How much has your electric bill increased?

[mike21070]

Hello,

Seriously thinking about a 2016 i3, but I haven't seen much regarding the monthly electric bill increases. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, so I'm wondering if anyone can help provide some information. Have you seen a huge increase in your monthly bill? I know it depends on time of day, but just general information would be helpful. Not sure if the increase in this bill is worth it.

Also...since I have your attention...any major reasons why I shouldn't buy a 2016? Some nice ones for about $16k, but once you look at 2017 they jump up to around $22-23, which is too rich for my blood. I know the battery is under warranty until 2024, so I figure I'll use the car for about 4-5 years before worrying about the battery.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Anonymous]

The general rule is that on-average, you will spend around 30% of what you spent on gas, on electricity charging your electric car for the same mileage. My rough calculations peg mine at around 20% cost of electricity vs what I previously spent on gas, but I had a small SUV (Honda Element) before, which only got 20 mpg city, and 25 mpg highway. Other maintenance costs are lower too. Once a year oil change, and brake flush every two years, if you have a Rex, and just the brake flush every two years for a BEV. On the other side of the coin, the special low-rolling-resistance tires don't seem to last as long as conventional tires, and they are more expensive - roughly $150 - $160 per tire for 19" wheels.

2016 is a good choice - most manufacturing issues/flaws have been worked out in the 2014-2015 models. Example - big (expensive) one in the 2014 were plastic motor mounts, with bolts that would shear and could damage the drive train. Software update to help prevent torque stress on mounts in 2014, New stronger bolts in 2015, New problem-free cast aluminum motor mounts in 2016.

 

[I33t]

We added large solar panels on the house in 2011 before we had the i3.

The solar panels has saved the cost of installing the panels for years ago, and it costs nothing to run the house and the i3 EV

Rarely takes the i3 to charge it anywhere else other than at our own house.

So the only cost of running the i3 is to pay to have the brake fluids done every 2 years, tyres when they run out, and the BMW place wants us to see it once a year.

 

[vreihen]

My smart EVSE is claiming that my 21 mile round-trip daily commute is using 7 kWh/day...including pre-condition at both ends. Yes, that's about 3.0 miles/kWh, and the car's guess-o-meter is claiming 4.4 miles/kWh because it doesn't measure pre-condition power usage. At our local ~$0.15/kWh power cost, that is $1.05. My diesel pickup gets 21 MPG on the same commute, and you don't even need a calculator to see that it uses 1.0 gallons of diesel @ $3.10. My 4-cylinder race car hates that commute, and only gets 20 MPG on its required $3.75/gallon super unleaded.

My DW picked up a brand new Kia Niro 100% electric EV a few weeks after I bought my i3 last spring. She does a 90 mile round-trip commute, and the same smart EVSE is claiming that she is using ~24 kWh/day doing mostly interstate driving. She claims that her former 6-cylinder pickup was costing her $20/day in gas, and I calculate that the electric usage is $3.70/day.

Ironically, the business right next to the office building where my DW works just installed a free public L2 charging station on Monday. Depending on the guilt factor, her commuting energy costs might go down to ZERO! NY State is offering a $4,000/plug grant for employers to install charging stations for their employees. I am pushing the paperwork through where I work to install four, and trust me there will be zero guilt factor when my commuting energy costs are zero. :twisted:

Back in the recent past, people used to get gas station credit cards where you had to pay the month's gas off at the end of every month. Charging at home and paying the power company is the same concept, only it costs way less.....

 

[gt1]

The car can go about 4 miles on 1 kwh. You can make your own calculations based on the projected mileage and electricity costs.
The 2017s are more expensive mainly because they have a 50% larger battery.

 

[n1o2c3a4c5h6e7t]

For about 5k miles/year, we were spending $100/year with the BMW i3 in Texas. For comparison, we spent $500/year for the same mileage with a Prius in the past.

Our costs have come down since then to $20-40/year for 5k miles with the BMW i3, but that is after installing solar panels for the house.

 

[Obioban]

OP: Depends on your electric cost. Ours is $0.068/kwh. The i3 gets 3-5 miles per kwh. Assuming 4 miles per kwh and a 25 miles of driving per day, you'd spend ~$0.43 per day on electricity.

I drive mine 100-150 miles per day, so $1.87... though 75% of my charging is done at work (free). :lol:

In my case, our electric bill has gone up ~$15 a month but our gas bill has gone down ~$700 per month. Or, over a year, our electric cost has gone up ~$180, but our gas cost has gone down ~$8400.

In order of cost preference, work/free pubic chargers > home charging >>>>>> public fast chargers (significantly more expensive).

I'd love to add solar to bring costs down further, but too many trees around my house.

The car can go about 4 miles on 1 kwh. You can make your own calculations based on the projected mileage and electricity costs.
The 2017s are more expensive mainly because they have a 50% larger battery.

What? 2017s cost the same per mile as earlier cars. From an electric bill perspective, should be unchanged unless you couldn't make it home before and were paying for more expensive not home charging.

 

[gt1]

The car can go about 4 miles on 1 kwh. You can make your own calculations based on the projected mileage and electricity costs.
The 2017s are more expensive mainly because they have a 50% larger battery.

I was answering two separate questions by the OP.
1. How much does it cost to run an i3.
2. Why 2017s are priced much higher than 2016s.

