How to charge your electric vehicle with solar panel energy

You drive an electric car for a lot of reasons: its better on the environment, you can drive in the carpool lane, its fun to drive and, most importantly, you are saving money. We all know that gas power is the most expensive option to fuel your car, but how much are you really saving when you switch to electricity to power your car?

Gas power compared to grid and solar charging

A plug-in electric car can be charged at home in two ways: with grid electricity supplied from your utility company or by solar panels installed on your home’s roof. Let’s compare gas costs against your two electrical options:

Charging an electric car with solar or grid compared to gas

Assumptions: Average cost of gas is assumed to be $3.49 in Southern California as of 02/2019. Cost of grid electricity is based on Southern California Edison TOU-D-B rates with a Level 1 charger for 12 hours from 6pm to 6am. Cost of solar energy is based on 4 kW of solar panels with an EV charging inverter costing $9185 including discounts from the Federal Investment Tax Credit. The cost of solar per kWh is calculated by dividing the total system cost by the number of days over the 30 year life span of the system. The calculation assumes the 4 kW solar panels produce up to 16 kWh on average per day.

The bottom line: Power your car on sunshine

If your goal is to save as much money as possible, then clearly you’ll want to charge your electric vehicle with solar power because it's the cheapest form of electricity. In fact, using the above example it costs you less than $26 a month to power your car on sunshine.

How much do you save by charging your electric car at home?

Using our example you’ll be saving around $1,800 a year by charging your electric car on solar compared to fueling it with gasoline. In addition, solar charging is nearly 60% cheaper than charging with grid power.

Electric car charging costs and savings compared to gas:

Electric car charging costs and savings compared to gas

Calculate how many solar panels you’ll need to charge your electric car at home

SolarMax Technology is leading the industry in solar electric vehicle charging. You can request a free quote from an experienced energy consultant who will:

  • Review your daily driving habits
  • Examine your home’s solar production capability
  • Recommend the right number/type of solar panels and equipment that will get you the maximum amount of monthly savings

More Useful Info on Electric Cars

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