Potential fuel savings with charging at work?

Hi all,

I am considering getting an Audi A3 E-tron for my daily commute in Kansas City. I travel around 100 miles daily. I drive like 15 miles on the highway at 70 mph, 25 miles on single carriageways at around 45 miles, and the rest through smaller streets and residential areas. Currently, I am averaging around 30 mpg for the journey, which costs me about $12 a day in gas ($240 a month). The thing is my workplace just installed chargers in the parking area, so if I charge overnight at home and then again at work, can I manage to drive part of like 50 miles on electric mode and then switch to hybrid mode for the rest? If so, what kind of fuel savings could I expect? Thanks!

25 miles on a single charge in EV mode on an A3 E-tron is overly optimistic from my experience. It seems a lot of people get closer to 16 miles of range on a charge in EV mode. I only charge at home, and my 17 mile commute to the office is on average slightly downhill. I feel I'm lucky to have 3 or 4 miles of range left when I head back home at the end of the day.

Just to make the math easier, let's say you can manage 40 miles in EV mode via charging at home and work (20 miles each way). That would leave 60 miles remaining on gas. $12/day to go 100 miles on your current 30mpg vehicle is a cost of 12 cents/mile. The A3 E-tron is supposed to get ~34mpg in hybrid mode, but say you only get 30mpg on the E-tron in hybrid mode. 60 miles at 12 cents a mile with 30mpg is $7.20, so you would save $4.80/day ($96/mo). Not bad. Obviously, if you get less than 20 EV miles or better than 30mpg, this would vary, but your savings should be close to this.

(FYI, with the amount of combined EV/hybrid driving I do, I'm averaging 54mpg).

PS: I'm not factoring in the cost of you charging at home, so that would offset the savings I described above.

I have been driving an A3 for a while now, and I would say @MitchH's numbers are pretty spot on. I get closer to 15-17 miles in EV mode. 50 miles purely on electro mode is too optimistic.
Nothing to add about the costs. Good luck!

IliveIn1EV said:

I have been driving an A3 for a while now, and I would say @MitchH's numbers are pretty spot on. I get closer to 15-17 miles in EV mode. 50 miles purely on electro mode is too optimistic.
Nothing to add about the costs. Good luck!

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We were 20-22 miles in all-electric mode for the first two years. We dropped to 17-18 miles at night, in the rain, with heater, headlights, and wipers running in the CA winter. We have never driven many miles annually and are now at 23K miles on our 2017 A3 Sportback e-tron, owned since new. Unfortunately, our all-electric range is now down to 15 miles or less, which is generally under 70% original state of charge range. That is not impressive, since our 2018 Tesla Model 3 long range, at 44K miles, has lost less than 3% range. While we like our A3 e-tron, we are unhappy with the battery pack quality and significant loss of range. Audi USA states, “the battery pack still works and is not damaged, so no warranty replacement.”

I just got a new to me 2018 A3 e-tron hybrid. I work about 15 miles from home, and can charge at work.

If I am conservative with my right foot I can make it almost all the way to work and hybrid kicks in on the last few blocks.

On the way home I have a 1500’ climb in 5 miles, so hybrid mode kicks in for the that.

When I charge at work it costs appx 65 cents. Assuming that my at home charge costs the same, $1.30 in electric round trip!

Now I have found that I usually don’t drive that conservatively so my real world cost is more, but a considerable savings over my Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel.

dlinkA3 said:

We were 20-22 miles in all-electric mode for the first two years. We dropped to 17-18 miles at night, in the rain, with heater, headlights, and wipers running in the CA winter. We have never driven many miles annually and are now at 23K miles on our 2017 A3 Sportback e-tron, owned since new. Unfortunately, our all-electric range is now down to 15 miles or less, which is generally under 70% original state of charge range. That is not impressive, since our 2018 Tesla Model 3 long range, at 44K miles, has lost less than 3% range. While we like our A3 e-tron, we are unhappy with the battery pack quality and significant loss of range. Audi USA states, “the battery pack still works and is not damaged, so no warranty replacement.”

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Good sharing! It is true most of us are experiencing a drop in the all-electric range over time. And yeah, 30% is too much. It is disappointing that Audi won't replace the battery unless it is damaged, even with that level of capacity loss...

SteveO90290 said:

I just got a new to me 2018 A3 e-tron hybrid. I work about 15 miles from home, and can charge at work.

If I am conservative with my right foot I can make it almost all the way to work and hybrid kicks in on the last few blocks.

On the way home I have a 1500’ climb in 5 miles, so hybrid mode kicks in for the that.

When I charge at work it costs appx 65 cents. Assuming that my at home charge costs the same, $1.30 in electric round trip!

Now I have found that I usually don’t drive that conservatively fintechzoom so my real world cost is more, but a considerable savings over my Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel.

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Great

We are retired and most of our trips, doctor shopping Dinning out can be within 8 miles. So most trips are on EV. Looking at the stats in the MMI show only 8 % of our driving is using the ICE. At our last Fillup, the Gas mileage was 260 MPG. Our VW Golf gets about 26 MPG so we are clearly saving $'s and loving our 2017 e-Tron.

Update... Massive Power outage in Seattle area two days ago. Drove home in the storm and no EV range left - but no power to charge. Next day drove on Battery hold 10 miles to daughters home that had power but no way to re-charge. Back to home today on Battery Hold ...
Surprised to see the MPG at the end of this 20 mile trip - running on ICE in Bat Hold was 38 MPG. With some slow freeway miles but half in heavy Stop & go traffic with many street signals out.
Our Golf Alltrack with 1.8 L motor would average 26 on this trip.
The e-Tron is smaller but plus 200 pounds. So the 1.4 L with a start assist from the HV battery and Start-Stop and Coast functions make this a very economical car even in a Power outage.
Having had a VW Jetta Diesel that in this type of traffic got mid 35 MPG, I am very happy with the flexibility and economy the e-Tron offers.

