It will cost anywhere between R2,652 and R22,644 per year to charge your electric Volvo XC40 P8 Recharge at home, depending on how far you drive and where you live.
Volvo South Africa provides a clever Home Charging Cost calculator for its electric vehicle (EV) customers to calculate approximately what they’re going to spend on charging per month based on two parameters – mileage and electricity rates.
These vary significantly from owner to owner, making the calculator a helpful tool for forward-thinking motorists who want to budget ahead.
Charging your battery-powered Volvo
The XC40 P8 features a 78kWh battery pack enabling it to travel up to 418km per refill, and it supports a maximum AC charging speed of 11kW, translating to an average 0-100% charge time of around seven-and-a-half hours.
Domestic electricity rates then differ tremendously across the country, meaning what you’ll pay to juice up the Volvo at your house in Gauteng may not be the same as at your holiday home in the Western Cape.
For example, in Johannesburg electricity prices range from as low as R1.82/kWh up to R2.38/kWh, and in Cape Town from R2.98/kWh to R3.63/kWh, depending on how much a household burns through.
The table below compares the charging costs of the battery-electric XC40 P8 over the course of one year, based on varying mileage and electricity costs.
| Cost/kWh | 10,000km/year | 15,000km/year | 20,000km/year | 25,000km/year | 30,000km/year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R1.30 | R2,652 | R3,984 | R5,304 | R6,636 | R7,956 |
| R2.00 | R4,080 | R6,120 | R8,160 | R10,200 | R12,240 |
| R2.50 | R5,100 | R7,656 | R10,200 | R12,756 | R15,300 |
| R3.00 | R6,120 | R9,180 | R12,240 | R15,300 | R18,360 |
| R3.70 | R7,548 | R11,328 | R15,096 | R18,876 | R22,644 |
Battery vs Petrol
The upper bound of the annual charging cost spectrum may look daunting, but when compared to what it would have cost to do the same distance with petrol, it’s far more reasonable.
The current most fuel-efficient petrol-powered XC40 on the market is the B3 Essential which reports an average usage of 7.1l/100km from its 2.0-litre, mild-hybrid powertrain.
To complete 30,000km, the crossover would have burned through 2,130 litres of fossil fuel, which at an inland cost of R22.97/litre for petrol 95 amounts to a grand total of R48,926 – more than double the charging cost.
Admittedly, the petrol B3 does benefit from a longer driving range on one tank than the battery-powered P8, 761km vs 418km, and it’s about half the price, R677,700 vs R1,260,000.
However, the EV produces more than double the power of the internal-combustion model and has far more luxuries as standard to justify its hefty window sticker.
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