How Much Does it Cost to Charge a Model 3? - YouTube

On this episode we're gonna help you figure out how much it's gonna cost to

charge your model 3 next on Now You Know

so maybe you're already on the reservation list for the model three or

maybe you're still running the numbers to see if it makes sense for you either

way you know that traditionally one of the biggest expenses in owning any car

is the cost to power it we've been driving our Model 3 for a few

months now so we have a good idea of what it's going to cost you we've all

grown up with ice or internal combustion engine cars so most people know what

they cost a fuel you take the number of miles that you expect to drive in a year

and divide that by the miles per gallon and multiply that by the current price

of gas per gallon so for instance this 2018 outtie 84 which starts at 36,000

dollars is a pretty good equivalent to the model 3 in terms of size and price

and it gets up to 27 miles per gallon city 37 miles per gallon highway if we

were considering buying this Audi and let's say we drive the number of miles

that an average American does every year 12,000 miles and the price of gas is 2

dollars and 49 cents per gallon we'd be looking at around 375 gallons of gas or

933 dollars per year in gasoline with an electric car it's a similar calculation

but the terms are new and a bit strange to us because we're not used to them yet

to help us compare apples to apples when looking at different cars

the EPA rates electric cars with mpg II or miles per gallon equivalent even

though EVs like the model 3 don't burn gasoline the model 3 has an MP GE of 126

now that is helpful if we compare it to the Audi with an average mpg of 32

because we can see that the model 3 gets almost a hundred miles more per gallon

equivalent but it's not exactly helpful in figuring out our actual electricity

costs in running the model 3 with the model 3 we now have to deal with the

price of electricity or price per kilowatt hour instead of the price of a

gallon of gasoline and we have to adjust ourselves to miles per kilowatt hour

instead of miles per gallon okay so let's figure this out first let's figure

out how many miles per kilowatt hour it takes to drive the model 3 the rated

miles per kilowatt hour for the model 3 with the long range battery

is four point one five miles per kilowatt hour a kilowatt hour of

electricity costs anywhere from about eight cents per kilowatt hour in

Washington or Louisiana to our home state of Massachusetts which has one of

the highest prices of electricity at 22 cents per kilowatt hour

the average cost of electricity in the United States is 13 cents per kilowatt

hour so let's say you plan on driving 12,000 miles a year in the model 3 and

you live in Washington State so you divide 12,000 miles by four point one

five miles per kilowatt hour and you get two thousand eight hundred and ninety

two kilowatt hours of electricity now multiply that by the price in Washington

of eight cents per kilowatt hour and we get 231 dollars if you live in

Massachusetts that same twelve thousand miles would cost you six hundred and

thirty six dollars you can look at your electricity bill and see the rate you

were paying and figure out how much it will cost to charge at home keep in mind

that many states have lower rates during off-peak times of day and you can

usually take advantage of this by telling the model 3 when to start

charging in fact you're helping the grid to when you charge off-peak so it's a

win-win if you want to know how much it will cost to charge at a supercharger

just go to this Tesla link and look up the state you'll be charging in and use

that price per kilowatt hour if you don't want to do any math but just want

to get a sense of what the model 3 will save you compared to a comparable ice

car like the Audi a4 then let's use averages we'll pretend that you drive

the average 12000 miles per year and pay the average 13 cents per kilowatt hour

for the Model 3 and 2 dollars and 49 cents a gallon for that ow d so here it

is what the math done for you the Audi will cost 933 dollars and the model 3

will cost 375 dollars that's 558 dollars less per year as you can see electric

cars like the model 3 are far more energy efficient than ice cars and cost

a lot less to power the average American keeps their car for about 7 years so

that would be a savings of almost $4,000 and this is if gas and electricity

prices stay where they are because oil is a finite resource and gets harder to

cover drill and pump it is expected to go up in price whereas electricity which

is being made more and more by the Sun and wind every year is going to get

cheaper as these two prices continue to grow apart it will get cheaper and

cheaper to drive electric and more and more expensive to drive an ice car now

you know thanks so much for watching now you know we work hard to bring you

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