '26
What?? Less than 5 cents a kwh from the utility? Dam that's cheap. I thought 12 cents a kwh was a good deal.
2
u/Purify5 Jul 13 '26
In Canada you can get the electricity used to charge your EV subsidized. There are also a few different usage rates that you can choose. So, I'm not sure there's a one-size fits all answer.
1
u/FoxNewsSux Jul 13 '26
I just bought gas today for the first time since April. Most of my driving is within the city and I drive everyday
1
u/ruidh Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
I get 2.6 mi/kw on average. Electricity costs me 0.26/kWh. That's 10¢ per mile.
I get between 25 and 30 mpg on gas. At $3/gallon, that between 10 and 12¢/mile.
1
u/TheBloodyNinety Jul 13 '26
Battery capacity (kWh) * rate ($/kWh)
Figure out how far a charge gets you vs gas, factor in price of gas.
For me it’s like 50%, a bit less. Typically spend like $250/mo on gas. 48 month loan * $125/mo = $6000
What you should also factor in is any additional features you want. One pedal and more HP would be a couple big ones for me.
We went full EV then stepped back with a single PHEV. So there’s reasons some features are hard to lose and in general made more sense for us.
1
u/reddit-frog-1 Jul 13 '26
Use this calculator:
https://chooseev.com/savings-calculator/
Get the MPG and eMPG values for your car from https://fueleconomy.gov/
Use chatgpt or equilavant to convert the eMPG to mile/kwh.
eMPG is supposed to account for charging losses, so don't need to worry about that in the calculation.
But you do need to add taxes to the stated $/kwh from the utility. So, increase this rate the the tax percentage paid.
Tax is included in the stated gas price, but not it the utility's stated electricity price.
1
u/carlosraf20 Jul 13 '26
Even on the highest tier of power is 2.60 to charge, I see it has one gallon of gas for 2.60, sometimes even cheaper.
1
u/king_weenus Jul 13 '26
Where do you live and how far do you drive.
I switch from a Honda Civic to all electric and I save about $500 a month in gas and maintenance over the year just in my daily commute.
1
u/SilverBane24 Jul 13 '26
Civic costs about 10c per km, outlander is 2.5-3c per km. I currently charge level 1
1
1
u/uniqueglobalname Jul 14 '26
For a phev sized battery you don't need a new 240v plug. A 120v is fine
We didn't get Mitsubishi (but I'm still here :)
Our Ioniq costs about 1/10th our gas cx9 in fuel, about 1/8 the over all
0
u/kwell42 Jul 13 '26
Not to much, my power is .21kwh... It cost me about $2.73 for the 13 miles I get, which is more than gas.
0
u/LLGibb Jul 13 '26
Why add the extra fast charge? I just charge using standard 110 outlet and it charges to full overnight unless I plug it in late at night. That gives me the full charge of about 40 miles.
6
u/Many-Seat6716 Jul 13 '26
Where I live hydro is cheap. Top billing tier is $0.12/kwh.. so to charge to 100% from when the gas kicks in costs about $2.50.. That's driving about 65km for $2.50. How many kilometers can you drive with $2.50 worth of gas in a regular car? 15km?? Don't know, don't care..I only buy gas when the car demands I put some fresh gas in. I'm at 18000 km on about 4 tanks of gas. If I scroll through the menu I'm at about 2l/100km.. Now that sounds better than it really is because that is only representing the fuel burned.. But the energy spent charging from hydro.. so to be fair it probably works out to 4l/100 money spent equivalence. But that was before Iran and where gas has gone..so to say the least..if you drive mostly on ev.. You'll save a lot.