The car on tap, understood as electric, offers sweet rustling, muffled atmospheres, great ecological satisfaction but also some promises to be taken with caution. It costs more to buy, but at least you save on operating expenses. They say. That's not always true. However, it is less true than some try to explain to us. Or rather, it is true when we are willing to recharge the batteries with the house plug connected to a normal meter of a few kilowatts, paying for the electricity more or less as much as the one we use for the fridge, the light bulbs, the TV. And if we are willing, it should be said, to wait half a day (or preferably overnight) to fill up.
The question changes, and a lot, when we want or need to speed up refueling operations by sticking to the public columns high capacity. The costs in this case can be very close, and in any case comparable, to those of refueling a traditional car, even of a moderate size. So goodbye convenience, at least in terms of operating costs. Of course, the advantages remain on the temporary exemption from the road tax, on privileged access permits in historic centers and on the reduced or canceled costs of parking in the city. And remains, of course, the satisfaction of ours ecological soul. However, we will have given space to it by paying out much more (today it is like this, tomorrow who knows) to buy the electric version of a similar model but with the traditional internal combustion engine.
Consumption compared
We do the math thanks to the work of fellow journalists from Quattroruote, who in the latest issue of the sector magazine reel off a series of tests involving petrol and diesel cars of various categories, but also a small latest generation Smart, those which from now on are sold only in the electric version. No explicit and direct comparison of operating costs. But it is enough to read carefully the sequence of tests and correlate the estimates on consumption and therefore on costs, verified directly by Quattroruote with precision and regardless of official datato understand how things are.
Thus the new Mercedes GLB, diesel, a full-bodied semi-SUV which is moreover very efficient, consumes in reality (not in the promises of the homologation cycles, unreliable for all cars of all brands) on average one liter every 15,8 kilometres, with an estimated cost of 9,40 euros per 100 kilometers travelled. Excellent result, in any case. The smaller (and cheaper) Peugeot 2008 does better, with 16,9 kilometers per liter of diesel, which corresponds to a cost of 8,80 euros per 100 kilometres.
We come to our tiny Smart EQ fortwo: electric, agile, pleasant and very comfortable in the city, where it has practically its only operating environment, given that only thanks to the recovery of energy in city driving and capable of doing – according to the findings of the sector magazine – about 150 kilometers before running out of battery, while outside the city we risk stopping without electrons after a hundred kilometers even if we do not exceed 110 per hour. Still at low operating costs? Not always.
Different refills, different costs
The weighted average operating cost (different types of top-ups and usage) is estimated by fellow journalists of the specialized magazine at 6,90 euros per 100 kilometres. Sometimes a little less, sometimes even much more. With the sacrifice of a whole night plugged into the domestic socket, capable of making it suck 2,3 kW of maximum power at the cost of 0,20 euro per kilowatt hour, a full 4,70 euro is spent, in this case halving the expense compared to the cars mentioned above. But if we charge our electric Smart to a public high-power column (22 kW, to connect to which the Smart must also be equipped with an optional battery charger that costs 1.015 euros) it takes us at most an hour and a half but we spend, for the same top-up, 8,70 euros.
In the city, with the best efficiency we can count on with stop-and-go driving and energy recovery under braking, there are still some savings, even with a quick and more expensive recharge. But if we put our nose out of the urban centres, we also risk stay dry much more easily than traditional cars, the savings, even compared to cars of very different sizes, practically disappear. An isolated case for a very particular car? No. For the other electric car models, perhaps more suited to out-of-town driving and with the ambition of full competition with traditional cars, the consumption estimates are quite similar.
The electric car will certainly be the future. Welcome already today. But four accounts, in the meantime, should be done. Waiting for the drastic drop in costs of refueling linked to large projects (which for now are only being tested) of the “exchange” of energy between car and grid in the name of the overall efficiency of the electricity system.
