> Also, since we are talking about the consumers perspective, I think you are > making common mistake > in equating cost with price. > > Going back to your comment about cost of charging, that has to be based on > price, not cost. At a > recent presentation by Electrify America, they said that they charge 31¢/kWh.
Yes I know price and cost are two different things, however, the average consumer considers them to be the same thing. While there are thousands of free charging stations (especially in California), including DC fast charge stations, and while there are several EV producers that offer free charging for several years with new EVs, we will ignore those. For the charging stations that require payment, I have seen everywhere from ~$0.20 to $0.55 per kwh, $0.31 seems to be an average price. I suspect competition will start driving the price down in some areas. Of course the majority of EV owners charge at home, where electricity is much cheaper. My solar has already paid for itself twice over, so my price/cost is essentially zero. I haven't paid an electric bill in 11 years. According to: https://cafcp.org/content/cost-refill The average price of hydrogen in California is $16.51 per kg, which can power an FCEV "up to" 75 miles. This price is heavily subsidized by California. In addition the state pays on average $1.6 million of the $2 million, for each station. Using the EPA rated range on my Chevy Bolt (the 'up to' range is much higher), and using the $0.31 price per kwh, the price to go 75 miles is ~ $6.80. For the average EV driver in California charging at home, and paying the average price for electricity, it would price would be about $4.00. Then again, many places in California offer special rates for charging EVs where it's even cheaper. So, the price for charging an EV ranges from infinitely cheaper to, perhaps half the cost of Hydrogen. > And you haven’t said anything about cost of renewables, and isn’t that what > we want? Since it requires 3x-4x as much electricity to power the FCEV, which means it requires 3x-4x as much renewable infrastructure to fuel a FCEV. Pretty sure I have mentioned this several times already. > > I recently saw a chart of cost of renewables by geographic region in the U.S. > that showed the cost > of renewables to be available for as low as 2 or 3¢/kWh. > > Plug Power (disclosure: a client of mine) has said publicly that they believe > that they can produce > hydrogen within a few years that will be competitive with diesel, given > access to 3¢ solar. They > are currently building a number of production plants. Most hydrogen fuel stations only pay 5-7¢ per kWh, so that won't make a significant drop it the cost. The cost of fuel is more than just the price of the electricity, under normal circumstances it would include recouping the cost of building the station, labor costs, repair costs, etc. Currently California is paying 80% of the cost of installing the Hydrogen fuel station, with local cities, etc. pay most of the remaining. I don't believe those costs are being reflected in the sales price of the Hydrogen. Since it's not sustainable for the state to continue to subsidize the fuel stations much longer, I would expect to see and increase in the price of Hydrogen. At this point most EV charging stations are being paid for by private companies that expect to make a profit, which is why it costs so much to charge. The cost of the fuel centers is 10-20 times as much for Hydrogen, and additionally they would require 3-4 times as much renewable infrastructure. There is no way Hydrogen will EVER compete with the price of selling electricity directly without subsidies. _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/ LIST INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
