Charging Your Lightning at Home - What's It Costing You?

Hey everyone, just curious about how much you’re paying to charge your Lightning at home. I’m especially interested in hearing from people in Ontario, what’s it look like for you, and how did you figure out the cost?

You pay per kWh, so it’s pretty straightforward. Just take the kWh amount from the FordPass app’s charge log and multiply it by your electricity rate. For me, it’s $0.11/kWh, so a full charge from 0 to 100% would cost around $11 for the Standard Range (SR) battery.

I just take the cost per kilowatt and multiply it by my battery size. For example, my Model 3 has a 75 kWh battery, and I pay $0.07 per kWh, so it costs me about $5.25 for a full charge.

In Ontario, there’s an ultra-low overnight plan where it’s 2.8 cents per kWh after 11 PM. So, for a Long Range Lightning, that works out to around $4 CAD for a full charge.

Scout said:
In Ontario, there’s an ultra-low overnight plan where it’s 2.8 cents per kWh after 11 PM. So, for a Long Range Lightning, that works out to around $4 CAD for a full charge.

Wait, 2.8 cents? Are you serious? So, you’re saying it’s that cheap if you charge after 11 PM?

@Harlow
Yep, that’s right. I set my Ford app to start charging after 11 PM, and I just leave it plugged in. It does everything automatically.

Scout said:
@Harlow
Yep, that’s right. I set my Ford app to start charging after 11 PM, and I just leave it plugged in. It does everything automatically.

Thanks, man! I had no idea about this. Looks like 11 PM is my new charging time!

@Harlow
Just a heads up, I think he’s on a special time-of-use plan to get that rate.

@Harlow
It depends on your utility. Where I’m at, I can get a time-of-use rate that’s half the regular cost, so about $0.07 per kWh. But there’s a catch: my utility requires an extra meter for this rate, which is kind of a hassle since I already have two meters (house and solar).

@Harlow
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m new to this. I’m picking up a 2024 XLT SR soon, and I think it has a 98 kWh battery. So, would I just do 0.028 x 98 to get the total cost?

Harlow said:
@Harlow
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m new to this. I’m picking up a 2024 XLT SR soon, and I think it has a 98 kWh battery. So, would I just do 0.028 x 98 to get the total cost?

Yes, but remember that the battery capacity and your electric bill are measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

Harlow said:
@Harlow
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’m new to this. I’m picking up a 2024 XLT SR soon, and I think it has a 98 kWh battery. So, would I just do 0.028 x 98 to get the total cost?

Just keep in mind, that ultra-low overnight rate comes with high peak rates. You might be better off sticking to the regular time-of-use plan, which is about 8 cents per kWh between 7 PM and 7 AM. That would make a full charge cost around $8 for nearly 400 km of driving.

Be careful when people say it’s ‘trivial’ to calculate. Sure, the math isn’t hard, but you need to factor in other costs like transmission fees and rate riders. Many of those extra charges vary with your electricity usage, so you’re not really paying just 2.8 cents per kWh.

@Sky
The total is actually about 3.5 cents per kWh, including delivery charges, but only during the night from 11 PM to 7 AM. The downside is that peak period rates can go as high as 27 cents per kWh.

This rate plan is tailored for EV owners. Most other people wouldn’t save money with it.

@Ainsley
So, you’re saying the total cost for transmission and delivery is just 0.7 cents per kWh? That seems a bit low.

Sky said:
@Ainsley
So, you’re saying the total cost for transmission and delivery is just 0.7 cents per kWh? That seems a bit low.

I checked again. Originally, the ultra-low overnight rate was 2.3 cents with a 1.2 cent transmission charge, totaling 3.5 cents.

Now, the rates have increased to 2.8 cents and 1.4 cents, making it 4.2 cents per kWh. Still a good deal!

@Ainsley
Are you also factoring in distribution, line loss, and global adjustment? I agree, it’s a great deal, but it seems too good to be true considering the costs of power generation.

Sky said:
@Ainsley
Are you also factoring in distribution, line loss, and global adjustment? I agree, it’s a great deal, but it seems too good to be true considering the costs of power generation.

I’d rather not share my utility details, but yes, I’m including everything: transmission, rate rider, wholesale market charge, and global adjustment. The total comes out to about 1.4 cents per kWh based on the latest rates. There’s also a line loss factor of 1.02, but that doesn’t change things much.

@Ainsley
Wow, props to Ontario for keeping extra costs minimal. I live in Alberta, and it’s a mess with all the deregulation. But even here, my Lightning is still way cheaper to charge than a gas truck.

@Sky
We’re lucky to have Niagara Falls and nuclear plants that generate more power than we need. It’s cheaper to give away power to residents than to pay New York to take the excess.