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.