Charging road trip costs

[jn bot]

I went from Santa Rosa ca to Oceanside ca to GRAND Canyon and back to Santa Rosa and paid about average $.63 cents per kilowatt hour at the chargers including Rivian .What is everybody else paying out there? My fill ups were in Colinga /Harris Ranch )California ,Oceanside, California . Barstow Ca. Boulder City Nevada and Kingman, Arizona twice. and finally Livermore Ca... I pay $.13 pkh at home. It seems almost equivalent to gas prices per mile on the road .Am I wrong? By the way when I got to our son‘s house in Oceanside, I had 2 miles left of range. The car never slowed down, though I did.although it warned me at 50 miles that I needed to charge. I promise I won’t let that happen again.. almost 5 times as much on the road is at home. That speaks to something.

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[mkhuffman]

It is less in VA, but what you paid seems about right for CA. You can reduce your cost if you join a network. For example, Tesla will give you a discount if you join. I don't have a paid membership because I don't travel enough to make it worthwhile, but it is worth it if you plan to do that drive fairly often.

The RAN sometimes gives a discount for Rivian owners, but still in my experience the RAN is more expensive than the Tesla SC network. Especially if you have a membership. I prefer the RAN because it typically is less congested and there are no problems getting the charging cable to reach.

 

[schwartz83]

Napkin math for me in the Midwest is DCFC rates are approximately equivalent to gas. I get the Tesla membership if I know I'll be charging more than once - which is pretty much every trip - so that helps a bit. I figure every mile I drive within range of my house is about a third the price of gas. Again - napkin math.

 

[KBabione]

Yes - road trips are more expensive, but for most of us, the majority of our charging is done at home so your average cost per KWH drops considerably. We've had a lot of longer trips lately so we finally pulled the trigger on a Tesla membership. It really makes a difference in the cost - especially when compared to Rivan or EA (the other two networks around us). PA also has enough "Open to non-Tesla" chargers so we can usually hit one when needed.

As others have mentioned before, look for hotels with L2 chargers (often free) where you can charge overnight to further lower your KWH cost per trip. When we travel to Columbus to see one of our twins at Ohio State, the garage next to the campus hotel (The Blackwell) has ChargePoint L2 chargers that are REALLY slow (especially if someone is sharing yours), but also really cheap. I typically arrive in Columbus with less than 20% SOC and get up above 70% overnight the first night and then get to 95% the second night so we're leaving with a full charge.

The other thing you'll notice is that, on trips you make frequently, it really becomes a non-event (i.e. little to no planning) when you figure out where you want/need to stop each way. Penn State, where our other twin daughter goes, is 125 miles away so a round-trip is just a little too tight without charging. We've found that a 10-15 minute stop at a Sheetz with Tesla chargers on the way to State College gives us plenty of juice to get home with 15-20% SOC without another stop.

 

[azbill]

Rivian chargers are the most expensive in CA and AZ. I have EA and Tesla memberships and typically pay $0.42 to $0.54/kwh on my trips. I am headed to Burbank from Phoenix this weekend and will use EA and Tesla. Driving my Mach E on this trip, it is more efficient and has BlueCruise.

 

[Deacon]

Charged at RAN in Charlotte yesterday - I was delighted to see that Rivian is now charging lower rates for Rivian owners. Yeah!

 

[azbill]

Charged at RAN in Charlotte yesterday - I was delighted to see that Rivian is now charging lower rates for Rivian owners. Yeah!

Here is Kingman AZ, similar prices in CA.

With memberships, EA and Tesla are 0.42 and 0.45 respectively.

 

[ukyank]

Generally try to avoid Rivian chargers

 

[Deacon]

Generally try to avoid Rivian chargers

RAN in Charlotte was cheaper than any other options in the area and it is next to 3 restaurants and an REI store.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Charged at RAN in Charlotte yesterday - I was delighted to see that Rivian is now charging lower rates for Rivian owners. Yeah!

Point of clarity. They are only charging lesser rates for Rivian Vehicles. If you own a Rivian and charge another manufacturer's vehicle, you pay the higher rate. I wish it weren't so, but alas..

 

[azbill]

Point of clarity. They are only charging lesser rates for Rivian Vehicles. If you own a Rivian and charge another manufacturer's vehicle, you pay the higher rate. I wish it weren't so, but alas..

Have you been able to use the Rivian app to start the charge on a non-Rivian? I tried this once with my Hummer, and it forced me to use a CC. The app kept stating it could not connect to charger, maybe because it was in a remote area with poor cell service.

It does appear that the GM discount on EVGO will work with other vehicles, since it is tied to the "driver" account not the vehicle. Need to test that.

 

[R1TandMe]

Charged at a Buccee’s for $.26
What a f..ing mad house

 

[Dark-Fx]

Have you been able to use the Rivian app to start the charge on a non-Rivian? I tried this once with my Hummer, and it forced me to use a CC. The app kept stating it could not connect to charger, maybe because it was in a remote area with poor cell service.

I did try, several times at different stations. Never works. I might bring my GM Diagnostics stuff the next time and actually dig into what the car is saying about it, if anything.

 

[BTOR]

I went from Santa Rosa ca to Oceanside ca to GRAND Canyon and back to Santa Rosa and paid about average $.63 cents per kilowatt hour at the chargers including Rivian .What is everybody else paying out there? My fill ups were in Colinga /Harris Ranch )California ,Oceanside, California . Barstow Ca. Boulder City Nevada and Kingman, Arizona twice. and finally Livermore Ca... I pay $.13 pkh at home. It seems almost equivalent to gas prices per mile on the road .Am I wrong? By the way when I got to our son‘s house in Oceanside, I had 2 miles left of range. The car never slowed down, though I did.although it warned me at 50 miles that I needed to charge. I promise I won’t let that happen again.. almost 5 times as much on the road is at home. That speaks to something.

Hello, I am not exactly sure what you're asking. Are you saying that charging stations are looking at gas prices and adjusting their price/kWh to be approximately equivalent to gas prices?

If so, setting kWh prices to match gas prices per mile on the road a fueling station would need to pick an average MPG and an average efficiency for an EV. You could then calculate a kWh price that matched the local gas price (at least approximate it). For example, In your case, at $0.63/kWh if we assume an avg ICE MPG of 20 mpg and avg efficiency of 3.1 miles/kWh it would yield an average gas price of $4/gal. (which is probably pretty close if you look at the average $/gal avg. between CA and AZ). Using the same price/gal and mpg, and an efficiency more like 2.5 miles/kWh, the price per kWh would need to be more like $0.50/kWh to be equivalent to $4/gal. So in this scenario, vehicle energy costs are higher for the EV than an ICE that averaged 20 mpg. Of course, as we all know, EV owners don't buy EV's to save money on vehicle energy cost, rather it is a a way to pay forward and reduce toxic emissions. Now calculate how many kg of CO2 you prevented from being released into our environment during your adventure. That is something to smile about .

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