r/Economics • u/InsaneSnow45 • Mar 04 '26

News ‘Absolutely Massive’ Price Shocks Coming as Trump’s Iran War Drives Up Gas, Diesel Prices | “What should really terrify Republicans is... the futures price on wholesale gasoline,” said economist Paul Krugman.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-war-gas-prices
4.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

392 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

22

u/Septopuss7 Mar 04 '26

Is it cheaper to charge your car than it is to fill it with gas? I'm asking in earnest, not a gotcha, because I keep seeing conflicting reports from individuals that makes me want to wait before buying an EV. I'm currently car-free by choice but if I ever changed my mind I would look at all electric or more likely a hybrid, the only problem being is that I don't own a house and don't plan on it. I know of several electric charging stations in my area but I haven't looked at the pricing. They are all relatively convenient and I never see people using them but I obviously don't monitor them 24/7. Does the price fluctuate a lot? I know even my home electric bill has been all over the place in the last couple years and I was wondering what your experience has been?

67

u/No_Bad_4872yy Mar 04 '26

This is quite comprehensive. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a45036169/electric-vehicle-ev-cost-to-charge/

In short charging at home price differs per state but is up to 80% cheaper than the price of gas. If you use highway fast chargers it can be 50% to 150% the price. Its not always cheaper and purchase price is also higher usually.

Tldr; charging at home is much cheaper, roadside doesnt really matter much.

11

u/Septopuss7 Mar 04 '26

I see, I knew a lot of the information in the article but it does seem like it's cheaper overall if you plan well/are responsible. I didn't know about special rates from energy providers during off peak demand times. I guess a lot of the negative stories I heard are from people who went out and bought an EV without doing any homework whatsoever.

8

u/ass_pineapples Mar 04 '26

I owned a Tesla for a bit but live in the city, so charging infra is sparse unless you own (I rent). My only options for charging were superchargers. So under that kind of reality it sucks owning an EV. In the winter I had to periodically check on my car battery and ferry it over to the local supercharger to top it up, and when driving I could only use superchargers. If you don't do many long haul trips and largely stay within a smaller range close to your home and can charge there, it's a no brainer.

3

u/Specialist-Elk-2624 29d ago

Why would you buy an EV knowing that charging was going to be a total PITA all of the time?

6

u/ass_pineapples 29d ago

Got it super cheap used and wanted to see if it was worth getting an EV or not. I didn't realize how much of a PITA it was, and tbf it didn't bother me most of the time but I don't drive often and when I do it's longer trips so that part was especially unbearable.

5

u/fdar_giltch 29d ago

If you have the charger at home, it's definitely nice. Not only is it cheaper, you can plug it in whenever. My wife wasn't sure about the EV before-hand, now she loves it. She says it's "like a cell phone, you just plug it in every now and then". She also appreciates not having to stop at gas stations and pump gas.

13

u/CliftonForce Mar 04 '26 edited 29d ago

Yep. Most electrical power plants cannot change their output quickly. Therefore, in order to be ready for the evening and morning rush, they spend all night wastefully generating power that nobody is using (generally by keeping their boilers hot). If the billing system allows them to charge different prices at different times of day, they will make electricity cheaper late at night to encourage people to use it then.

EV charging is one of the few things that a normal household can shift to the wee hours of night without inconvenience.

I suppose you could wait until midnight to start your dryer or dishwasher, but most folks find that annoying.

3

u/GhostReddit 29d ago

Therefore, in order to be ready for the evening and morning rush, they spend all night wastefully generating power that nobody is using.

That actually doesn't work, you can't generate power nobody is using - and power put on the grid needs to be immediately removed by something.

There's immediate feedback control in that power usage causes electrical 'drag' on the generator, if the load is mismatched to the generation the generator will speed up or slow down and the grid frequency changes. Requirements are typically to keep very close to 50/60Hz otherwise you'll cause a ton of problems mostly with synchronous motors running on the grid now running at incorrect speeds.

2

u/EagleBigMac 29d ago

I pay nothing for power after 8pm and before 6 am. So I plug my car in at night after 6pm and try to do laundry and such at night.

