For a long time, electric car owners drove very relaxed through life. Also because of the low energy costs. But that’s over for many now. There is still potential to keep energy costs low with a Stromer – but not for everyone.
For a long time, switching to an electric car was considered lucrative in terms of energy costs. The home wall box delivered the kilowatt hour for less than 30 cents, which is why some economical models even cost significantly less than five euros per 100 kilometers. Also due to the sharp rise in fuel prices in the meantime, the change from dirty combustion engines to clean electric vehicles was considered a worthwhile investment. But since last year, the former financial advantage has turned into its opposite in many cases. The energy costs of clean e-mobility have exploded, especially for lantern parkers. Even long-distance drivers would often be better off at the moment if they drove with diesel instead of electricity.
There is still potential to keep energy costs low with an e-car. But not all of them can lift. For many, it is to be feared that the e-car will therefore become increasingly unattractive from a financial point of view.
It’s been a good ten years since e-mobility gradually picked up speed with new models such as the Tesla Model S and BMW i3. The electric icon i3, for example, with a consumption of around 12 kilowatt hours at a price of 25 cents per kWh at the time, caused energy costs of around three euros per 100 kilometers. A petrol engine with the performance level of an i3 consumed seven liters, which, given the fuel prices at the time of EUR 1.60 per liter, caused energy costs to be around three times higher. Back then, car experts and manufacturers of e-cars were happy to calculate how quickly the additional investment in an electrically powered model could be amortized. But this nice calculation is over now.
In the last ten years, the price of petrol has increased only slightly. In the meantime, fuel prices climbed to dizzying heights last year due to the Ukraine crisis, but by the end of 2022 gasoline prices in Germany were only slightly above the annual average for 2012. The situation is different for electricity prices. According to the Verivox consumption price index, at the end of 2012 a kilowatt hour still cost 24.93 cents on average across Germany. Ten years later it was 43 cents, an increase of 72 percent. In some cases, such as at the Cologne-based company Rheinenergie, the price per kilowatt hour in the basic supply was raised from 31 to 55 cents at the beginning of 2023, an increase of 77 percent. However, in one fell swoop.
To make matters worse, the number of consumption-intensive e-cars on the market is growing. One reason for this is increasingly larger batteries for longer ranges. This is beneficial for everyday usability, but many BEV models deviate from the consumption ideal of a BMW i3. In practice, 20 kWh per 100 kilometers is now more the rule than the exception. If you are driving on the motorway in winter at a moderate 120 km/h and the air conditioning is activated, 30 kWh per 100 kilometers are by no means unreasonable. In view of the increased electricity prices, the former cost advantage is lost with such consumption values, even with electricity from the home wall box.
It can even get really expensive if you have to fill up on the go. This applies above all to the numerous fast charging stations that are now available along the freeways. The direct current offered there has always been more expensive than the electricity from AC chargers or the home wall box. In addition, there is a non-transparent market for charging station traction current. Not every e-car driver has the optimal roaming contract for every constellation. In extreme cases, it can now happen that you even have to pay up to 1.00 euros for a kilowatt hour with exotic providers, as current research on the Ladefuchs app shows.
But even with large traction current providers such as EnBW, the previously moderate prices were increased significantly in mid-January. If you use the EnBW “mobility” app with a basic tariff for charging, you now have to pay 65 cents instead of 45 cents for the kilowatt hour at charging stations not operated by EnBW. On the other hand, the already hefty 79 cents remain for the Ionity motorway fast chargers. Whether it’s 65, 79 or 98 cents – with a fuel-intensive e-car, energy costs of 20 euros or more per 100 kilometers can easily be incurred on a long journey. That is about twice as much as you currently have to pay for a comparable modern diesel car.
Anyone who wants to continue to drive cheaply electrically should therefore find out more about their practical consumption when choosing a model. There are now big differences here. E-car users are also well advised to keep looking for cheaper and more suitable offers in the German driving current tariff jungle. Flexibility and multi-pronged strategies can do no harm. For example, EnBW introduced three tariff levels parallel to the price increase. Basic fees of 18 euros per month are due for the new tariff L, while the price for a kilowatt hour drops to 39 cents at charging stations operated by EnBW and to 50 cents at third-party providers. If you drive long distances, you should switch to this tariff as a user of the mobility app, for example. This can pay off even on longer journeys. Alternatively, it is interesting to look for special offers. Within the Ionity network, for example, car manufacturers such as Audi, Hyundai or Mercedes offer special conditions where kWh prices of 29 cents are still possible.
The even better alternative is free traction current. Supermarket chains, among others, have made a name for themselves in recent years because they make electric car users available when shopping. Until recently, these providers included the Schwarz Group with Lidl and Kaufland. At the end of 2022, however, a payment mode was switched here. In the meantime, there are only a few providers of free traction current left – such as Aldi Süd, where you can now experience hustle and bustle at the charging stations during business opening hours and an occasional irritable atmosphere. Actually, the offer at Aldi Süd is intended for supermarket customers, but now many tankers come, sometimes even daily, to tap free traction current. They occupy the charging station for a long time, while some Aldi customers go away empty-handed. In this respect, it should not be surprising if this free offer will soon be discontinued.
In contrast to fuel prices, for example, which have fallen significantly again after reaching record highs in spring 2022, an easing on the electricity market and a return to old prices are not to be expected, at least in the medium term. Rather, experts assume that consumers will have to get used to the recent sharp rise in electricity prices. This is probably one of the reasons why the solar system is now regarded as the most tried and tested means of reducing the costs for traction current. If you charge at home and fill up with electricity from your own solar system in addition to the electricity from the supplier, you can even significantly reduce your travel costs.
According to the ADAC, the price for a kilowatt hour of solar power is between 8 and 18 cents, which is well below the current level for electricity from the grid. Electricity from the solar system that is not refueled is also fed into the grid and remunerated at 7.1 to 8.2 cents per kWh, which further increases the cost-effectiveness of a solar system.
However, not everyone has the opportunity to reduce the costs of driving electricity with their own PV system. The expansion of the public charging infrastructure, which has been progressing for several years, is intended, among other things, to enable drivers without their own home and access to their own wall box to use an e-car on a daily basis. But anyone who is dependent on refueling at public charging stations could, in view of the sharp rise in prices for traction current, reconsider switching to an e-car, at least from a financial point of view. The e-car is currently and in the future a financially attractive alternative, especially for homeowners who invest in their own PV system.
However, the fuel prices do not necessarily remain at the current relatively low level. The past year has shown how quickly the market reacts to opportunities for price increases there.
