From MPG to MPKWh

Since Tesla announced that they will be launching a model for $49K, electric car had been an option we were trying to exercise. Tesla did not deliver their promise of 49K Model S but they indeed created a huge demand for Electric Cars. As I write this there are 335,125 electric cars on the road, only 10% of them are Tesla. The sales of electric cars are growing at 150% year-over-year.

Still, 336,500 is meager 0.5% of 50 Million light-weight-vehicles on the roads of America.
[ Visit - Chargepoint for latest count ]

It was Sunday, around 8 PM; we received delivery of our very first Electric car, Mercedes Benz B-Class. Our first ride home, some 20 miles, subscribed us to a new mileage term – we got 3.5 miles per Kilo Watt Hour (KWh). That intrigued and triggered a series of questions and intense research for next one week, as time permitted.

Kilo-watt-hour is also referred to as “Juice” as gasoline is referred to as “Fuel”. It feels like we went from junk food to natural, raw, organic healthy food! Wink! Wink!

1 KWh is also called a Unit, if you monitor your electricity bill. Our cost of 1 unit of juice is 15 cents or 19 cents depending upon the consumption that month. Thus to drive a mile, at say 19 cents, it will cost us 19 divided by 3.5 = 5.42 cents.

Our gasoline car, Camry drives 30 miles per gallon. Current gas cost is $3.60 per gallon. Thus to drive our Camry a mile, it costs, 3.60 divided by 30 = 12 cents.

B-Class comes with a battery bank of 28 Kilo-Watt-Hour capacity. Thus at 3.5 miles per KWh it would have a range of 28 x 3.5 = 98 Miles. 98 miles is when it will run out of juice if not charged. This of course assumes you drive without AC or any other juice consuming amenities!  

Thus it is likely that we will be saving around 50% of transport cost by going from Miles per Gallon (MPG) to Miles per Kilo-Watt-Hour (MPKWh). Not to count the carpool advantage and pride of helping the environment! again ... Wink! Wink!

Please look out for the next installment of Juice – “The freedom and choices of juicing it up”.