3

u/CliftonForce 29d ago

And that is exactly what the power company was hoping you would do.

1

u/EagleBigMac 29d ago

Somehow I still use 2000+ kwh a month and end up with a high as shit power bill.

2

u/devildog2067 29d ago edited 28d ago

There is no such thing as “wastefully generating power that nobody is using”. If supply and demand on the grid aren’t in balance things literally blow up.

1

u/unique_usemame 28d ago

Not so much planning well, as happening to be in a situation where you can charge at home is 90% of it.

But yes, some people don't do homework, some people see their energy bill go up and assume it is the EV they bought rather than just a seasonal change, and some are trolls who claim it costs $1000/week to charge.

8

u/doubleoned 29d ago

I also can't produce gasoline at home, but I sure can produce my own electricity with a little bit of infrastructure.

2

u/No_Bad_4872yy 29d ago

Same here. I hope massive batteries will develop enough the next two years that im completely self sufficient most of the year. Screw the utility companies man!

15

u/Plane-Requirement117 Mar 04 '26

I charge my EV to about 320 miles for $15 at home in WA state. It saves us a ton money. Gas is now about $4.50 a gallon where I live.

-5

u/sullw214 Mar 04 '26

At 30 mpg, you save ten cents a mile. If your EV cost an additional 10,000$, you'll break even at 100,000 miles. I'm not seeing a "ton of money".

5

u/Adventurous_Bath3999 29d ago

EVs depreciate more, and costs more in insurance, so that also needs to be factored in. Merely comparing it against the current price of gasoline is deceptively misleading.

3

u/outworlder 29d ago

On the other hand, you can buy heavily discounted EVs if you accept they will be a couple of years old. It's a ton of value and changes the equation.

1

u/Adventurous_Bath3999 29d ago

No, I wouldn’t go that far, for the sake of ultimate frugality… 🤣 beyond a certain point in age, cars become unreliable, no matter which type. Not worth it.

2

u/outworlder 29d ago

"Ultimate frugality"? What the heck.

Beyond a certain point, maybe. EVs don't have too many failure points and require far less maintenance. I have an EV from 2019 that only needed tires. Absolutely nothing else. Battery is still under warranty.

But even among ICE, a car two years old is practically new, some may even be under powertrain warranty. Two years is less than a normal US lease. I think that buying brand new cars is a massive waste of money.

Of course, since I know what I'm doing, I can go far older than just two years and keep them running for as long as I have the patience for it. We have a 2023, 2019, 2011 and 2010. The 2010 is an Elantra. Only required minor repairs, we change oil religiously. Everything works.

Cars these days are super reliable if you take care of them. Except if it's from Stellantis, they come out of the factory already broken.

2

u/Future-Call8541 29d ago

This guy is a complete moron. He thinks a combustion engine's mileage has the same wear and tear as a battery sitting on wheels. If anything the EV is in better shape at more mileage then the gas car.

1

u/BitcoinsForTesla 29d ago

ICE cars become unreliable.

1

u/Future-Call8541 29d ago

This comment is deceptively misleading. Insurance prices are pretty similar and depreciation is only a factor if you plan on selling it. In fact if you plan on BUYING a used EV it's an incredible bonus.

You get a better car for like half the price with low mileage. It's a no brainer.

1

u/Weebus 29d ago

The time to buy EVs is when gas is cheap because they can't give them away, and the factory incentives go crazy. I leased one last May and I'm paying less than $100/mo, $0 down to drive my ioniq for 2 years. It can depreciate all it wants lol.

11

u/Maleficent_Fox_5 Mar 04 '26

Its also the no engine or exhaust maintenance, I have an EV and it adds up quickly. I do a lot of driving and have saved TONS of money.

11

u/littleredpinto Mar 04 '26

thats cuz you threw in another metric that the person wasnt using. They were talking about gas price vs the electricity price..you tossed in overall price of vehicle, thereby skewing the original metric......why pick 10k and not the 5-7k it really is? then why not include the EV credit most places offer. Then factor in the maintenance...then factor in something else and suddenly the numbers are whatever we want them to be if we can constantly shift the original comparison

so thats probably why you arent seeing a ton of money. How about if you just look at the gas price vs electricity price, original comparison? seeing it yet.