 

[Obioban]

The car can go about 4 miles on 1 kwh. You can make your own calculations based on the projected mileage and electricity costs.
The 2017s are more expensive mainly because they have a 50% larger battery.

I was answering two separate questions by the OP.
1. How much does it cost to run an i3.
2. Why 2017s are priced much higher than 2016s.

Ahhh, that makes much more sense. I thought were were saying it costs more to charge the 2017 because the battery holds more power :roll:

 

[gt1]

Technically, it does :lol:

 

[robthebold]

OP: Depends on your electric cost. Ours is $0.068/kwh. The i3 gets 3-5 miles per kwh. Assuming 4 miles per kwh and a 25 miles of driving per day, you'd spend ~$0.43 per day on electricity.

Where on earth do you buy electricity for less than 7 cents/kWh? Hydro-Quebec-land, perhaps?

 

[Obioban]

OP: Depends on your electric cost. Ours is $0.068/kwh. The i3 gets 3-5 miles per kwh. Assuming 4 miles per kwh and a 25 miles of driving per day, you'd spend ~$0.43 per day on electricity.

Where on earth do you buy electricity for less than 7 cents/kWh? Hydro-Quebec-land, perhaps?

Ha. I guess it's a perk of living ~15 miles from a nuclear reactor :?

But, I'm in south east PA, USA.

 

[brucedwilson]

Just did a thirty-day audit of my electricity bills. I could assess the car's needs based on time-of-day...I charge from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m., allowing the car's brain to figure that out.

I drive 102 km every day to work. Sometimes my daily total is more with errands. But essentially I'm paying about $0.55 CDN for that drive in the i3. I used to pay about $6.92 CDN based on $1.15 CDN/L of regular in a 1.5L Yaris manual. Admittedly, I've slowed down from about 87 km/hr to 80 km/hr on the highway as the adaptive cruise control is nice and the radio in the i3 is better.

That's 8% of the old fuel cost...

Bruce

 

[jadnashuanh]

I'm paying more than $0.20/Kw US where I live once you add in all of the fees and taxes, but driving the i3 still is lots cheaper than my ICE around town.

 

[eNate]

I switched rate plans with PG&E after buying my i3. The new rate plan just went into effect this billing cycle, and this is the first time I'm looking at them. I can log on and see my daily electricity usage, including daily costs.

At home I charge with the slow 120v charger, because I am allowed to charge for free at work (also using the 120v slow charger), so it hasn't really been in my interest to install a level two charger. Not yet, but eventually.

Anyhow, it goes without saying (and this is a perfect example of) why this question is going to have different answers from different owners.

Under my new PG&E peak pricing plan, on the days I charge at home (which isn't every day), I plug in from about 7:30 am to about 2:00 pm. This puts me squarely in the off-peak rate window. My home's baseline electricity usage is 7 kWh per day. On the days I charge, my usage increases to 21 kWh. During that time, my i3's battery is boosted by about 7 kWh.

I need to hook my watt meter so I can calculate true efficiency, because at first glance this is looking really poor at 50% (14 kWh increased usage, but only 7 kWh into the battery). But you can see on days I charge my car at home, I'm adding about $2.30 to my electricity bill, and that's gaining me around 25 miles of range. At the end of charging I've got a warm cord head at the receptacle so I need to diagnose all of that.

Anyhow, below are some clips of my online usage. The first is from my new peak / off-peak plan, which is off-peak from midnight to 3PM. The second is from my previous tiered usage plan, which started each billing cycle at the lower flat rate, then once I hit a pre-determined threshold, it ticked up to the higher flat rate. You can see it was definitely in my interest to make the change to peak / off-peak pricing, because my at-home charging costs dropped by about $1 per day compared to the tiered pricing.

I'm communicating with a seller for a 16A 120v charger which will get me a 30% increase in recharge speeds at work (compared with the stock BMW slow charger I'm using now), and that takes some of the pressure off of my needs for home charging.

http://www.****oodog.net/images/i3/peak.jpg

http://www.****oodog.net/images/i3/tier.jpg

 

[frictioncircle]

Wow, sub-$0.07/kWh is an astonishingly good rate.

Overnight I can get down to about $0.14/kWh. During peak hours they bill me more than $0.47/kWh! :shock:

 

[imchrisd]

I'm going to glom onto this topic since it's about i3 owners in Arizona.

I just bought a 2016 i3 Rex and I'm wondering if Arizona considers those an electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid. Also I've seen posts from BEV owners saying they're paying like $150 for 5 years of registration. But the registration paper from the previous owner shows he paid over $600. What gives??? :shock:

-ImChrisD

 

[Arm]

I drive around 12k miles a year...I pay about $35/m for home charging.

 

[Steve999]

Question for ENATE: I have the PGE plan EV2-A just south of you and per my daily usage graphs, my off-peak rate is $0.24/kwh, peak rate at 43 cents/kwh (was 56 cents/kwh this summer). Your new plan is significantly lower than what I'm paying based on your graph. What plan are you currently signed up for? I'm also signed up with the East Bay Community Power (which makes deciphering the bill even more difficult). Wondering If I need to make some phone calls to PGE... Needless to say, this is making my power bill nuts this year! Thanks.

 

[krdook9]

Rather than comparing costs, I'd take a look at your usage, you'll see it on your bill how much KwH :x you've used for electricty and gas. netgear login

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