Price difference fuelling - charging
Buying an e-car eliminates the concern about filling up with the wrong fuel. However, not all electricity is the same. You have to decide whether you want to charge your car quickly or slowly. This in turn influences the price at the charging station. But how big are these differences in reality and how do petrol and diesel cars compare to e-cars? Our current blog article is dedicated to these questions.
A quick look at the fossil fuels shows that it is cheaper to drive a diesel car than a petrol car. The difference is 50 centimes per 100 km.
The charging costs paint a very different picture. It is quite clear that charging at the private wallbox is by far the cheapest option. While the costs are significantly higher for public charging options, they are still consistently cheaper than conventional refuelling, with the exception of 50 kW charging. Charging costs vary from CHF 5.40 for private charging to CHF 13.20 for a 50 kW charging station.
You can see there is a difference of over 240 % here.
Comparison of refuelling and charging costs
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Charging options
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Costs compared to petrol
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Costs compared to diesel
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AC charging at home
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- 58.1 %
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- 56.4 %
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Public AC charging, 22 kW
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- 19.4 %
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- 16.1 %
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Public DC charging, 50 kW
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+ 2% %
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+ 6.1 %
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Public DC charging, 150 kW
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- 9.1 %
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- 5.4 %
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The graph clearly shows that the refuelling costs are similar, but that there are significant differences in the charging costs. On average, however, the charging costs for a distance of 100 km are significantly cheaper than the refuelling costs. Using the cheapest charging option, private charging, saves up to 58 % compared to refuelling. On the other hand, the most expensive charging option, the public 50 kW charging station, costs up to 6 % more.
The table above further illustrates the possible savings compared to a petrol and diesel vehicle.
Annual Savings
If these results are now converted to the average mileage, which is 8,867 km[1], the petrol costs amount to CHF 1128.62. Charging, on the other hand, costs between CHF 473.18 - 1150.85. Thus, the annual savings from an e-car is up to CHF 655.44. However, if you only charge publicly at 50 kW, a diesel or petrol vehicle is marginally cheaper than an e-car.
Calculation basis
The calculation was made for a distance of 100 kilometres. Only the pure refuelling or charging costs were taken into account and no other signs of wear and tear.
To determine the diesel and petrol price on 21 November 2022 the current fuel price was retrieved fromwww.tcs.ch. [2] These were as follows:
Diesel 2.19 CHF / liter
Benzin (lead-free 98) 2.03 CHF / liter
For the usage data of these two types of engines, the values from the Federal Office of Energy were also used on 23 September 2022. [3]
Diesel 5.70 liters / 100 km
Petrol 6.40 liters / 100 km
Due to lack of informational material, the average usage of an e-car was estimated. Experience has shown that it is quite realistic to drive an e-car in city traffic while consuming less than 15 kWh / 100 km. In contrast, consumption tends to rise with an increase in speed, in some cases to well over 20 kWh / 100 km. An average consumption of 18 kWh / 100 km was therefore assumed. A charging loss of 10 % was added to this. According to an ADAC study, this figure is high for wallboxes, but quite realistic.[4] The total usage is therefore as follows.
Electricity consumption 19.8 kWh / 100 km
For the electricity costs, a distinction was made between private charging and charging at public charging stations, whereby different charging capacities were taken into account.
For home charging, the electricity tariff "ewz.pronatur (high tariff)" from ewz was used.
The price per kWh is based on a total price that already includes all taxes and VAT.
The prices at the public charging stations were obtained from the "Shell Recharge App". Here, billing is combined according to charged kWh and charging time in minutes. Since only a few e-cars can currently handle an AC charging power of 22 kW, 11 kW was assumed as the maximum charging power in this case. The time was doubled in this case.
Private charging 0.2751 CHF / kWh
Public charging, 22 kW 0.42 CHF / kWh + 0.02 CHF / min (Thurgauerstrasse)
Public charging, 50 kW 0.56 CHF / kWh + 0.09 CHF / min (Tramstrasse)
Public charging, 150 kW 0.56 CHF / min + 0.09 CHF / min (Flughofstrasse)