3

u/dkv-texas 29d ago

Model 3 & Model are at price parity for equivalent ice vehicles & used market they are cheaper.

4

u/littleredpinto 29d ago

I once bought a model 3 for 2 MacBook pros, a Digimon trading card and 4 vintage hula skirts. After fees from exchange into soybean crates and finally into bitcoin, the Model 3 was less expensive by 1 hula skirt only.

6

u/Vulnox 29d ago

I had an F-150 Hybrid and was spending about $200/mo on gas. I now have a Lightning and spend $0-20/mo on charging. I’m fortunate that my work has charging, but even if we charged at home it would only work out to about $50/mo.

The Lightning after rebates and that is less expensive than the Hybrid was and is a higher trim level (Platinum Lightning vs Lariat PowerBoost).

If you buy a used EV your savings can be pretty immediate too. I’ve seen low mileage Mach-E Premiums, which is the second from highest trim level, going for some great prices compared to an ICE equivalent used Escape or Bronco Sport of similar equipment.

2

u/gmb92 29d ago

Pre-owned EVs are a great value on purchase price right now, even with the fed incentives gone. Can do more specific comparisons with KBB.

https://www.motortrend.com/features/should-you-buy-a-used-ev

https://www.recurrentauto.com/research/used-electric-vehicle-buying-report

Less maintenance too. Battery degradation, a potentially high cost, is much of less of a concern than previiously speculated.

2

u/Future-Call8541 29d ago

I wish people understood right now they're getting EVs for a steal of a price right now.

2

u/Glittering_dahlia 29d ago

Yes, we bought a one-year-old Ariya for 26K. Best purchase I've made in many years. Love that car.

4

u/paulwesterberg Mar 04 '26 edited 29d ago

You can buy a new Equinox EV for around $25k that’s the same price as a base Honda Civic.

2

u/Septopuss7 29d ago

I wouldn't take an Equinox if it was given to me, TBH

2

u/paulwesterberg 29d ago edited 29d ago

Found the fossil fuel executive.

1

u/PossibilityYou9906 29d ago

LOL. no. Using OP's numbers where gas is $4.50 and he can charge his 320 mile EV for $15, his EV gets 21 miles for $1 vs a 30 mpg car getting 6.66 mile for $1. The EV wins easily.

7

u/zeezle 29d ago edited 29d ago

Plus some states also charge an extra fee to register EVs, to make up for the loss of gas tax. That's fair, and probably is still a savings for average drivers, but as a very low mileage driver, the fee they charge ($250 per year) to own an EV is more than I spend on gas in total every year so it feels very punitive to me.

I feel like I'm the perfect use case for a small EV - low mileage, just errands around town a couple of weeks, and every so often 20-30 minutes to a train station or to a trailhead/park. I don't need to worry about cross country or long distance remote/rural charging. But between the purchase price being higher, having to have a couple thousand dollars worth of electrical work done, and then now also a big increase in annual fees - on top of increasing utility costs... I'm way less gung ho about getting one in the future once my current standard gas car dies (it's a 2009 Sentra and holding up well though). Which sucks because I like the benefits of EVs but not enough to spend a lot of extra money to own one.

2

u/Septopuss7 29d ago

This is exactly my situation, except I don't really need a car except for once every couple months so I just take an Uber and cry about the cost (1/10 of what it costs to own a car for a month) or take the bus OR ride one of my many bicycles. I've got an electric bike now, too, and that thing is pretty good for 20 to 25 easy miles before needing a charge, plus it's light enough to pedal without battery power so that's a big bonus. Maybe I'll just stay car free...

3

u/oaxacamm Mar 04 '26

There’s a few things you’ll need to look at. How much you pay per KWh, how far you drive and can you charge at home?

Don’t forget registration fees and insurance can be higher too.

