If you've been paying attention to Malaysian news, you would have read that consumers will have to brace for a hike in electricity rates in January 2014. Unless you live in a condo with a strata title, we should all be paying for electricity under Tariff A - Domestic Tariff. Tenaga Nasional have revised both the price bands as well as the price per kWh. The new rates are shown above.
You might be thinking what has this to do with motorists. Well, since electric cars are now officially here in Malaysia, electricity prices are as much as a concern as fuel prices for owners of these cars. We decided to have a look at how much extra an owner of an electric car such as the Mitsubishi i-MiEV or the Nissan Leaf would be paying under the new rates.
We'll base our calculators on the experiences of our contributor Daniel Yap with the Nissan Leaf pilot programme, where he drove a Nissan Leaf as a daily driver over a period of six weeks. Over the six weeks he had with the car, he traveled a total of 1,785km, or about 42.5km per day. To travel 1,785km, he consumed 361.4 kWh of electricity to recharge the car.
That translates to just under 5km per kWh, or 4.94km per kWh to be more precise. Based on the old tariff's highest price bracket which is 45.4 sen per kWh, he basically spent RM164.08 over the period of six weeks charging the car. At that tariff, the price per km is about 9.2 sen per km.
The new tariff is 57.10 sen per kWh. That translates to 11.42 sen per km. So the same 1,785km would have cost him RM203.85 instead of RM164.08.
So how much more would you have to pay for electricity per month for your Nissan Leaf based on the new tariff? This assumes the same driving pattern that Daniel Yap used of course.
| Mileage | Old Tariff (9.2 sen per km) | New Tariff (11.42 sen per km) |
| 1,000km per month | RM92.00 | RM114.20 |
| 2,000km per month | RM184.00 | RM228.40 |
| 3,000km per month | RM276.00 | RM342.60 |
| 4,000km per month | RM368.00 | RM456.80 |
| 5,000km per month | RM460.00 | RM571.00 |
Let's just say a Volkswagen Golf TSI can do 7 litres per 100km for a fuel efficient driver. If you travel 2,000km a month, you'd use 140 litres of fuel, and at current RON95 prices that would cost you RM294. That's a difference of RM65.60 a month compared to the Nissan Leaf.
It's not enough to cover the additional monthly repayment for the price difference between a Golf TSI and a Leaf, so there's a premium to be paid for instant torque and zero emissions motoring, and let's not forget there are so many other variables at play here to make this comparison not an apple to apple one - driving style, electricity band, fuel price, etc.
So yes, are you considering an electric car, and has the recent electricity tariff announcement made you rethink your decision? Let's share in the comments.
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