How expensive must the electricity be before it becomes more expensive to drive an electric car than an ordinary petrol or diesel car?

This is a question and a number of readers have asked Nettavisen recently.

Electricity prices are on the rise and it is expected to be high throughout the winter.

And the short answer is that we are not that far away from the situation where electricity is as expensive as petrol, and in some situations it is already much more expensive.

The long answer is that it depends a lot on what kind of car you drive and what you pay at the pump.

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How much cost actually power?

It is very simple to calculate the fuel cost of a petrol or diesel car: Take the pump price as a starting point and check how high the usual consumption of your car is.

The diesel price is currently 15-18 kroner. With an average consumption of 0.4 liters per mile, it costs you 6-7 kroner per mile in pure fuel costs.

For electric cars is far more complicated: the electricity price consists of a large number of elements – both fixed and variable. You have both a spot price, the electricity companies’ surcharge, grid rent, electricity tax, VAT and payment to the energy fund. Electricity certificates and guarantee of origin may also appear.

When man calculates most of this, your total electricity price becomes the following:

• Spot price on the Nordpool power exchange of NOK 1 (excl. VAT), gives a total electricity price of NOK 1.97
• If the spot price increases to DKK 2, the price will be DKK 3.22
• If the spot price increases to DKK 3, the price will be DKK 4.46
• If the spot price increases to DKK 4, the price will be DKK 5.71
• (Prices will vary somewhat with which network provider and electricity agreement you have. We have calculated the marginal cost, and monthly fees are in addition to monthly prices. The network rent for Elvia is 44.80 øre)

PS! On Tuesday, the spot price in the eastern region is around NOK 1.1 per kWh – plus VAT and taxes. This means that you have to pay around 2.1 kroner per. KWh. In the UK, the price of the latter in recent weeks has been around 18 (!) Kroner per. KWh.

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But even when you know the price of electricity, it is easy to know how much it will cost to charge the battery:

In the charging process itself, a lot of electricity is lost in, among other things, heat loss, so you have to pay for electricity that you are not allowed to use. This charging wallpaper can be in a way 10-25 percent, depending on car and charging power.

If you have to fill up with 10 kWh of electricity, you have to pay 11.5 kWh with a 15 percent charge loss.

Below we have examples of how much it costs:

• Total electricity price 2 kroner: 23 kroner for 10 kWh on the battery (2 * 10 * 1.15)
• Total electricity price 3 kroner: 34.5 kroner for 10 kWh on the battery

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So high will be the price per. Mile

The power consumption of electric cars varies a lot, but the normal is between 1.4 and 2.5 kWh per. Mile. Statistics Norway uses 2 kWh as a common measure.

Below we have calculated the electricity cost per mile given different electricity prices and consumption.

The price for driving a petrol or diesel car also varies with both pump price and consumption.

• Does the fuel cost 16 kroner per. Liters, and you have a consumption of 0.4 liters per. Mile.
• If the fuel costs 17 kroner per liter, and you have a consumption of 0.5 liters per mile, it gives a price per mile of 8.5 kroner.
• If the consumer increases to 0.8 liters per mile, the cost will be 13.6 kroner.

This means that even at a spot price of around DKK 1.5, the price difference for liquid fuel can become vanishingly small.

PS! In the UK, they have experienced price peaks of around 18 (!) Kroner per. KWh in recent weeks.

The prices of fast charging have gone up

It is worth pointing out that the prices of fast charging have passed up quite significantly after electricity prices started to improve.

• Tesla states an average price of 3.61 kroner / kWh
• Recharging (formerly Fortum) takes 5.75 kroner / kWh for lightning chargers over 50 kW. For ordinary 50 kW, the price is 3.5 kroner per. Minute – minimum 4.2 kroner per. KWh.
• More (formerly Green Contact) takes 3.75 kroner / kWh + 1.25 kroner per minute – approximately 4.5-5 kroner per. KWh depending on power

It is usually somewhat lower charging loss on lightning charging compared to regular charging switch. But even if we do not calculate any charge loss, the price is one lightning charger already at the level or above what you can expect to pay for petrol and diesel.

Little to save on charging at night

A common tip is to charge the electric car at night. Especially in periods of high electricity prices, it tends to be a lot to save by shifting consumption. Prices have often been very high in the morning and when people come home from work in the afternoon.

This is exactly the case in the UK and Denmark, among others, at the moment: Prices at the most expensive times are about 100 per cent higher than in the cheapest times.

But in Norway, there is relatively little to gain from shifting consumption from expensive to cheap periods for the price of electricity. The reason is that there is a general deficit in electricity, not that it is particularly challenging to supply electricity for periods of highest consumption. Thus, there is little discount to pick up at night.

On Monday, for example, the price difference between charging right after work hours, and the cheapest time of day, is only 15 percent.

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