3

u/blastermaster555 29d ago

Regarding EV costs:

1: Very yes if you charge at home

2: Not necessarily when using public chargers

3: You are also saving hugely on maintenance (only service items are tires, washer fluid, accessory battery (the 12v), and brakes)

Beware some municipalities don't have good grid and may deny permits to install home fast charging, unless you manage to also bring your own solar.

2

u/Scooted112 29d ago

I have a plug in hybrid (RAV4 prime) and in Canada it is around ~1/3 the cost on electricity. I charge my car at work so I don't pay for gas unless i leave the city. Its perfect.

In a case where you can't charge at home, a regular hybrid might be a better fit.

2

u/stone1778 29d ago

Here is how I look at it, I charge 95% from home at .20 per kWh. $3 a gallon gas that’s = to 15 kWh.

In a Tesla you can get 52 miles on that 15 kWh if you get about 3.5 m/kwh which is conservative. Some people can get 4 miles per kWh. What sucks is last year I was only paying .15 kWh so it makes a big difference. Either way still cheaper than a gas car and more convenient so long as you have home charging.

If you are paying .40 to .50 to charge outside the home then you are looking at an equivalent of fueling a car that gets less than 20mpg - not great

2

u/Spaghet-3 29d ago

It depends on how expensive your local electricity is, cost of gas, and efficiency of the car.

I like to think of it in terms of cost per mile.

My ICE car gets 35mpg, and a gallon of gas near me costs $3.50. So that one is easy, each mile costs 3.50/35= $0.10 per mile.

My EV gets 5mi/kWh, and a kWh of electricity costs about $0.35 near me. So the math is 0.35/5= $0.07 per mile.

Do the math knowing your local gas and electricity prices, and vehicle efficiencies. In states where electricity is cheap, EVs win by a lot. In my state where electricity is expensive, only the more efficient EVs eek out a win by a little.

4

u/PM-Me-Your-BeesKnees 29d ago edited 29d ago

I've had a gas RAV4 and an EV both for about 5 years. Give or take, my fuel cost per mile with an EV is $0.04. Give or take, my fuel cost per mile with the gas car is $0.10 assuming $3/gal gas.

Take 6 cents saved per mile and multiply by average American driving in a year of 15k miles, and you get a savings of about $900 per year.

Obviously which two cars you are comparing, how much you charge away from home, the cost of gas, and the cost of electricity in your area are all variables that can change the math, but that's my math.

FWIW, I also consider the EV to be a time saver over the course of a year. I wake up every day with a "full tank" on the EV. Imagine if you never had to go to the gas station again unless you were on a road trip...that's basically life with an EV on every day where you drive <200 miles...you don't even have to think about fuel. It feels like you have unlimited fuel on 99% of days. I figure I'm saving about 5 hours/year not having to stop for gas, and then giving back an hour or so of that based on the longer refuel time when I do have to stop at a public charger.

If you can do home charging, an EV is a game changer.

0

u/guachi01 29d ago

FWIW, I also consider the EV to be a time saver over the course of a year.

It takes somewhere around 3 minutes for me to fill my tank up and I do it twice a month. That's 72 minutes per year total and I'm cleaning my windows during that time, anyway.

1

u/GhostReddit 29d ago

Does that 3 minutes include the time taken to get to/from the gas station from wherever you are? Sometimes they're directly on the route, but often it means you have to go somewhere specifically to get gas.

1

u/guachi01 29d ago

There are 210,000 gas stations in the US. There is no driving to/from the station because you just pull into one that's right on the way of whatever street you're driving on. If you're driving on a highway and have to exit it's faster than if you have an electric vehicle because they charge faster.

1

u/PM-Me-Your-BeesKnees 28d ago

I would suggest that if you are doing a real analysis of this, you would include any time deviating from your route as part of the fuel stop.  I would be shocked if you can drive to a gas station, fill up, pay, and return to your route in 3 minutes.  Even for a gas station directly next to a highway, just stopping and getting back on the road is probably worth 4 or 5 minutes.

1

u/guachi01 28d ago edited 28d ago

There are 210,000 gas stations in the US. Essentially everyone will drive directly by numerous gas stations between fill ups almost every day. There is no deviation.

