Is my math correct? Is it really this cheap to operate?

[chl]

I have had my 2025 Lightning FLASH for a little over a year now and have a little over 17,000 miles on it. I decided to do a calculation of what it costs me per 100 miles to drive my truck. I live in the Phoenix metropolitan area and during the summer I average about 2.3 miles per KWh and in the winter I average a little over 2.6 miles per KWh. I decided to use 2.5 as an average for my calculations so I use about 40 KWH per 100 miles. I have a FCSP at home and charge exclusively at home except when I drive to LA or up to the mountains. My FCSP shows that I use between 7.1% and 7.5% more energy to charge my truck each time I charge. I decided to use 8% to be conservative which means to add 40 KWh to the truck I will use 43.2 KWh from the power company. I charge only at night starting at 10 PM and the rate I pay through my power company is 5.943 cents per KWh off-peak in the summer and 3.495 cents per KWh during super-off-peak hours (10 PM to 3 AM) in the winter. If my calculations are correct then the cost to drive 100 miles is $2.57 (43.2 * .05943) in the summer and $1.51 (43.2 * 0.3495) in the winter. Why would I ever spend money on gasoline again if my calculations are correct?

I get the same ball-park miles/kWh numbers with my 2023 Pro.

The only difference is when calculating my cost per mile.

I add in all the charges on my electric bill to get the actual bottom line cost (stuff like fuel, taxes, transmission charge, etc), so I wind up with more like 13 cents per kWh for example, my number from Sept. 2025.

I also include the "wasted" energy not just the energy added o the battery.

Even so I still ended up with a cost of less than 5 cents per mile in Sept. 2025 where my miles per kWh was 3.2 (mild weather, local non-hwy driving, speed limit obeyed, no aggressive driving).

My 2012 Nissan Leaf does better at 4.9 miles/kWh frequently.

Our 2015 Prius gets on average 50mpg Hwy and with gas at about $2.63 it is comparable dollar per mile wise to the Lightning, leaving out the "hidden" costs of air pollution, etc. of course.

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[Jseis]

I’ve averaged around 22K-25K miles per year and aside from blowing through a set of tires every 2-3 years and insurance $$… the LT saves serious dollars annually ‘cause $.064 per kWh. I’m currently at 56,000 miles and the S.O.’s Mach E is at 63K+. As gas runs $4.50 here last 3-4 years, we’ve saved well over $30K between both BEV rigs (compared to driving V8 trucks or turbo v6 SUVs at say 20 mpg average).

Cheap power & expensive fuel makes a huge difference if you’re driving a lot of miles a year with 15K being an average for typical use. Thus charge at home at low kWh use becomes a $$$ saver. That being said… here in the PNW cheap hydro power is getting huge demand from data center development and our utility manager alluded to the consequences of future power demand. Operating on the premise of no such thing as a “free lunch”, that hybrid Mavrick I gazed at for $19,950 3.5 years ago looks llike a steal (though i couldn’t tow boat, tractor, etc). I could’ve legit averaged 40 mpg on my commute. Plenty happy with the Lightning. And if it rolls to 150K-200K with minimal maintenance and no major powertrain issues...I’d be ok with the “decision“.

Much larger forces at play will determine future transportation choices. The declining population growth of the developed countries of the world overlapped with robotics, A.I., & income disparity are the insane economic forces our kids will see and live with and it looks… weird. I’ll be the 85+ year-old grandfather bopping along in a “Classic“ Lightning... at 90% battery life as in “they don’t make those anymore“.

 

[RickLightning]

Why would I ever spend money on gasoline again if my calculations are correct?

For me the bottom line is: Why didn't my dealer or even Ford let me know how energy efficient EVs really are. I think this is actually a big seller and for people like me who live in Phoenix which is the land of big SUVs and trucks it is a no brainer to own an EV. Sometimes when I am out driving I count as many as 7 other Lightnings on the road.

You're comparing the cost of driving an EV, SLOW, locally, as compared to gas. EVs get better efficiency going SLOW. Gas vehicles get better efficiency going faster.

Now, let's take a highway trip. Your ~8 cents per kWh is gone, POOF. You might find fast chargers in the 30 cents range. More than likely, not. Let's head east to Globe, AZ. Electrify America is 48 cents, which would be 36 cents with their membership ($7 a month). That's over 4x your cost. Pilot in Salome is building a station, theirs are usually 64 cents. Dateland, AZ has a SuperCharger you can use if you head that way, 57 cents, plus a 50 cent per minute congestion fee when it's busy. If you take their membership for $12.99, the cost drops to 41 cents, but the same 50 cent per minute congestion fee if it gets busy (has 40 stations).

