When looking to kickstart your journey to creating a sustainable household, you may have thought about the cost of charging an electric vehicle, especially how that impacts your household budget.
There are many factors that contribute to running an electric vehicle, such as energy cost, and driving habits, but it’s also important to note fuel increases and also the impact of having your own solar panels.
Costs of electric vehicle electricity and maintenance:
To understand the cost of running an electric vehicle, the best place to start is knowing how many kilometres you do in your current vehicle each year.
In Australia, on the conservative side, a single car is on the road an average of 12,100km per year, if we are conservative and bring that up to 13,000km per year, then the average daily use is 35km, which equals to 200kWh of electricity consumption each month.
This sounds like a lot, however, the most important factor is to compare this directly to the fuel your car is currently consuming, and the maintenance and servicing cost of your car.
Driving habits;
While calculating average usage is one thing, make sure you personalise your research against your own driving habits. Look at your last 12 months of car usage and answer the following questions:
- How far did I drive to work?
- How far did I drive on the weekends?
- Where do I park my car overnight?
- Did I do any out-of-the-ordinary long trips (such as a family holiday during the summer holidays)?
Once you have an understanding of when and how you are using your car, you can apply this to an electric vehicle and what type of charger you would need.
Be aware of price rises:
We’ve seen in recent times the increase in price rises for both electricity and petrol, and unfortunately, without a crystal ball we cannot say for sure what this will look like in the future but some estimates suggest prices will increase.
However, there are ways this price increase can be minimised or avoided while looking after the planet.
- Taking public transport, carpooling or ride-share services.
- Generating your own solar energy to power your home and car.
Solar Power
An electric vehicle is capable of producing zero emissions. If charged exclusively through solar power, or green power they produce zero carbon emissions. That’s amazing news for the planet and your back pocket.
If your mission is to live the most sustainable life possible, this is a decision that can get you closer to that goal.
Solar panel systems are readily available, and the Australian Government provides many grants to Australians to make the purchase even more affordable.
By powering your solar panels at home and using the energy you’ve generated yourself, the cost of running your electric vehicle reduces significantly.
Brighte is on a mission to make every home sustainable, our sustainable home platform and green finance products help Aussies pay for sustainable home upgrades sooner, all while enjoying the benefits from lower running costs straight away. Find out more about our finance options.