BEMC’s Ford Mustang Mach-E
Preparing for the future includes understanding how EVs will affect our membership, and our cooperative. The early adopter phase of this technology is over, and the backlog of customer orders shows that they will soon be mainstream.
If you’re wondering if we will be able to handle the increase in load, the answer is yes. The BEMC member-owned electric grid is prepared for the trajectory of adoption in electric transportation and growth in residential, fleet and public charging. We are listening to the voice of our members as we put together programs, rates, and flexible options for fueling your future transportation needs.
What Are They Like?
To better understand how this new technology will personally affect our members, we traded in one our fleet Explorers, and purchased a Ford Mach-E. This is what we found:
1EVs are comparably priced to gas-powered vehicles, and less expensive to fuel. If a car gets 30 mpg and gas is $4.00 per gallon, it costs about 13.3 cents per mile to operate. An EV gets about 3 miles per kWh, so at our standard rate of 10.22 cents per kWh, it costs about 3.4 cents per mile. If you choose the Time-of-Use rate option, and charge overnight when you’re paying 4.37 cents per kWh, it costs about 1.46 cents per mile. EVs are also less expensive to maintain.
2Most of your charging will be done at home. You’ll start each day with a “full tank of gas”, which will more than likely be enough for commuting and daily errands. This can initially be a hard concept to grasp, but it’s easy to get used to having a filling station in your garage!
3Our Mach-E is a base model with a range of 200 miles, but many have a range of 250 miles or more. We’ve taken ours to Charlotte and Raleigh for meetings with no trouble, and it takes about 45 minutes to achieve an 80% charge at a Level 3 charging station. PlugShare and ChargePoint are two apps that can help you locate charging stations as you plan longer trips.
4Using the heater, air conditioning and other controls are calculated into your range expectations. And the EV’s technology provides lots of information to maximize your driving experience. The ride is smooth and quiet, with plenty of power for fast acceleration if you need it.
Some additional considerations include that your EV’s battery has the potential to power your home during an outage – and, as opposed to buying gas, when you buy electricity, your fueling dollars stay in our North Carolina communities.