So, if your dealer, or Ford, said "it's way cheaper to drive an EV", you (and I mean you as in mankind) would be screaming at them "I went on a trip and I'm too f'in stupid to understand that home electricity is cheaper than on the road, and it's more like it's comparable to the cost of a gas vehicle, except for the tank you left the house with.

In short, people are stupid, and lazy. They want to be spoonfed everything, research nothing, read nothing, and then bitch when it works out differently than they incorrectly understood. I can't tell you the number of Facebook posts from people who write "What the hell! My electric bill went up $500 this month from my EV". Then, after you ask 15 questions, they admit they have electric heat and have no clue that in the coldest month in years, that's the thing driving their bill. Or, that at say 2 miles per kWh, and an electricity cost of 20 cents per kWh, they'd have to drive ($500 / .2 = 2,500kWh x 2 miles = )5,000 miles in a month to have a $500 cost?

And let's say the salesman said it was cheaper. Then you tell him you live in parts of CA, or parts of MA or CT, where electricity is say 35 cents or 50 cents per kWh, and it's actually cheaper to charge at a public charger than at home?

You have just learned how good a decision you made, by accident. Consider your reaction if you learned it the other way, because you had high electricity cost at home, or you never put in a home charger.

And you need to include the loss, because you're paying the electric company for it.

 

[K6CCC]

plus a 50 cent per minute congestion fee when it's busy.

Hint, I have NEVER paid a Tesla congestion fee - even when almost every stall was in use. I have no idea when (if) they actually charge that, but I have never seen it.

 

[woodsman]

Hint, I have NEVER paid a Tesla congestion fee - even when almost every stall was in use. I have no idea when (if) they actually charge that, but I have never seen it.

Besides the cost savings we are not driving a Vega, or a Pinto. In the Past saving fuel cost meant driving some little bug that was High Maintenance, and scary to drive. This thing will blow the doors off most vehicles out there, low maintenance, drives like a dream, and is as safe as any vehicle out there.
Likin my Lightning.

 

[FloridaMan655321]

For me the bottom line is: Why didn't my dealer or even Ford let me know how energy efficient EVs really are. I think this is actually a big seller and for people like me who live in Phoenix which is the land of big SUVs and trucks it is a no brainer to own an EV. Sometimes when I am out driving I count as many as 7 other Lightnings on the road.

FL here, and our main supplier is FPL, which after looking at some of these posts is pretty cheap apparently. I agree as when I bought the Lightning we barely noticed the increase in our electric bill. Now I don't have a long commute, but after my wife bought a Tesla and she has a pretty decent commute. We probably notice the difference, but since we have low off peak charging times it's not that big of an increase.

Most of FL is like AZ in that we like our full size trucks and SUV's. Sure it does suck if you need to be in downtown Miami, or some really old cities like Key West or St Augustine, but overall it's soooo nice having a full size vehicle that is this cheap to run.

 

[Maxx]

I pay $18c/Kw, cold winter days spend 7 Kwh/day keeping the battery warm, I mostly charge at home and also use the free chargers at public locations I visit so my overall energy cost is still lower than the wife’s Subaru but I did find a reason to pay for gas on a recent trip. For my specific condition (not having included charging at many locations I was staying at), DCFC would have made the electric trip more expensive than ICE.

 

[Rtashiro]

Where I live in Manitoba Canada our rates are 9.7 cents per kWh any time we don’t have time of use. Converted to USD it comes to 7.1 cents per kWh. Then I get a rebate of 5 cents from the manufacturer of my home charger. I very rarely use public charging.

 

[DrMad900]

I have had my 2025 Lightning FLASH for a little over a year now and have a little over 17,000 miles on it. I decided to do a calculation of what it costs me per 100 miles to drive my truck. I live in the Phoenix metropolitan area and during the summer I average about 2.3 miles per KWh and in the winter I average a little over 2.6 miles per KWh. I decided to use 2.5 as an average for my calculations so I use about 40 KWH per 100 miles. I have a FCSP at home and charge exclusively at home except when I drive to LA or up to the mountains. My FCSP shows that I use between 7.1% and 7.5% more energy to charge my truck each time I charge. I decided to use 8% to be conservative which means to add 40 KWh to the truck I will use 43.2 KWh from the power company. I charge only at night starting at 10 PM and the rate I pay through my power company is 5.943 cents per KWh off-peak in the summer and 3.495 cents per KWh during super-off-peak hours (10 PM to 3 AM) in the winter. If my calculations are correct then the cost to drive 100 miles is $2.57 (43.2 * .05943) in the summer and $1.51 (43.2 * 0.3495) in the winter. Why would I ever spend money on gasoline again if my calculations are correct?

that electricity rate looks way too cheap. I live in NJ and our rate for the last 6 months was hovering around 0.16 per Kw. winter time there is a hidden electricity cost for predeparture conditioning. the gas here is averaging 2.5 PG. comparing with a hybrid F150 right now it's more expensive to operate EV than a gas car. I have Solar so I can see the actual electricity consumption every 15 min. my base consumption i.e. lights fridge etc. is around 12 KW per day. I derive less than 500 miles monthly and in the last 3 months my electricity consumption increased to around 48Kw per day. My truck is averaging 1.7 Mi/Kw I guess cold is taking a really bad toll on the milage.

