SoCal Efficiency
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Joined: Feb 2014
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From: Newport Beach California
SoCal Efficiency
So I live in Newport Beach and I live 100 yards from a Chargepoint. Because the Chargepoint is so close I didn't bother upgrading my home to a 220 over the standard 110. My reason for this was because well to install a 220 it would cost easily a grand if not more and I felt I would never recoup that cost or at least it would take an infinite amount of time and the 100 yard walk for me (200 yard back and forth) is perhaps a good walk for me to do while charging up the car.
That was fine for about a year and then after a year it hit me that Charging at a Chargepoint isn't really cost effective vs gas as much as one would believe... So if my car is dead it charges up to full in 3.5 hours for an average cost of about $5.30. so that's $5.30 for 42 miles. Gas over here right now is $5.18 for regular and $5.54 for Premium and our cars get about 38 miles per gallon... So Damn this isn't really cost saving and I might just start charging at home when I can at the 11-12 hour timespan and just Chargepoint when I really need to but regardless if Gas doesn't go up and stays under 6 dollars and Electricity doesn't come down I'm just going to use more gas. I know the Volta are free but they charge at a very slow rate and I always seem to run into the ones that don't work. The amount of fighting to get a Volta always made me feel it wasn't worth it because I never really cared about spending the few dollars to charge, lol.
Am I missing something here???? I'm even wondering if I should have just gotten a 350, but I did get the tax credit on mine so it wasn't so bad to upgrade to the 450+ F Sport, and I suppose I am future-proofed for a little while at least.
That was fine for about a year and then after a year it hit me that Charging at a Chargepoint isn't really cost effective vs gas as much as one would believe... So if my car is dead it charges up to full in 3.5 hours for an average cost of about $5.30. so that's $5.30 for 42 miles. Gas over here right now is $5.18 for regular and $5.54 for Premium and our cars get about 38 miles per gallon... So Damn this isn't really cost saving and I might just start charging at home when I can at the 11-12 hour timespan and just Chargepoint when I really need to but regardless if Gas doesn't go up and stays under 6 dollars and Electricity doesn't come down I'm just going to use more gas. I know the Volta are free but they charge at a very slow rate and I always seem to run into the ones that don't work. The amount of fighting to get a Volta always made me feel it wasn't worth it because I never really cared about spending the few dollars to charge, lol.
Am I missing something here???? I'm even wondering if I should have just gotten a 350, but I did get the tax credit on mine so it wasn't so bad to upgrade to the 450+ F Sport, and I suppose I am future-proofed for a little while at least.
Last edited by darkloki; Aug 18, 2023 at 12:57 AM.
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Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 536
Likes: 218
From: Florida
Did you get the Tax break on the Charger and Installation? I think you can get upto $1,000 back on your taxes. I've got all of my receipts, ChargePoint Charger and Electrician charges and will claim it this year.
Last edited by SgtLip; Aug 18, 2023 at 04:26 PM. Reason: typo
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Joined: Aug 2023
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
From: CA
I did the math in SoCal too and I came to the same conclusion that charging at the nearby external stations costs more than gas and yeah, free stations seemed limited. I didn't do the at-home analysis since I can't charge at home at the moment. I figured the way to save money would be if someone's workplace has free charging.
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