Rising electricity costs to affect transition to electric vehicles

Wholesale electricity costs are at their peak levels in years, and this is having a knock-on effect for anything that uses electricity, the running prices of the average EV may also rise. The United Kingdom has responded by burning more gas to generate electricity, but gas costs are at a record high. The result is that wholesale electricity prices are at their highest levels in years. One benefit of owning an electric vehicle (EV) is that they are normally cheaper to run, even if the price of purchasing one is higher. On average, driving an EV for 100 miles will cost about £4-6, against £13-16 in a diesel or petrol car. In the first half of the prior decade, almost all public chargers in the UK were free to use. While it is correct that fossil-fuel prices are increasing too, motorists want good reasons to shift to EVs. But as electricity costs increase – and with them, the running prices of the average EV may also rise. In 2019 and 2020, in the UK the average cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity was about 18p. An online quote from one of the big six energy providers of the UK presents an average cost of nearly 24p per kWh for September this year. Filling up an EV will still cost you half of what it costs to fuel a petrol or diesel car. But public charging rates differ wildly, from around 24p per kWh at some rapid chargers to 69p at other units at motorway service stations that give super-fast charging. The Evs' full charge will cost £34.50 at 69p, which is equivalent, or in some cases, more than using fossil fuels. But even so, the financial benefits of switching to an EV don’t seem so strong when electric prices are high. Many countries are building more resilient power networks based on producing electricity and storing that in huge grid-scale batteries known as megapacks to utilise when renewable electricity is not being generated. Electric cars could be a component of that storage too. Trials are ongoing to evaluate the viability of vehicle-to-grid technologies, which allow car batteries to transfer their power to the local grid during a shortage. In an energy crisis, rather than being costlier to fuel, EVs, and their huge grid-connected batteries, could help to prevent future crises, and high costs. Image SourceAlso read: EV Jagat launched in India to boom in country’s EV sector