First Roadtrip- Wildly inefficient and expensive!

[ChronoDog]

I did not buy the CT because i thought it was going to save me money on fuel. in fact i live in a high rise that offers free charging so my typical weekly energy cost is basically zero. Been dying to take the CT for a quick road trip so I decided to run over to Lake Charles (from Houston) and spend the day at the sports book watching football. The FSD was absolutely fantastic I did take over a few times due to ridiculous road construction and some really bad weather but overall it was great. I had charged to 95% and got decent milage on the way there and my actual milage was only about 30% below the range estimate (which i thought was good considering I was going 75-80 the whole way.

Since i get free charging I really haven't paid much attention to comparing the efficiency but on the way back i went to a supercharger and it cost me $14 for 100 miles of range (which means I will get about 70 miles). My Mercedes SUV gets ~20mpg so 70 miles would be about 3.5 gallons, at $3.5 a gallon that is $12.25 to travel the same distance or $1.75 more to drive my CT than a gas car.

This is my first electric vehicle and maybe i am thinking about this wrong but I certainly never thought it would cost MORE to operate an electric vehicle than a gas one. I love this truck, probably the favorite car I have ever owned and taking this road trip was really a fantastic experience, driving with FSD is really relaxing and I arrived at the casino feeling totally rested and ready to go. Even at a higher cost it is worth taking the CT and I will be planning another trip soon but seems like they really need to work on the efficiency.

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[Sterling Shadow]

Just guessing you’ll make up that difference with 1 oil change on the Mercedes.

 

[Feathermerchant]

Well it's a pickup truck. My 2011 F150 COULD get 20 mpg but that was highway only and never over 70. My average Wh/mi is about 383. My Model Y and 3 are 274. But they are not trucks.

 

[kpanda17]

Three things

read this thread, all of the CTs driven normally get 325 miles of range on AS tires
https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/what-is-your-rated-100-range.46485/post-30655221

Compare range and mileage to a pickup, not to an SUV

use the in vehicle Tesla energy app, it will show you why you are not getting 380 wh/mile

keep the tonneau cover closed when driving
Don’t drive above 70 mph

 

[REM]

Your lifetime efficiency will always beat out ICE engines, and the price of gasoline is going to shockingly skyrocket in the next few years.

Regardless, driving an EV can yield super low TCO if you play the game right and charge for free. I've run several megawatts though my CT and more than 75% of it was from free chargers. Mostly at the gym.

 

[TexasRaider]

The CT is basically a 16MPG pickup truck - compared to the cost of gas when using the Tesla SCs at normal rates.
Some trucks are better, some trucks are worse.
But with the features that the CT has, it gets about 2MPG - cost wise better than the gas counterpart.
To counter that, I top off the CT at the local SC during non-peak hours for 50% off rates. (My local SC is $0.17 during off peak compared to $0.34)

 

[devdrone6]

A road trip comparison isn't valid when you are talking about cost - particularly because your cost for charging "at home" is completely different than at a supercharger. For an ICE vehicle your cost is the same regardless of "at home" or away as you have no choice of home made cheap fuel.

With an electric vehicle, your savings come from either the cheap cost of charging at home or even free in your case, or from Solar if you have.

Road trips - at least until cheaper super charging is available, will always cost a bit more. As TexasRaider mentioned, off peak charging is much cheaper, but that doesn't work on long trips.

I have friends that complained about the cost as well after taking a few long trips in their new Tesla, but neglect to factor in all the savings they get from charging at home 99% of the time, not to mention the maintenance costs. This is like people one hundred years ago complaining that cars can't drive all day like a horse due to lack of spots to fill up on gasoline.

If it wasn't for Tesla, most EV's today wouldn't get very far either. Until some other company is a viable competitor in the supercharging arena and we have cheaper sources of electricity, costs will be high.

I did not buy the CT because i thought it was going to save me money on fuel. in fact i live in a high rise that offers free charging so my typical weekly energy cost is basically zero. Been dying to take the CT for a quick road trip so I decided to run over to Lake Charles (from Houston) and spend the day at the sports book watching football. The FSD was absolutely fantastic I did take over a few times due to ridiculous road construction and some really bad weather but overall it was great. I had charged to 95% and got decent milage on the way there and my actual milage was only about 30% below the range estimate (which i thought was good considering I was going 75-80 the whole way.

Since i get free charging I really haven't paid much attention to comparing the efficiency but on the way back i went to a supercharger and it cost me $14 for 100 miles of range (which means I will get about 70 miles). My Mercedes SUV gets ~20mpg so 70 miles would be about 3.5 gallons, at $3.5 a gallon that is $12.25 to travel the same distance or $1.75 more to drive my CT than a gas car.

