Put the pieces together and it’s not hard to see that making the decision to switch from an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle to an electric vehicle (EV) in South Africa is not one to be taken lightly.
There are many things to consider, most glaringly perhaps is our less than predictable energy situation, however, Jaguar South Africa has sent one of its senior driving instructors on a week-long mission to record and report the electricity consumption and cost per km (R/km) of a fully-electric Jaguar I-Pace in a variety of real-world driving environments. To compare these costs to those of running an ICE vehicle, Jaguar has then offered a formula with which the running costs of an ICE vehicle can be calculated.
Andrew Blane, Senior Instructor, Jaguar Land Rover Experience Johannesburg said, “We knew going into this test that ICE cars simply cannot compete with EVs on energy costs and rands per kilometre.”
The objective here was to work out the costs of driving an I-Pace in the real-world with results as close as possible to what actual customers would achieve. No pre-determined routes to benefit one power source over another. No laboratory test cycles. No nonsense.”
According to Jaguar, EV’s are cheaper to “fill up” then petrol powered vehicles, which would make sense, despite this being largely irrelevant to the R/km. They go on to point out that if Andrew were an I-Pace customer and he were to fully charge his I-Pace from zero to full at home, it would “cost less than R200 based on his actual municipal electricity rates.” They note that “filling up” at home is likely to be the cheapest and most convenient way to do so and that while ICE vehicle fuel tanks vary in size, filling up the fuel tank of an SUV of similar size and performance could cost more than R800.
Andrew adds, “Jaguar quotes a maximum range of 470 km on a full charge, and while this is certainly achievable with a light foot, I saw closer to 400km on average in the real world. True, most petrol and diesel vehicles can travel further on full tanks, but remember, it’s the cost per kilometre that’s more important in this test.”
A big thing to consider here is driving style, as well as driving conditions. ICE vehicles are most efficient when cruising at a constant, high speed with the engine at low rpm. EV’s however, are least efficient at highways speeds. The opposite is true in stop/start traffic where ICE vehicles still burn fuel while stationary. EV’s, however, use almost no electricity when they are not moving. One’s commute and the conditions in which they use their vehicle will most certainly have a huge impact on consumption etc.
“During my week with the I-Pace I deliberately spent my morning and evening commutes in as much traffic as possible. The car’s trip computer registered an average of 22kWh/100km in heavy congestion, which, given my home electricity rates equates to around 44 cents per kilometre,” said Andrew.
The calculation provided by Jaguar to compare and ICE vehicle to an EV is as follows;
The average fuel consumption of your vehicle (l/100km), divided by 100 and then multiplied by the cost of fuel per litre (R20,88 for 95 petrol and R18,96 for 50ppm diesel.
Additionally, the British manufacturer has provided the following table to estimate what one’s car costs in fuel for every kilometre driven.
Keyword: Which is cheaper per kilometre, electric vehicle or ICE vehicle?