Electric vehicles were originally pitched as a way to reduce the environmental impact caused by automobiles, but with time the lower cost of owning an EV became a selling point. While car buyers are still confused about the costs involved in driving electric cars, one TikTok user, Ruby, also known as @larubyacevedo, recently sparked a debate after sharing her monthly energy expenses for her EVs. She mentioned how long she charged her two electric cars for, how much distance she covered, and how much she paid every day. In response to this, users were quick to argue about the true cost of driving EVs.
An EV Household's Charging Expense
In her viral video, Ruby shared her family's energy costs for the month, which includes charging two cars at night. She said that both she and her husband drive their cars for about 80 to 100 miles a day, and they plug them in every night during off-peak hours, that is between 9:00 pm and 8:00 am.
She further mentioned that they have solar panels installed at their home as well which subsidizes the costs. However, she has two chargers at home, which require a lot of electricity. Using the details shared by Ruby, the DailyDot calculated how much it costs to charge two cars per day. Assuming that each car covers a distance of 80 miles every day in a month and all of the electricity worth $130 is used to charge the cars, it would approximately cost the couple $4.33 per day to charge each car.
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However, several viewers in the comments pointed out that they may not be using all the electricity to charge their cars and even if they do, they are still saving a lot. "I pay $120 every 2 weeks for a 31 gallon (120 Litre) tank of gas with a truck, our SUV was $80 per 2 weeks and that's nowhere near driving that far," @hetkomtallemaalin1maag admitted.
Some also pointed out that there are more costs associated with EVs apart from electricity. "Wait until you have to replace the batteries on those two EV cars. That's where all your savings will go to replacing those batteries," @joe2024_93 suggested.
Are EVs Really That Cheap?
Fuel costs remain the primary reason for people to go for EVs and hence CNET went ahead and crunched the numbers to find out if EVs were cheaper in the long run. According to the tech publication, it was found that the monthly cost of charging an EV in the US is about $66.66. On the other hand, the cost of fueling a gas-powered car to run the same distance would be $182.50, based on the average fuel and electricity prices. Hence, per year, EVs would cost $799.92 and gas cars would cost $2,190 on average.
Another point to note here is that the cost was solely based on the price of electricity. However, as seen in another case of a Tesla user, there are plenty of additional costs associated with charging EVs.
When a user known by the handle @Tesla_GTownTX on X (formerly Twitter), shared a screenshot of their $2.37 bill for charging a Tesla for a year, users were quick to point out a big catch.
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Sharp users who took a closer look, pointed out that the EV owner used a Tesla Powerall to charge their car, which costs $15,300 to install before taxes.
For more such videos about electric vehicles, follow @larubyacevedo on TikTok.
