RAV4.5 Plug-In, how much does it cost to charge?

[Scottydog007]

So the range of the Plug-In is approx 50 miles, and this can be sufficient for a lot of people charging every day. Now I recently bought a RAV4 plug-in but had not put in much research on charging. My dealer installed a charge, so when I charge the car it takes approximately 2 hours and my smart meter states it is costing £2.87 per hour and the car gives a range of approx 50miles. Now I have no idea if this cost is good or bad.

Are there others that have found out a cost?

Now my energy supplier is OVO and they do not recognise this charger and so will not give me a deal, like night charging. British Gas installed this charger on behalf of Toyota. So maybe I need to change energy suppliers. Are there other good energy suppliers out there that people are using?

[ernieb]

If I charge my car at home from zero SOC then mine will take around 14kW/h at 34p/kWh so £4.76. My recent fuel fill was £1.42/ltr, let’s say 50mph then that would be £6.46.

EV still looks good to me.

[Strangely Brown]

57 minutes ago, Scottydog007 said:

So the range of the Plug-In is approx 50 miles, and this can be sufficient for a lot of people charging every day. Now I recently bought a RAV4 plug-in but had not put in much research on charging. My dealer installed a charge, so when I charge the car it takes approximately 2 hours and my smart meter states it is costing £2.87 per hour and the car gives a range of approx 50miles. Now I have no idea if this cost is good or bad.

My HEV costs 14p per mile on E5 fuel.

Your PHEV is costing 11.5p per mile for EV use. I would imagine in HEV mode it would be similar(ish) to mine but probably slightly better due to the larger Battery.

[AJones]

The full Battery capacity is 18kWh but not all will be useable and some will be reserved for the hybrid function, so a full charge will take be somewhat less than this, though exactly how much doesn't seem clear.

How much it costs depends on your tariff, the cheapest cost to charge is through a time of use EV tariff charging overnight. Octopus Go, off peak is 12p/kWh charging overnight. Other suppliers offer similar EV tariffs. Another option is a rdgular Economy 7 tariff, with cheaper overnight electric.

You might want to check how much electric you use for household stuff during the day and how much you could use off peak for charging the PHEV and other household uses, to see if a time of use tariff makes sense.

[NASY]

I work on around 15 Kwh from "empty" to full charge which equates to about £5.25 on my current tariff for an average 46 miles - 50 or so in summer maybe 40 in winter. So yes it's a little cheaper than petrol at the moment home charging, it also gives the more luxurious mode of travel that is the EV experience. I only use the 3 pin plug in cable as it charges at a rate that suits my needs. EV range does most of what I need locally and petrol delivers on long runs, I would baulk at the cost of running an EV with rapid charging costs at the current rates let alone the nause of having to find a charger and wait for a fill up, if it was working and there was no queue. This summer holiday season may be very interesting to see how the network of chargers meets the needs of the growing EV community, I honestly wish them well.

[Flatcoat]

You presumably have a Hive charger? If so you should have an app on your phone which can be set up to tell you the cost of each charge. Have OVO explained why they do not recognise the charger? What is your current electricity tariff rate per/kw hour? The chargeable element of the PHEV Battery is about 14.5kw so multiply that by your tariff rate to get an indicative cost. The official mileage range in EV mode is about 46 miles and in warm weather is often bettered by many owners (subject to driving style and conditions). In winter the range will fall off and quite dramatically in very cold weather. More so than with a ICE. The best real world actual range I have achieved is 49 miles. The worst in the recent cold weather was 35 miles. The range shown when charged is predicted and is and can only be a guide. Personally I wouldn’t look to change your supplier until energy rates fall into the summer when fixed rate deals will probably return to the market. As a rough assessment If you are paying less than 40p/kw then you are in front of petrol costs. My tariff is 27p/kw so each full charge is around £4 for circa 40+ miles of range compared with around £6.50 for a gallon of petrol probably giving a similar range. 

[nlee]

I was lucky enough to be on a 5p/kWh night rate until recently which worked out about 70p for a full charge but my 12 months ended and I had to renew at 12p/kWh which is still good.

Yes, the day rate is a couple of p/kWh more but we load shift big appliances overnight and it still works out around a 20% saving against the standard rate for the same use.

The cheapest I think is Octopus Intelligent but it only works with certain car brands or Ohme chargers. That's 10p/kWh for a fixed 5 hour period plus additional periods when demand is low. It controls your charge. Unfortunately, neither your charger or the Toyota are compatible so the only other option on Octopus is Octopus Go which works with any charger or car combo, which I'm on and works out about £1.60 for a full charge.

[Scottydog007]

So how do I find out the cost / Kw hour? I have the Hive app that tells me I am getting 7.15 kWh and the smart meter tells me it is costing £2.90 per hour (no other electricity used else where). 
So that is working out as £0.40 / kW which sounds a lot.

[Graham47]

If you are with OVO then you should be able to see it either in the OVO App or on your most recent bill.

[philip42h]

44 minutes ago, Scottydog007 said:

So how do I find out the cost / Kw hour? I have the Hive app that tells me I am getting 7.15 kWh and the smart meter tells me it is costing £2.90 per hour (no other electricity used else where). 
So that is working out as £0.40 / kW which sounds a lot.

That will depend on the contract that you have with your electricity supplier. If, like many of us, you are on a standard variable tariff that will come out at around 34p per kWh under the current energy price guarantee. If the wholesale price remains as it is today, that will rise to around 52p per kWh when the energy price guarantee ends ...

[JDK-SL7]

I’m on the standard price cap and mine costs about £4.70 for full. 
 