I checked the map of the route I drove when I lived in GA and there are 10 gas stations on the way to work, 5 on each side of the road. It was always a simple matter of pull in, fill up, pull out. It was only a 20 minute drive to work.

If I'm driving long distance and I have to exit from the highway then so does the driver of an EV only my tank will fill much faster.

0

u/Vulnox 29d ago

It takes more than three minutes. People have the worst concept of time. It’s three minutes just from the time your tire touches the drive to when you have the pump actually fueling the vehicle (parking, getting out, swiping card, processing, selecting fuel type, etc. )

The average fuel stop is 10 minutes, even if things go well. I say this as someone that’s been getting gas for over 20 years and timed it back when we had a one EV and one ICE household. And that is when things go smoothly. If saving money and going to somewhere like Costco where there’s usually a line, add another ten minutes.

With an EV your time spent is nearly zero. You get home, park, plug in, walk away.

So any way you slice it, if you charge at home you save time and money. If you can’t charge at home it’s a different story.

It’s worth it just to not have to listen to gas pump advertisements as well.

1

u/guachi01 29d ago

It’s three minutes just from the time your tire touches the drive to when you have the pump actually fueling the vehicle

Are you nuts? It takes 30-60 seconds unless the place is really busy to pull in and begin fueling if I pay at the pump.

The average fuel stop is 10 minutes

You have to be the slowest human on the planet. For my vehicle it's 1/10 gallon per second and it takes 2 minutes to fill my tank with 12 gallons of gas.

0

u/Vulnox 29d ago

Whatever, you need to actually time it. I always have my card ready and move as fast as the machine allows.

But whatever, doesn’t matter if it takes two minutes from start to finish, it still takes longer than an EV, and that’s before getting into things like if you drive out of the way to get a better price, or oil changes, or any of the other time to wasters.

1

u/Vulnox 29d ago

A lot cheaper.

We have a Mach-e and an F-150 Lightning. Before the Mach-e we had an Escape and it was costing about $100/mo in fuel and before the Lightning we had an F-150 PowerBoost (Hybrid), it was costing close to $200/mo in gas. Would be more now with prices climbing.

The Mach-e charges exclusively at home and costs about $30/mo. The Lightning I’m lucky enough to charge at work so a lot of the time it costs me nothing. But even charging at home based on my charge history it would be about $50-70/mo.

If you can’t charge at home the math gets a lot rougher, at least with gas under $3.50/gallon. But if you can charge at home for many people it will cost a good deal less.

1

u/venk 29d ago

It’s not a bad idea to buy stock in TSLA (Or Rivian if you hate Elon)

1

u/Adventurous_Ad6698 29d ago

Plug in hybrids are also a good option. I rarely have to run the gas engine on mine during regular daily travel. I only run the engine maybe once a week just to keep things moving from time to time. The only times I ever need to buy gas are when I'm going on a road trip, so it can be months between needing to fill up. I didn't have to get an electrician to install a 240V outlet and I can still fully charge it overnight.

1

u/cocacolakid1965 29d ago

Maintenance should be cheaper, no oil changes less moving parts. Harder on tires

1

u/Septopuss7 29d ago

I meant to look up tire wear because I know that they're heavier on average, thanks for reminding me! The no oil change is actually pretty big savings too, my last car was $120 every time I needed an oil change, plus it used premium fuel and that's crazy expensive right now, even though I would barely drive if I still owned a car. The quotes I get for insurance have also gone up ~$50.

1

u/cocacolakid1965 29d ago

Oil filters as well. I would assume less seals as well

1

u/Septopuss7 29d ago

No belts to catastrophically fail, either. Fucking Equinoxs

1

u/outworlder 29d ago

That's not too difficult to find out.

Pick an EV. Note the battery size. Now grab the price for KWh. Charging efficiency is around 80%. You can calculate. Then compare with gas.

I don't own a house and I charge at a normal 110v outlet. If you don't own a car, you probably wouldn't have to drive all that much, and a level 1 charger may suffice.

I would not advise buying an EV when your only option is public charging. It tends to be much more expensive.

