I live in Ontario. How much will my electricity cost rise with an electric vehicle ?
You live in Ontario and you have finally decided to purchase an electric vehicle… but you are wondering how much your electricity monthly cost will rise ?
The answer is : $39 per month for 20 000 km per year. Let’s have a look at this.
The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) oversees the energy sector in Ontario where we find many local distribution companies. To help the consumers, OEB developed an Ontario Energy Board online calculator. We used the information from that online tool to explain the extra electricity costs caused by recharging your new electric vehicle.
We will try to answer your question because calculating electricity costs in Ontario is not simple.
Different Time-of-use Prices
Off-Peak @ 8,300 ¢/kWh Mid-Peak @ 12.800 ¢/kWh On-Peak @ 17.500 ¢/kWh
Electric vehicles can be programmed to start charging at off-peak. You can plug-in your EVduty charging station as soon as you arrive home from work. Your EV will now be waiting to charge as soon as the off-peak period starts.
Let’s assume you drive about 20 000 km per year
On a daily basis, most EV driver will never need a full charge. If you opt for a Chevrolet Volt, one could estimate about 85 km per full cycle charge.
(20 000/85 = 235 full cycle charges throughout the year.)
A full cycle charge is about 14,6 kWh.
(235 x 14,6 = 3431 kWh).
So, to charge any electric vehicle with about 20 000 km per year, one will need about 3431 kWh. Per month, this is about 289 kWh.
Off-Peak @ 8,300 ¢/kWh would represent $23.99.
There many factors to take into consideration from this point on. In Ontario, we also have other fees/charges and HST. There is also the actual Time-of-use factor your household actually use.
According to the OEB calculator, after adjustment of the time-of-use and adding 289 kWh per month to your monthly electricity usage, this could be about $39.39 monthly (including fees/charges/HST). For a total of $1.31 per day.
Here are the other various fees/charges on your monthly electricity bill. The OEB online calculator does take these fees/charges into account.
Delivery Charges
This line of the bill shows the cost of delivering electricity from generating stations across the Province to your home via the high voltage (transmission) and low voltage (distribution) electricity systems.
Some of the charges are fixed at a set amount per month. Others are variable and increase or decrease depending on the amount of electricity you have used. Delivery charges include:
- Customer Service Charge: fixed monthly charge
- Distribution Charge: variable per kilowatt-hour (kWh) charge
- Transmission Charge: variable per kWh charge
- Line Loss Adjustment : variable per kWh charge
Regulatory Charges
Variable per kWh charge. Included within this charge:
- Physical Limitations and Losses
- Energy Reliability
- IESO Administration Fee
- OPA Administration Fee
- Rural and Remote Electricity Rate Protection
- Renewable Connections
- Ontario Electricity Support Program (OESP) Charge
- Standard Supply Service Charge
Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)
Add 13% to the total.
Here is what I paid for electricity from Horizon Utilities in 2015.
2015 kWh $/ kWh
Nov 22 – Jan 27 $342.08 2,301.96 $0.149
Jan 27 – Mar 24 $289.42 1,853.18 $0.172
Mar 24 – May 23 $265.68 1,685.72 $0.158
May 23 – Jul 24 $320.99 2,087.19 $0.154
Jul 24 – Sep 25 $378.40 2,562.40 $0.148
Sep 25 – Nov 20 $277.87 1,695.99 $0.164
Total/ Avg $1,874.44 12,186.44 $0.154
I had a 2012 Volt until Nov 16, 2016. I now drive a 2016 Volt. I typically put on a lot more than 20,000 kms per year. 90% of the time I charge at night/ off peak but sometimes I have to charge up mid day as well.
Switching from 2 gas cars to an EV and a hybrid (Tesla Model S and Prius V), my electricity costs went up about $70/month, but my gasoline costs went down by $300/month.
I own a Kia Soul EV 2016. I believe I read that Ontario is/will provide a refund for electricity used provided the vehicle is charged overnight on Low Demand. Is this correct? I also understood it to take effect from either 2016 or 2017 until 2021? Is this correct? I live in a retirement home that is providing my electricity at no cost so far. We are anticipating this Ontario rebate program. How will it work? I drove 6000 Kms. in the first year of operation. By the way, I love the car and the ease of operation.,