Commute energy cost calculator tool

I just found this energy cost calculator tool from U.C. Davis. It compares up to ICE and/or electric vehicle commute energy costs. You can customize it for your particular commute, your specific energy ($/KWh cost), whether or not you can charge at work (and if you pay to charge at work), etc. My Leaf is the lowest cost for my particular commute. Of course I'm preaching to the choir, but you can share with people that are on the fence...

http://gis.its.ucdavis.edu/evexplorer/

Nice. You can even modify the cars for comparison, their mileage and even home energy rates. Makes the Prius look downright expensive and wasteful to drive.

Very slick!

Seems a little inaccurate… With free charging at the destination, it costs me $112/year for a Leaf. Doesn't seem to be estimating non-commute driving either. I changed it to a 53-mi RTT, and it jumped to $406/yr.

When calculating prices at the destination, it seems pretty accurate, but still wrong. For a 20-mile RTT, $0.10/kWh charging, it comes out to ~$130. The calculator says $188.

Not sure what's going on… I checked all the settings on the car manager.

After playing around with other settings, it looks like the Leaf specifically is broken. The Volt and Prius both worked when changing the range and MPG, but the Leaf does nothing when you change the range (in terms of costs). It looks like the calculator is using the wrong value for it's efficiency.

Edit: Even that wasn't right. Using its forced 114MPG, it comes out to $155/yr.
Edit 2: I found the home electric settings. Again, proving the Leaf is broken, I set home electric to $0, and now the leaf can't drive 20 miles, according to this calc.

here is simple one:

total miles driven x cost per mile

cost per mile = (your cost per kWh) * (1.1 for charging losses) / (your average miles/kWh)

in my case we drive aprox 14000 miles per year and my cost per mile is $0.0117 cents ( I get 5 cents per kwh rate from dominion EV plan) so plugging in all the numbers comes out to $164 per year for us :mrgreen: . This checks out with our last electric bill where leaf consumed $13 worth of electricity in June. We use to spend $2000-2500 in gas each year :roll:

EV Explorer calculator showed $295 for my commute to work and back probably using normal dominion kWh rate which is 11 cents.

I say you can get much more accurate calculation using the method above.

That's very cool but it doesn't provide options for waypoints (at least that I've found). Home to office is only 2 miles but there are several waypoints required instead of direct home to office.

still, very cool

NasGoreList said:

I say you can get much more accurate calculation using the method above.

Click to expand...

A little more accurate way would be to divide by the charging efficiency, not multiply charging losses.

(utility $/kWH rate) ÷ (mi/kWh rating) ÷ (90% charging efficiency)

@NasGoreList: I think if you modified the cost per KWh in the tool's settings, you may come closer to your "real" numbers. Any generalized tool calculation has to make certain assumptions to come close to the average user's experience. You're driving efficiency (mi/KWh) is certainly not the same as everyone else, as well as the charging efficiency.

Hmart said:

@NasGoreList: I think if you modified the cost per KWh in the tool's settings, you may come closer to your "real" numbers. Any generalized tool calculation has to make certain assumptions to come close to the average user's experience. You're driving efficiency (mi/KWh) is certainly not the same as everyone else, as well as the charging efficiency.

Click to expand...

I adjusted the tool so it gives me estimate for 14000 miles per year at 5 cents per kWh with 90 mile range and 5 hours charging. I get $219

NasGoreList said:

Hmart said:

@NasGoreList: I think if you modified the cost per KWh in the tool's settings, you may come closer to your "real" numbers. Any generalized tool calculation has to make certain assumptions to come close to the average user's experience. You're driving efficiency (mi/KWh) is certainly not the same as everyone else, as well as the charging efficiency.

Click to expand...

I adjusted the tool so it gives me estimate for 14000 miles per year at 5 cents per kWh with 90 mile range and 5 hours charging. I get $219

Click to expand...

The calc ignores the range for rates.

At those parameters, it would be closer to $175.

The tool is really meant for people considering their first EV. If you've already got one, great, but if the tool was too complicated then it would just further intimidate the uninitiated.

asimba2 said:

The tool is really meant for people considering their first EV. If you've already got one, great, but if the tool was too complicated then it would just further intimidate the uninitiated.

Click to expand...

That's why it has configuration options. Defaults are great for estimating on unknowns. The problem is that the options are not used properly. If I'm getting 100 miles per 21kWh (100mi range), why is it still using 70mi range (114MPG)?

mctom987 said:

.... I found the home electric settings. Again, proving the Leaf is broken, I set home electric to $0, and now the leaf can't drive 20 miles, according to this calc.

Click to expand...

Setting the electric price to 0 seems to be what breaks the logic of the tool. 0.00000001 or something similar allows the range side of the calculation to still work.

cwstnsko said:

mctom987 said:

.... I found the home electric settings. Again, proving the Leaf is broken, I set home electric to $0, and now the leaf can't drive 20 miles, according to this calc.

Click to expand...

Setting the electric price to 0 seems to be what breaks the logic of the tool. 0.00000001 or something similar allows the range side of the calculation to still work.

Click to expand...

Maybe a division by 0 error?
Strangely, the Prius and Volt still work, even in electric-only ranges.