May 1 marked a year of us being on NV Energy’s EV Rate plan, and they sent us a summary of what happened with our power use over the course of that year.
In short, we saved–almost $200 for the year.
The program works like this: during the hours of 10p-8a, our rate was $.06/KW (it changed to $.0764 on April 1, 2025), which is really, really cheap. It's overnight. Air conditioners, lights, televisions, etc. are mostly turned off at night, so the usage is low. That means NV Energy can charge a much lower rate during that time. The tradeoff is that power is much more expensive $.36/KW (changed to $.49386 on April 1, ugh) during peak times, such as 4p-10p.
The idea behind this is that the car, which pulls power at a rate of 1KW/hour (intentionally set lower by us to stay within electrical code and avoid tripping breakers), uses more power than every appliance, and an awful lot of other things when they’re combined in the evening. So, by keeping the car off the grid during that time, we are saving the use for those other things, then reserving the overnight time for the larger, constant pull of power while nothing else is happening.
NV Energy allows you to use the plan for a year, then compare the cost and decide whether to keep it. Even better, they offer to refund the difference if your costs actually rise over that year. It’s a good incentive to try the plan out.
I calculated the cost of fuel on the car once roughly, based on the rate. If I charged my car every single night for the entire 10 hours, it would cost about $278.86 (1KW/h x 10h x 365d). Imagine paying $280 on gas for the year while driving every day. But that’s beside the point.
Here’s the thing. We bought an EV, changed the way we are charged for electricity, and despite that EV using a few KW each night, we saved money on electricity. We essentially got, I’ll guess, 7,000 miles of the 10,000 we drove, and paid less in electricity than before we got the car. That’s not to mention what we would have paid for in gas during that time. Okay, let’s see. Assuming a generous 35 mpg, 7,000 miles would be 200 gallons of gas, which is generously around $4.00/gallon. That’s $800 in gas, plus the $200 on yearly savings, for a total actual savings of $1,000 in energy over that year. I feel great about that.
Take a look at the rates to see if there is a better plan for you.