Is it profitable to switch to an electric car if you can’t charge at home? We did the calculations against the thermal

If drivers who have the means to charge at home (station or socket) are more easily convinced by electric mobility, when you cannot charge at home, that’s another matter. Is it still worth it in 2024 to switch to electric cars relying exclusively on public terminals? And therefore by recharging outside of home. Here is the comparison with thermal.

It has probably not escaped your attention that electricity prices have increased recently. As of February 1, 2024, it is between 10 and 20% increase depending on the regulated prices and the options chosen for all customers.

However, for almost 2 years, certain fast charging operators have not increased their prices, or even drastically lowered them (Tesla displays very low Supercharging prices at the time of writing these lines). We are at a point where sometimes charging away from home is cheaper, but there is no guarantee that this will last.

When you can’t charge at home, how can you ensure today that financially, going electric makes sense?

Has charging at home become too expensive?

New electricity rates may make many would-be electric car owners fear the worst. Indeed, with a basic blue tariff at EDF at €0.2516/kWh, many electric cars cost 5 euros per 100 kilometers when charging at home.

Of course, there are many ways to optimize this price, often reducing it by almost 50%. The best ally for the owner of an electric car who charges at home is EDF’s Tempo option, ensuring night-time charging for 300 days a year at less than 13 cents per kilowatt hour.

In this way, 100 km in an electric car already costs only 2.50 euros in the case where the car consumes 20 kWh/100 km at the outlet (which remains pessimistic for many cars), or half the price of base. Unfortunately, for people who have no way to charge at home, we can fear the worst. Historically, charging at home has always been the most cost-effective way to drive electric.

So, having gradually increased home electricity prices, has the roaming charge also followed the same increase? How does the use of an electric car compare to a thermal car in 2024 if you cannot charge at home?

Don’t forget what it costs “on the other side”

Most people taking the plunge into electric mobility come from the other world: the thermal car. What follows concerns them in particular and helps put things into perspective.

A thermal car costs on average 9 to 13 euros per 100 kilometers according to the latest official figures available (5 l/100 km in Diesel at € per liter, and 6.80 €/100 km in Petrol at € per liter). Which means that a thermal vehicle costs between 2 and 5 times more to use than an electric car that you charge at home.

We recently detailed what it costs to drive the most popular electric car of 2023, the Tesla Model Y Propulsion. And as is often the case in electric versus thermal matches, there is no photo.

By focusing solely on charging at public terminals, it is easy to arrive at an average price per kilowatt hour of less than 40 cents in 2024. We are talking about alternating current charging stations that are often found in parking lots, shopping centers or other places where you can easily spend several hours.

So, away from home, the price per 100 kilometers in an electric car can reach 8 euros, which still remains lower today than the average price of a thermal car. This helps reassure people hesitant to take the plunge, before having a personal charging solution. Yes, it costs more than charging at home, but today we are still cheaper than an equivalent thermal car.

Until now, for fast direct current charging (which often allows you to reach 80% battery in around thirty minutes), you had to imagine paying much more than for alternating current charging. However, some players are being very aggressive in terms of prices, such as Tesla recently.

Fast charging becomes attractive again in 2024, thank you Tesla

A little over a year ago, connecting your car to the Tesla Supercharger meant agreeing to pay 3, 4, sometimes 5 times more than connecting it at home. These fast chargers should therefore be avoided on a daily basis, and reserved for the few long journeys that we may have to make during the year, otherwise the cost per 100 kilometers will soar.

But recently, Tesla seems to be changing its tune and openly wanting to develop fast charging with the idea that it must be accessible to as many people as possible to democratize electric mobility.

It all started in October 2022 where Tesla began to introduce a system of peak and off-peak hours, exactly like home electricity suppliers do. At that time, however, it was no less than €0.59/kWh during off-peak hours, which remained very high.

Barely 18 months later, the situation has changed a lot. Off-peak hours at Tesla still exist, but even during peak hours, most Superchargers have a maximum price below €0.50/kWh. With a subscription of 12.99 euros per month, count on 0.35 €/kWh at most during peak hours, which gives a price per 100 kilometers of 7 euros for electric cars which still consume 20 kWh/100 km.

The big news is in the time slot 00:00 – 04:00: in the middle of the night, Tesla literally breaks the prices of Supercharging by often making it cheaper than charging at home.

As you can see above, some Superchargers are available for only €0.16/kWh for people without a Tesla, or €0.12/kWh for Teslas or subscribers (€12.99 per month). Of course, it’s anything but practical to have to spend 30 minutes to an hour in your electric car in the middle of the night, but we can salute the effort of the brand which remains the only one to offer solutions of this kind for helping people who need it to recharge, without burning a hole in their wallet.

In this case, other fast charging networks still have much higher prices to this day, often between €0.50 and €0.80 per kilowatt hour. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that this trend initiated by Tesla will be confirmed, or even if Tesla will not reverse course soon. In any case, it is an inexpensive solution that Elon Musk’s firm offers, even considering the range which goes until 9 a.m. (0.20 €/kWh for non-members) .

Finally, remember that most Tesla Superchargers are located near hotels and shopping centers and not at highway service areas. If you have a few errands to do in the early morning before going to work, connecting to it will be very economical at the moment.

Is it still profitable to go electric by charging away from home?

If fast charging can, at the time of writing these lines, be a good financial plan while waiting to have a long-term charging solution at home, it is clear that it cannot be enough for many undecided people.

Indeed, the main problem is the sustainability of the choice of electric mobility in terms of costs: people who want to move towards a connected car need to ensure that the costs of use will not soar. If we note that for more or less two years, fast charging has declined drastically at Tesla, it has not really evolved elsewhere.

As you can see in the summary table above, the gap between a thermal car and an electric car remains there, still in 2024, in most cases. But putting aside Tesla’s big boost right now, charging on other fast charging networks is sometimes more expensive than Diesel. Like for example at TotalEnergies with a kWh billed at 0.59 euros. It’s still cheaper than a gasoline car.

But we are thinking in particular of people who can qualify for social leasing for less than 100 euros per month and who have modest incomes, often without a home charging solution: without insurance regarding the cost of using their electric car, how can we be persuaded to make the right choice? After the ecological bonus period, when will there be a guarantee on the cost of recharging away from home?