4 ms·

Wouldn't that be a bit too variable to estimate? If you charge your car during the day, it would cost a lot more than charging at night. I think in the bay ar

Wouldn't that be a bit too variable to estimate? If you charge your car during the day, it would cost a lot more than charging at night. I think in the bay area, it's around 5 cents per kWh in commercial zones during off-peak hours, so a full "tank" for the 60kWh battery pack would cost you around $3 -- that's almost the cost of half a gallon of gas!

cynwoody 14y ago
For the 60 kwh model, 60 kwh would go 171 miles, so that's 1.75¢ per mile. (Although Tesla claims a range of 300 miles at 55 mph.) I didn't know off-peak rates were so cheap.
nsxwolf 14y ago
When everyone starts to buy electric cars, won't we start getting closer to 24 peak hours a day?
- epistasis 14y ago
  Interesting question! Obviously this isn't a problem that's going to happen any time soon. But if you look at a random day of usage for the California ISO (actually, the only one I could find) [1], peak load was 30,000 MW and between midnight and 6AM load was around 22,000 MW. So that's 48,000 MWh, or 48,000,000 KWh, and at 100miles/38KWh, that's 126 million miles of excess capacity in those hours on the West coast. If the average commute is ~30 miles round trip, that's 4 million commuters in California, just from current excess capacity at night time. Needless to say, it will be a while before Tesla ships 1 million cars in California, much less 4 million. http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/mkt-electric/california/CAISO-rto-dly-rpt.pdf http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/mkt-electric/california...
- secabeen 14y ago
  Even if we did, that would be good for the grid. Many power-generation technologies have high start-up and shut-down costs, and are most economical when they can be run 24/7. If we can get the variability of power demand lower, we can generate more power with economical means, and use less of the more-expensive and polluting methods.

cynwoody 14y ago

For the 60 kwh model, 60 kwh would go 171 miles, so that's 1.75¢ per mile. (Although Tesla claims a range of 300 miles at 55 mph.) I didn't know off-peak rates were so cheap.

nsxwolf 14y ago

When everyone starts to buy electric cars, won't we start getting closer to 24 peak hours a day?

epistasis 14y ago
Interesting question! Obviously this isn't a problem that's going to happen any time soon. But if you look at a random day of usage for the California ISO (actually, the only one I could find) [1], peak load was 30,000 MW and between midnight and 6AM load was around 22,000 MW. So that's 48,000 MWh, or 48,000,000 KWh, and at 100miles/38KWh, that's 126 million miles of excess capacity in those hours on the West coast. If the average commute is ~30 miles round trip, that's 4 million commuters in California, just from current excess capacity at night time. Needless to say, it will be a while before Tesla ships 1 million cars in California, much less 4 million. http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/mkt-electric/california/CAISO-rto-dly-rpt.pdf http://www.ferc.gov/market-oversight/mkt-electric/california...
secabeen 14y ago
Even if we did, that would be good for the grid. Many power-generation technologies have high start-up and shut-down costs, and are most economical when they can be run 24/7. If we can get the variability of power demand lower, we can generate more power with economical means, and use less of the more-expensive and polluting methods.