The disproportionate increase in the price of fuel and electricity forces us to take stock of the question of whether the use of an electric car continues to have a lower cost per use than driving a diesel or petrol vehicle. We turned to the Peugeot 208, Europe’s best-selling car, to prove it.
Electricity rates and the price of gasoline and diesel have risen sharply in recent months due to the controversial economic and political situation prevailing in the world. The increased energy cost it’s common knowledge and it doesn’t look like the situation will change anytime soon.
This increase in rates is evident every time we visit a gas station or use a charging station. Until now, charging the battery of an electric vehicle has always been considerably cheaper than filling the tank of an equivalent combustion engine car, but in this new scenario it’s always like that ?
Take the example of the Peugeot 208, The best-selling model in Europe and it also has petrol, diesel and electric versions. This range of mobility options is perhaps one of the reasons for the success of the second generation of the French utility vehicle.
Three-quarters of B-segment sales correspond to petrol versions. The 208 offers three options for this fuel with 75, 100 and 130 hp. Knowing that the current cost of a liter of 95 petrol is around €2.20/litre, a petrol Peugeot 208 would cost €11.60/100 km. The price is made without counting the transients discount of 20 cents per litergovernment bonus that applies to all Spanish gas stations.
If we are interested in the diesel pump, the 208 range offers a single diesel variant of 100 hp. Here things improve from an economic point of view both because the fuel cost is lower, around €1.90/litre, and because of the low consumption that the French model is capable of. ‘reach. The result is that on average with diesel there is an expense of 7.60€/100 km.
Continuing with the example of the 208, in the offer with the Zero label of the city brand with the lion is the Peugeot e-208. It is one of the best-selling electric cars and it is powered by a 100 kW (136 hp) electric motor. With its 50 kWh lithium-ion battery, you can achieve a autonomy up to 362 km according to the WLTP cycle.
Does driving 100 km with an electric car cost more or less than with a thermal car?
The short answer is “it depends”. Yes, using an electric vehicle can be significantly more expensive depending on the load conditions. Indeed, the price range for a recharge is very wide: recharging an e-208 at 100% can cost between €1.5 and €39.5.
Most users charge their electric car at home. It is a simple question of practicality but also This is the most economical option, especially if you take advantage of rates with time discrimination.. Many electricity companies divide the prices into several periods (peak hours from 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., off-peak hours from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. and from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Dear.
The price range is wide between the cheapest tariff with discrimination on the market (€0.03/kWh) and a single tariff without hourly discrimination (€0.31/kWh). In these cases, a full charge of the e-208 will be between €1.50 and €15.50, respectively. In other words, with a domestic recharge the cost will be between 0.5 and 3.6 €/100 km.
This is a very substantial reduction compared to petrol and diesel options which confirms that the cost of use is significantly lower in electric cars, which makes it possible to compensate for the higher selling price of BEVs with the passage of kilometers. The comparison is even more disproportionate if the dwelling has a self-consumption installation, for example with photovoltaic panelsbecause the cost of the load can be directly zero.
Things can change if you resort to public chargers, taking advantage of the fact that the Peugeot e-208 has a charging power of up to 100 kW in direct current. Again, the price range can be very wide, ranging from €0.20/kWh to €0.79/kWh on the most expensive ultra-fast charging network.
In this way, In public charging, the cost of using the e-208 can vary between €3.40 and €13.60/100 km. The upper end of this range makes the cost of running an electric car more expensive than petrol and diesel alternatives. Obviously, the great advantage of this type of network is the higher charging speed and, in general, public charging points are used occasionally because they are reserved for emergency situations or long journeys.