Potential fuel savings with charging at work?

[MoonCar1990]

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!

 

[MitchH]

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.

 

[IliveIn1EV]

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!

 

[dlinkA3]

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!

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.”

 

[SteveO90290]

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.

 

[IliveIn1EV]

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.”

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...

 

[Sopra]

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.

Great