Heh winter time, I have 465 miles of range, free heating included ... using the 1.4T of course enjoy it y'all!

cmc said:

Heh winter time, I have 465 miles of range, free heating included ... using the 1.4T of course enjoy it y'all!

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And you still pollute our environment with an ICE.

Question
How long can your 1.4T run, when stuck in a heavy snow storm, if you must idle to maintain heating?

Question
How safe is that when the carbon monoxide can enter the passenger cabin?

Answer
A BEV can run the heater, and seat heaters, without any dangerous CO, for several days.

Wasn't the preceding poster referencing the 1.4T in our cars?
(Although 465miles with the tiny fuel tank in our cars is probably quite optimistic.)

dlinkA3 said:

And you still pollute our environment with an ICE.

Question
How long can your 1.4T run, when stuck in a heavy snow storm, if you must idle to maintain heating?

Question
How safe is that when the carbon monoxide can enter the passenger cabin?

Answer
A BEV can run the heater, and seat heaters, without any dangerous CO, for several days.

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I loved that post. It reminded me of the blessing of having the 1.4 T!
You’re polluting the environment charging your car with electricity (wonder how electricity is made?j.
It’s a shame the battery pack is so wimpy we have to use the 1.4T!

dlinkA3 said:

And you still pollute our environment with an ICE.

Question
How long can your 1.4T run, when stuck in a heavy snow storm, if you must idle to maintain heating?

Question
How safe is that when the carbon monoxide can enter the passenger cabin?

Answer
A BEV can run the heater, and seat heaters, without any dangerous CO, for several days.

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This is a shortsided and arrogant comment. Do better.

Fcwdmdpedo said:

I loved that post. It reminded me of the blessing of having the 1.4 T!
You’re polluting the environment charging your car with electricity (wonder how electricity is made?j.
It’s a shame the battery pack is so wimpy we have to use the 1.4T!

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We are not polluting the environment charging with electricity. We are in the Sacramento, California region and have electricity production which will be carbon neutral within the next couple years (no coal, lots of hydro, solar, some geothermal, and weaning off methane/NG).

We also have a 7kW rooftop solar array at home, so our charging is completely pollution free during 2/3 of the year. We still generate electricity in the colder season, though part comes from our utility.

We are disgusted with our Audi battery pack, but it was all that was available in 2017 which could tow our 1,500 lb. trailer. Tesla does not allow trailer towing with the Model 3 in the USA, though we are considering adding a tow hitch anyway, since our Audi only has a 10.6 gallon tank and drops to under 19 mpg while towing up into the Sierras. The best we get on flat land is 24 mpg, so our 300 mile range Tesla would still do better, even with that load.

The new A3 Sportback e-tron, which likely will not be sold in North America, can get over 60 miles (EPA estimate) all electric range, compared to our 15 miles now (we were 20-22 miles for the first couple years).

Due to the loss of electric range in our Audi, we only drive it around town in electric mode. For longer trips we use our Tesla Model 3. We have only refueled our Audi twice in the past 4 years.

dlinkA3 said:

The new A3 Sportback e-tron, which likely will not be sold in North America, can get over 60 miles (EPA estimate) all electric range, compared to our 15 miles now (we were 20-22 miles for the first couple years).

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...So if the new A3 Sportback e-tron ever did come to the US, we would probably see a 30 mile real world EV only range. ~grin~

When I brought my 2018 A3 e-tron to the dealership for some diagnostics, they gave me a loaner 2.0L 2024 A3 and while it was neat because it was new and shiny, there were things that made the car irritating when comparing it to my 2018 A3. The piano black dash is disgusting. The loaner only had a thousand miles on it, but the scratches and its ability to attract any and all dirt made the car look a few years older. Worst yet, the sun hits all of the black bits and sends the beams right into you eyes.

All the fancy features are subscription based or pay more to unlock too. Navigation I can understand, but the radar adaptive cruise control, blind spot assist and a few other things were locked behind a pay wall. At least it wasn't like BMW were heated seats are "DLC".

I fear that if the new A3 etron came to the states, it would have the same human interface issues as the 2024 A3, be WAY over priced and under promise on the EV range.

I'm hoping to be able to drive my 2018 e-tron till it turns to dust. I just wish that someone would develop a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack for our cars. Sadly, there's just too few of us out in the wild for someone to try.

icee said:

...So if the new A3 Sportback e-tron ever did come to the US, we would probably see a 30 mile real world EV only range. ~grin~

When I brought my 2018 A3 e-tron to the dealership for some diagnostics, they gave me a loaner 2.0L 2024 A3 and while it was neat because it was new and shiny, there were things that made the car irritating when comparing it to my 2018 A3. The piano black dash is disgusting. The loaner only had a thousand miles on it, but the scratches and its ability to attract any and all dirt made the car look a few years older. Worst yet, the sun hits all of the black bits and sends the beams right into you eyes.

All the fancy features are subscription based or pay more to unlock too. Navigation I can understand, but the radar adaptive cruise control, blind spot assist and a few other things were locked behind a pay wall. At least it wasn't like BMW were heated seats are "DLC".

I fear that if the new A3 etron came to the states, it would have the same human interface issues as the 2024 A3, be WAY over priced and under promise on the EV range.

I'm hoping to be able to drive my 2018 e-tron till it turns to dust. I just wish that someone would develop a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack for our cars. Sadly, there's just too few of us out in the wild for someone to try.

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No, not 30 miles, but OVER 60 miles. The Euro WLTP estimate is 80 miles, but that is higher than EPA estimates are when converted.