 

[astrand1]

I have 24+kw of solar... my effective rate all but months with snow on my panels is 0.00/mile
Indeed, why buy an Ice again???
-Zap

To be fair one needs to calculate the total cost for the panels and install. I would agree that charging the truck definitely will speed up the ROI.

 

[RipInPepz]

In Ohio i can selected my suppliers and im locked in @ 9 cents per kwh for 4 years. But thats only part of the bill. Theres all the distribution charges too, which usually is the same cost. To find my real cents per kwh i just take my total bill and do the math. My last bill was $305 and I used 1700 kwh. Thats 18 cents per kwh effectively for AEP Ohio.

But yes, still much cheaper than and ICE f150. About 1/3rd of the cost per mile usually.

 

[Rice_classic]

I’ve averaged around 22K-25K miles per year and aside from blowing through a set of tires every 2-3 years and insurance $$… the LT saves serious dollars annually ‘cause $.064 per kWh. I’m currently at 56,000 miles and the S.O.’s Mach E is at 63K+. As gas runs $4.50 here last 3-4 years, we’ve saved well over $30K between both BEV rigs (compared to driving V8 trucks or turbo v6 SUVs at say 20 mpg average).

Cheap power & expensive fuel makes a huge difference if you’re driving a lot of miles a year with 15K being an average for typical use. Thus charge at home at low kWh use becomes a $$$ saver. That being said… here in the PNW cheap hydro power is getting huge demand from data center development and our utility manager alluded to the consequences of future power demand. Operating on the premise of no such thing as a “free lunch”, that hybrid Mavrick I gazed at for $19,950 3.5 years ago looks llike a steal (though i couldn’t tow boat, tractor, etc). I could’ve legit averaged 40 mpg on my commute. Plenty happy with the Lightning. And if it rolls to 150K-200K with minimal maintenance and no major powertrain issues...I’d be ok with the “decision“.

Much larger forces at play will determine future transportation choices. The declining population growth of the developed countries of the world overlapped with robotics, A.I., & income disparity are the insane economic forces our kids will see and live with and it looks… weird. I’ll be the 85+ year-old grandfather bopping along in a “Classic“ Lightning... at 90% battery life as in “they don’t make those anymore“.

WA State is proposing legislation to try and get in front of data center power consumption problem. I hope it passes.
https://www.axios.com/local/seattle...gislature-electric-grid-cost-shift-ratepayers

 

[RandyT]

Your efficiency numbers (2.3–2.6 mi/kWh) are spot on for a Flash trim. One thing you might find even more satisfying: if you compare that to a gas F-150 getting 20 MPG, you’d be paying roughly $15.00–$18.00 per 100 miles (depending on local gas prices). You're basically driving for 1/6th the cost.
The only thing that usually catches people off guard is the tire wear. These Lightnings are heavy and have massive instant torque, so you might go through rubber a bit faster than your old gas truck. But even with a new set of tires factored in, you're still miles ahead.
Enjoy the savings—it’s hard to ever go back to the pump once you see those numbers!

 

[Jseis]

WA State is proposing legislation to try and get in front of data center power consumption problem. I hope it passes.
https://www.axios.com/local/seattle...gislature-electric-grid-cost-shift-ratepayers

I read a fascinating history on the need for aluminum and the intersection of fed policy on electric power. At the dawn of WW2 the largest US electric power system available was through the Bonneville Power Administration Overseeing many major hydroelectric projects: Grand Coulee in particular. BPA was having a difficult time selling power. Feds agree to a long agreement on power (40? years) and bang- electric arc furnaces appear Wenatchee to Vancouver and Puget Sound. After the 40 years were up, those aluminum smelters… gone. Then population growth, bit-coin mining, and data center…. (quite a few wind systems too).

A new data center in Quincy, WA is going to be powered by a new 50+ mile long natural gas line ‘cause local utility can’t guarantee electric power…!

 

[bc1]

I know a former building contractor here in town who got out of that biz and now has two large buildings housing bitcoin mining operations. Power company is pumping a bunch of energy into his businesses both for cooling and the computer banks. I haven't asked him if he owns any of the other banks here in town yet? Guess I need to see if he still lives a few blocks away or if he has built himself a mansion out in the country yet.

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