 

[JDK-SL7]

I got this info by logging into my edf account that says I’m charged 34.27p cost on standard variable and entering that into my Podpoint charger app.

 

Hope this helps ! 

[JDK-SL7]

Standard variable tariff in the South East

[Flatcoat]

1 hour ago, Scottydog007 said:

So how do I find out the cost / Kw hour? I have the Hive app that tells me I am getting 7.15 kWh and the smart meter tells me it is costing £2.90 per hour (no other electricity used else where). 
So that is working out as £0.40 / kW which sounds a lot.

Pardon? Are you seriously saying you don’t know how much you pay for your energy?! 🤦‍♂️ Try looking at your last energy bill….. and presumably when charging your car your fridge and freezer are switched on plus possible items on stand by…… 

[Strangely Brown]

Bear in mind that some tariffs can charge more. e.g: JayEmmOnCars mentions in one of his videos that one tariff has great cheap rate price of 20(something) per kWh, but also 40(something) per kWh daytime.

It depends entirely on the provider and the specific deal that you are on. It should be on your bill.

[nlee]

If you are on the standard variable tariff, all providers currently have about the same rate because of the government price guarantee. It's more or less 36p/kWh, so you're not far off.

[PeterBQ]

I suggest you seriously consider the EDF Economy 7 tariff if it's available to you. I pay just under 7p per kWh at night (00:30 to 7:30), so just under a pound for a full charge.  The day-time tariff is high - 55p, so you need to calculate how much you use or could use at night. I also have storage batteries (10.4 kWh) which I charge overnight and use during the day, plus solar panels, so Economy 7 works very well for me. Worth considering but do your sums first by monitoring your meter carefully for a few weeks at least.

Incidentally, I get 59+ miles on a full charge in the Summer, and nearer 50 in the Winter. The counter stops at 59, so it could be more.  Depends a lot on how you drive of course, but the Power/Economy/Charge gauge helps a lot, and minimise use of the A/C and blowers.

[Hybrid21]

EDF prices rise on 1st April, absolutely shocking, something needs to be done. ☹️

 

[Hybrid21]

Although there is a form of price cap on the unit price,  it isn't stopping the energy companies raising their daily standing charges which in my opinion is daylight robbery 😕

[PeterBQ]

Thanks Hybrid21 - just checked and E7 going up to 14p off-peak and 47p day-time.  Still worth it for me, as the only similar rates are Octopus (12p on Go) and Intelligent Octopus but that won't yet work on Toyotas or Hive Chargers, but maybe one day.

[Scottydog007]

Ok, I have figured out how to work out cost and do a rough comparison with fuel.

So my Hive tells me it is taking 14.9 kWh to charge to give 50.3 miles range of electric. So far it has given this kind of range.

Tarif is with OVO = £0.36 per kWh

Total cost to charge = 0.36 x 14.9 = £5.36 for 50 miles. Also equivalent to what the car does to a gallon.

1 gallon (uk) = 4.54 Lts  @ £1.45 per Litre one gallon = £6.58

6.58 - 5.36 =  £1.22 saving on electrical for 50 miles range.

incidentally my old RAV4.4 would do an average of 45mpg this new RAV4.5 I have fully figured out but is doing at least 50mpg possibly upper 50’s. So this comparison is not fully true.

[philip42h]

So on your current tariff you are paying about 11p / mile for EV motoring.

Without the Energy Price Guarantee (government discount) you'd by paying around 70p per kWh - which would equate to around 21p / mile for EV motoring. (Let's all hope that wholesale prices fall a bit before the government discount goes completely.)

It's difficult to get a sensible fossil fuel cost for running a PHEV (unless you stop charging it and run through a few tankfuls of petrol - which would be silly) because all the inefficient short trips are covered by EV motoring. You are only really going to use petrol on a much longer motorway trip and at that point the economy of the PHEV is going to be very similar to that of the HEV. On longer motorway journeys, at an indicated 70mph, I get around 47 mpg - your PHEV should too - and that works out at around 14p / mile at current fuel prices.

[Flatcoat]

On 3/25/2023 at 5:44 PM, PeterBQ said:

I suggest you seriously consider the EDF Economy 7 tariff if it's available to you. I pay just under 7p per kWh at night (00:30 to 7:30), so just under a pound for a full charge.  The day-time tariff is high - 55p, so you need to calculate how much you use or could use at night. I also have storage batteries (10.4 kWh) which I charge overnight and use during the day, plus solar panels, so Economy 7 works very well for me. Worth considering but do your sums first by monitoring your meter carefully for a few weeks at least.

Incidentally, I get 59+ miles on a full charge in the Summer, and nearer 50 in the Winter. The counter stops at 59, so it could be more.  Depends a lot on how you drive of course, but the Power/Economy/Charge gauge helps a lot, and minimise use of the A/C and blowers.

Is that predicted or actual range? And I am currently pay 27p/kw on a British Gas deal I got last year. 

[PeterBQ]

  That is the predicted range, but the trip meter usually ends up pretty similar, unless I have to use the blowers and A/C a lot (as in the current damp cold weather).  This is on country roads and normally about 40+ mile trips. I use Normal mode (not Eco or Sport), and probably use the brakes less than I used to in my Subaru, so steadier driving, but certainly not slow.   

EDF Economy 7 is doubling to nearly 14p off-peak on 1st April, but still a good deal and reckon it'll be the equivalent of a gallon of petrol for about £2.

[Sealiedog]

I'd have a look at Agile Octopus. The rate can vary every half hour and is always cheap overnight. You can get tomorrow's price breakdown the day before, so if you're prepared to keep an eye on it and make a few adjustments you can save money.