Note: For more from Alexandra, visit the "Ask Alexandra" tab on the Chevrolet Volt Facebook page.

“Is charging your car expensive?” is the second most common question I get about my Volt. (In case you are wondering  - and I know you are - the most frequently asked question is “How far can you go?” Unfortunately, most folks still don’t understand what kind of vehicle the Volt is, but that is for another blog).

The answer is, charging my car is cheaper than gassing up yours. I did the math:

In 2010, I drove my electric car almost every day. I averaged 35 miles per day over the course of a year, logging about 12,500 miles. This is about  the national average for all drivers.

To figure out the cost to charge my car, I took 4 months of electricity bills from 2010 and added up my costs. It was simple for me to do, since my EV had its own meter. I paid, on average, $1.71 a day to re-charge my car.

On average, what did a gasoline driver pay?

Since my EV last year was a converted 2002 RAV 4, it is probably most fair to do the comparison with its gasoline equivalent, which gets 23.5 mpg. The average price of a gallon of gasoline over that same 4 month period was $2.72.

In 2010, if you drove the same yearly mileage as I did in a gasoline RAV made the same year as my EV RAV, you paid ,on average, $3.96 per day for gasoline.

I paid less than half what you paid at the gasoline pump.

Today, electricity is an even better bargain. U.S. gasoline prices are up 48 cents to $3.20/gallon nationwide since last year, but utility prices have remained stable. In California, prices are even higher to $3.44/gallon. The former CEO of Royal Dutch Shell believes gasoline will be at $5/gallon in the near future, and the current CEO states that “after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand."

The recent news that Saudi Arabia might be reaching peak oil next year and has overstated its reserves by 40% will certainly drive prices at the pump even higher.

Electric prices vary around the country: The average in the United States is 10 cents/kwh, but in Hawaii the cost can be 30 cents/kwh, while I average just 5 cents/kwh in California. Electricity costs also vary according to the time of day you charge - 95% of my charging was done between 1am – 4am, when the rates were cheapest. Talk to your utility company to find out what rate packages fit your needs and check out Chelsea Sexton’s excellent article on utility pricing here. I recommend reading her blog regularly. Not only is she an excellent writer, but she is savvier about the world of plug in cars than anyone else I know.

The bottom line: electricity is about 3 times cheaper than gasoline and will continue to be an even better bargain as gasoline prices rise.

Alexandra Paul is a longtime electric vehicle advocate, actress and former EV1 driver. She is working with Chevrolet to educate consumers about EVs and the Volt. Full disclosure, Chevrolet is paying her for her time, but her opinions will always be hers.

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