Electric cars – Magic pill or poison for electricity prices – the $8 billion question
 
Electric cars offer great advantages – a greener way of filling up at a cheaper cost. But our app wanted to know how electric cars will impact electricity prices – will the average cost per unit change when we have a mass of electric cars on the road. We looked at the network costs which are about 40% of the electricity bill, and imagined an Australia in 2050 where 60% of cars are electric.
 
As you can see, the answer depends on when people charge their car. If everyone fills up during the peak evening period, we are in for a rocky ride. Expect average prices to rise by 30% plus for each unit of energy consumed. But charge in the day and overnight, and expect savings of around 20%. The difference will be about $400 for a household, or about $8 billion in total by 2050 (in today’s dollars) just for network prices. And this does not even include expected savings from generation costs.