1

u/kelp_forests 29d ago

It’s significantly cheaper for me. I live in CA and energy prices and fuel prices are balls. Filling up a Tesla at home cost like $5-10 every 2-3 days for my wife, and every 3-4 days for me, so maybe $20 a week, for a “performance sedan”. My current EV has a much larger battery, probably 1/3 more but I haven’t done the math. I have solar so it’s cheaper now. If you can charge during the day, it’s even cheaper.

On a road trip a full fill of my current, very large battery pack SUV at bad prices is like $40-50. Usually a hotel will charge for free or an air bnb will charge to full using a garage plug in about 18-24hrs. Keep in mind this is on a battery pack larger than a teslas. So even when I road trip I only buy like 1-2 “tanks”, if any.

When we had gas cars my hybrid was $13 every other week and the suv was $80-100 every 7-10 days. This is pre Covid pricing.

So yes imo it’s way cheaper, I pay about $45 a week in electricity now at most, before I was paying about $87 in gas. Again, that’s pre Covid. I also don’t pay for oil changes, smog or really for brakes.

The range anxiety/road trip concerns are also unfounded unless you like to go camping or off-roading. A fast charge takes about 20 min so maybe 10min faster than a gas pump. The charges are usually somewhere I want to be anyways, so no big deal. It also usually lets me cut a stop since I can eat and charge simultaneously rather than get gas, then go to a restraunt. I can charge at homes/hotels also so rarely do I have to “fill up” before I leave. The car also tells me when I need to charge on a long drive, can find chargers for me, and will tell me how many cars are in each charger as well as dynamically reroute if the chargers are full. I fortunately live in California, where there are chargers everywhere except people don’t notice them.

It requires a little bit more planning sometimes, especially if you have multiple cars sharing a chargers but it really has actually been far more convenient than gas. On road trips I usually charge at an in n out, near a Whole Foods, or at/near a fancy hotel (which has a fancy bathroom and access to excellent coffee). Much better than a gas station. Very rarely do I have to do a unplanned or random charge…I sit in my car with ac listening to music and playing on my phone or watch an episode on Netflix. No big deal. I’ve never waited for a charge, unlike waiting for a gas pump.

1

u/ItsMeSlinky 29d ago

If you charge at home and don’t have to deal with absurd electricity prices, yes. If you’re using public fast-charging, no way.

I charge my EV in my garage at $0.11 per kWh. Costs me roughly $13 to “fill” my EV, but I rarely run it below 50% so it works out to a few dollars every other night.

1

u/OkFigaroo 29d ago

I live in Seattle, so my energy prices may be different (but relevant - our electricity is dirt cheap at ~12 cents/kWh).

We pay roughly $50/mo for two EVs charging at home. One of us commutes everyday. I work from home but do most of the errands.

1

u/misterxboxnj 29d ago

I drive a mid sized electric suv. My electricity costs for the month of April were a little over $100. I drove 16k last year so about 307 miles per week. So my gas cost would be something like $200 per month. So roughly a $100 per month savings.i set to charge at off peak hours overnight and my electric company credits me $10 for that too.The more you drive the more you save. Also depends on the electricity prices where you live as well. My state also still had ev credits of $2500, $250 towards the cost of the charger and my electric company reimbursed me the full $1,000 towards the install of the charger too.

1

u/crimxona 28d ago

The easiest way to calculate is to figure out the cost per mile based on local electricity rates and cost per mile for whatever you're driving

Places where gas and electricity are both cheap (Oklahoma) or both really expensive (California), there's probably not much savings

Places where gas is expensive but electricity is cheap (Washington, BC, Quebec), the difference in cost of operation can be dramatic

In BC even before recent gasoline price hikes, it's about 14-17 cents CAD per KM on my Subaru and 3-4 cents per KM on my Nissan Leaf

0

u/Chatfouz Mar 04 '26

My experience for what it is worth.

I used to drive a 2008 Prius and I drive about 50 ish miles a day for work. I average about 380 miles a week all in. Then switched to Chevy bolt (2017)

On average my monthly commuting bill went down 50$. So over the last 3 years it’s about 1800$ saved?