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One of the first questions of a potential electric car buyer is: "Of course, I will not buy more gas, but how much will my electricity bill go up?" The answer, pretty much everywhere, is that an electric car is less expensive to drive, but sometimes it's hard to determine how much.
This is a complex issue that must be answered because of different electricity rates in the country, rates based on the time of use, and fluctuating gas prices. But last night, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, suggested that Tesla could incorporate software into its vehicles to answer this question and also help homeowners save money. The idea came, as many did, in a late response to a tweet.
The twitter account of RPM Tesla, a Tesla Group spares company, hinted that Tesla might add the ability to stop charging at some point, so the car does not continue charging during periods of cadence high. Currently, it is possible to use the Tesla software by car to program a loading start time, but it is not possible to program an end time.
This is common in electric cars, and most cars will have something like that (even my 2008 Roadster does). This is explained by the hourly rates of utilities use, which offer discounts on electricity rates for late billing. These are popular with EV owners because they consume a lot of energy but can be charged overnight when rates are the lowest.
Musk responded to this request by suggesting that Tesla could do even better:
It would be good to look for electricity rates by location and optimize costs automatically
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 13, 2019
The fact is that almost no one has a clue about what their electricity rates are, unless they already have an electric car or a solar energy system at home. Most people can say how much they pay on their electricity bill, but not a rate per kWh.
Although many EV owners have reviewed their electricity rates and know what is the best time to charge in order to get the best deals, there may still remain a lot of complexities in understanding the rates. Public utilities will offer several different rate plans, rates will be different depending on the season (winter rates are higher at night and summer rates are higher during the day due to heating and cooling), and rates may vary. change depending on the amount of electricity used during the month.
When all of these concerns and fluctuations are taken into account, utility rate cards may look like this, which may be discouraging for a beginner:
But even if it sounds complex, it's not too difficult for a particular homeowner to understand at least the best time to hook it up. In this case, you will usually want to start charging after 8pm and stop charging before 10am – but on weekends you have low rates all day.
And some utilities will give a much better graphical representation of the timing of the connection:
But that's what matters – every public service represents its rates a little differently. To deploy a program like this, Tesla would need to collect data on each utility, at each location, and consolidate it into a single program. It should regularly update this information, know which plan belongs to an owner (including grandfathered plans, like the one I am on), and do it by navigating in different pricing structures, from a service to another. .
Similar ideas have already been proposed. Last year, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, we talked to Nissan about a partnership with Fermata Energy that would allow Leaf commercial fleet owners to take advantage of the battery capacity of their cars. by acting as distributed storage devices. This is possible because the Leafs have a "network vehicle" ability, which Teslas does not currently have, although they have already thought about it.
This is a fascinating idea (so much so that at Electrek we have refused an interview with Margot Robbie to discuss with some engineers about the peak consumption and demand peaks), and that this could be both profitable and beneficial for the environment. Smoothing the power grid during peak periods, when electricity is typically generated in a dirtier way, could significantly clean the grid. But this is more focused on the commercial than residential market.
If Tesla wanted to incorporate this idea into something even more complex, she could go further and collaborate with utilities to offer financial incentives to homeowners to charge at certain times. One company, OhmConnect, has already partnered with California utilities in a system offering customers a financial incentive to save energy during peak periods. Maybe Tesla could integrate the ability to subscribe to a system like this and let a network operator control the car's load, using its own Internet connection.
Electrek's Take
Although I love this idea and think that it would be very useful for homeowners, this seems like a much tougher task than a casual tweet suggests. As stated above, the power tariffs are so complex that it seems like it would take Tesla – which is already exhausted right now – is putting a lot of effort into putting this into effect.
But it is not impossible. They can crowdsource the debit information (with some sort of error checking), or ask the utilities to enter the information themselves, or only implement them for the big utilities. All of these approaches would allow owners and sellers to simply say "do not worry, your car will understand it for you". This approach is similar to that of Tesla on long distance travel, where all you have to do is say: the car where you are going and it will determine when and where to charge and for how long.
While Electrek, and many of our readers, have no difficulty in calculating obscure electricity rates, offering a simpler customer experience is very powerful in terms of widespread adoption. Especially for potential buyers who may not yet know the difference between a kilowatt and a kilowatt hour.
And while Musk's idea does not save money on an optimal charging strategy (unless an OhmConnect-type idea is implemented), it will facilitate much more optimal load and provide owners more tools to save money. It's always a good thing.
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