This is my first electric vehicle and maybe i am thinking about this wrong but I certainly never thought it would cost MORE to operate an electric vehicle than a gas one. I love this truck, probably the favorite car I have ever owned and taking this road trip was really a fantastic experience, driving with FSD is really relaxing and I arrived at the casino feeling totally rested and ready to go. Even at a higher cost it is worth taking the CT and I will be planning another trip soon but seems like they really need to work on the efficiency.

 

[Speedr]

Every hotel I stay at has destination charging. I ask up front what the costs are. Most are free, but when they do charge, it's usually not bad for a full charge. There are a TON of hotels with destination chargers..

 

[hemiarch]

I feel like a broken record here but to all you “free supercharging is worth less than 5k over the life of the car” people, I am once again calling BS. Especially on a Cybertruck.
This thread is another example of the shock of a new EV person to costs we have learned to ignore.
5k a year is closer.
OP, you are right. Tesla functionally has a monopoly on the EV charging market even though there are other competitors because of the head start they have. They can charge whatever they want and will still sell the juice.

 

[Speedr]

I feel like a broken record here but to all you “free supercharging is worth less than 5k over the life of the car” people, I am once again calling BS. Especially on a Cybertruck.
This thread is another example of the shock of a new EV person to costs we have learned to ignore.
5k a year is closer.
OP, you are right. Tesla functionally has a monopoly on the EV charging market even though there are other competitors because of the head start they have. They can charge whatever they want and will still sell the juice.

Seems like a valid point until you try and use other high-speed chargers, which all cost more, sometime significantly more.

In regards to the value of Free Supercharging, the 5,000 mile rule might make sense for most of the other, more efficient Tesla vehicles, but you are right about the Cybertruck. It's got a 123 kWh battery, and weighs the most of any Tesla vehicle, and is physically the largest as well (being a full-size pickup truck). Haven't done the math, but maybe 2,500 miles per year is the right number for it...

 

[hemiarch]

Seems like a valid point until you try and use other high-speed chargers, which all cost more, sometime significantly more.

In regards to the value of Free Supercharging, the 5,000 mile rule might make sense for most of the other, more efficient Tesla vehicles, but you are right about the Cybertruck. It's got a 123 kWh battery, and weighs the most of any Tesla vehicle, and is physically the largest as well (being a full-size pickup truck). Haven't done the math, but maybe 2,500 miles per year is the right number for it...

Absolutely. The crazy part is they are charging more for vastly inferior charger networks which means the functional monopoly will last even longer.
If they want to compete they not only need to catch up on infrastructure but also do it at the same or better price than Tesla is. They aren’t even close to being able to launch a price war and as the OP points out, prices will only get higher until there is one.

 

[Qixer01]

“free supercharging is worth less than 5k over the life of the car”

In the 5 months I have owned my FSCB I have saved over $1400 charging costs. Quick math, 1400x 2=$ 2,800 a year I’m saving with free supercharging. Worth way more than the $5k you mentioned.

 

[Hazard One]

My CT is averaging ~106 MPG since I bought it three months ago. Here's the math. In 1213 miles driven, it's averaging 336.9 Wh/mi. Electricity at my house costs 10.03 cents / KWH. Gas here in Boise is $3.57 per gallon. So, for the cost of one gallon of gas here, my CT goes 105.6 miles (357 / (10.03 x 0.3369)). See attachments.

 

[Lasttoy]

I have 35k on my CT. Rules for 8000 pound truck. Max 70mph. AC 70.
I just drove Florida to San Antonio 4 times. Much better range

 

[MetroWestMA]

I feel like a broken record here but to all you “free supercharging is worth less than 5k over the life of the car” people, I am once again calling BS. Especially on a Cybertruck.
This thread is another example of the shock of a new EV person to costs we have learned to ignore.
5k a year is closer.
OP, you are right. Tesla functionally has a monopoly on the EV charging market even though there are other competitors because of the head start they have. They can charge whatever they want and will still sell the juice.

I am going to agree with this. I have overcapacity solar and unlimited supercharging so I don't really care, but in MA, electricity is .37/ kwh so supercharging at .30 and .35 is cheaper than home.

Furthermore, any decent Ice vehicle will be cheaper in the same class EV, and a hybrid will be way cheaper.

Let's see what people feel like in a few years when electricity is twice as expensive and gas is the same.

BTW, that 30% tax credit on solar goes away at the end of this year, so it's a good time to get solar if you were ever considering it

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