Electricity Costs for Charging

The fuel efficiency of an all-electric vehicle may be measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) per 100
miles rather than miles per gallon. To calculate the cost per mile of an all-electric vehicle, the
cost of electricity (in dollars per kWh) and the efficiency of the vehicle (how much electricity is
used to travel 100 miles) must be known. If electricity costs $0.11 per kWh and the vehicle
consumes 34 kWh to travel 100 miles, the cost per mile is about $0.04.
The Nissan LEAF uses lithium-ion batteries, just like your laptop and your cell phone, but it uses a lot more of them.
It can charge overnight (8 hours) at a 220/240-volt Nissan charging dock that's installed in your garage. It can also
charge at a 110/120-volt outlet, the kind you plug your laptop and cell phone into, but it'll take far, far longer.
- The sexy Tesla Roadster uses lithium-ion batteries, too, but the 240-volt Tesla High Power Wall Connector, as they
call it, can charge that baby in a mere 3.5 hours. But before you open your wallet, you should know that this is also
one of the most expensive EVs on the road.
- A little neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV), like the cars from GEM (Global Electric Motorcars), useslead-acid
batteries. This technology is older, proven to be reliable and charges in about 6 to 8 hours at a standard 110-volt
outlet. So what's the tradeoff? A maximum speed of just 25 miles per hour (40.2 kilometers per hour).

It depends on the car, but it's not unusual to find electric vehicles that can travel between 50
and 80 miles (80.5 and 128.7 kilometers) on a charge. If you want to get really sporty, you
could invest in a Tesla electric sports car -- the Model S can get up to 300 miles (482.8
kilometers) on a single charge!

The range of this car is about 50 miles (80 km).

The 0-to-60 mph time is about 15 seconds.

It takes about 12 kilowatt-hours of electricity to charge the car after a 50-mile trip.

The batteries weigh about 1,100 pounds (500 kg).

The batteries last three to four years.

To compare the cost per mile of gasoline cars to this electric car, here's an example.
Electricity in North Carolina is about 8 cents per kilowatt-hour right now (4 cents if you use
time-of-use billing and recharge at night). That means that for a full recharge, it costs $1 (or
50 cents with time-of-use billing). The cost per mile is therefore 2 cents per mile, or 1 cent
with time-of-use. If gasoline costs $1.20 per gallon and a car gets 30 miles to the gallon, then
the cost per mile is 4 cents per mile for gasoline.
Clearly, the "fuel" for electric vehicles costs a lot less per mile than it does
for gasoline vehicles. And for many, the 50-mile range is not a limitation -- the average person
living in a city or suburb seldom drives more than 30 or 40 miles per day.
The controller takes power from the batteries and delivers it to themotor. The accelerator
pedal hooks to a pair of potentiometers(variable resistors), and these potentiometers
provide the signal that tells the controller how much power it is supposed to deliver. The
controller can deliver zero power (when the car is stopped), full power (when the driver floors
the accelerator pedal), or any power level in between.