Starting price delta between a Tacoma and a Rivian R1T is $47,550. At your gas prices that's a difference of 10,000 gallons of gas. That's well over 200,000 miles of range before you break even.

I like how he conveniently failed to mention the cost of the Toyota truck. It's like half the cost of the ev, you can pay for gas for the next 10 years and it would cost the same as an electric vehicle.

Dude I'm also in california and I'm spending around $459 a month for a 1000 miles a month. My next car will be an EV.

You can't compare a Tacoma and a Rivian. Like comparing an apartment to a lakehouse. Two totally different experiences...

The RIVIAN costs $73,000+, a Tacoma limited 4x4 is $45,000. That's $28,000 worth of gas that you can put in the Tacoma. At $200 per month difference between the electric and gas, it will take you over 10 years to break even with that Tacoma. Tacoma will need more maintenance (oil changes), but the Rivian is so heavy that you will have to replace tires more often (which gets expensive). So that cost could possibly be a wash.

Hate to break it to you .15 cents a Kilowatt hour is an Amazing deal. My freinds in Philly are paying .39 cents and where I live it is .31 cents. Plus in most places there are no time of use cost breaks.

I'm confused by the video title "It broke me" What broke you? The cheap to run Rivian or the very cheap to run Tesla? 😊

1200 miles at $31 (0.15) is 5.82 miles/KWh. Unless your wife is driving 15 mph all downhill that is not physically possible. On the Tesla at reasonable speed, I'd say maybe 3.8 miles/KWh at best. Let's try that again. At $62 for 1200 miles I would believe that. Electric here since 2015. I'll toss this into the mix as well. I recently added a meter to electrical outlet and I am running 35% over the rated charge the car claims, granted the battery is enclosed in a liquid jacket to keep the battery at optimal temp. Since I live a mile from the Rivian factory, cold weather is a factor here, but that was a shock to see that much of an overcharge. Hopefully this summer it drops to a more reasonable 10-12% efficiency loss. Just another damned thing to factor into the equation 😁

Wow that was the most on point no bullshit video ive seen Thanks for the breakdown Seems to me that we can only hope that the cyber truck comes with similar efficiency figures

I live in San Diego and thought the price hike on electricity was bad. But then I bought a house in Scotland, and the electricity price there is now 89p/kWh - over $1 per kWh! It used to be around 1/3 the price of SDG&E. Now that's a price hike!

Tacoma is about 1/2 the price of the Rivian so it will take a long time to recover the cost. In addition, the potential time savings from not have to wait and charge for long trips and stress over range anxiety. I love my M3 but I also own a Tundra for it utilities. Love your channel!

1. The Rivian costs significantly more to insure than a comparable ICE truck. 2. Here in south central Texas, cost per kilowatt hour is about 15% cheaper than California. Cost per gallon of gas is 35% cheaper than California. 3. Carrying a load or trailering has a much greater impact on electric truck range than on the mpg of an ICE truck. 4. You can buy a well maintained 3-4 year ICE truck and be confident you’ll get 10+ years of trouble free service. Whether the same can be said of a Rivian is a complete unknown at this point.

Speaking of ICE vs EV costs: The federal, state, and local governments make a pretty penny via gas taxes and excise fees, money they will surely grow to miss as EVs are increasingly adopted. Since we know they will not let all these tax dollars pass them by for too long, how do you think they will apply an EV charge tax considering many people (almost) exclusively charge at home and some even have the audacity to install solar panels?

Do you think vampire drain is a noticeable amount of your monthly usage? I read that it's on the order of days for a Rivian to lose 100kWh; I don't know if that's exaggerated. Do you think Rivian could ship a software update that noticeably improve cost to operate?

Great video Ben, looking forward to your next video with the guys over at Our Ludicrous Future. Hoping the CyberTruck will be more efficient than the Rivian and Ford Lighting, and I am ok waiting for the CyberTruck, but hopefully have one in the driveway by next summer.

Thanks for the info. Would have loved to see more comparisons other than the Tacoma. What a nice and big bakkie this Rivian is.

Quick Bro Science and maths. Rivian base model say $75 000, decent Tacoma 35 will just say $40 000. so you save 35 000 so how much gas can you get with that well 35000/3756 (313x12). 9.3 years. so by buying a loaded tacoma you are essentially giving your self 9 years of free gas using the numbers he gave. how ever you might say what about maitance cost, well in those 9 years the rivian will have accumulated 11,340 in electric charging. so we can just take that and use it for maitance cost. This is a very very very simplified calculation given the numbers given, gas and electricity price change, driving style etc. Bro science! And assuming you get a loaded tacoma instead of a base model and good luck finding a 75k rivian. tacoma is way cheaper to own at least for the first 9 years. feel free to provide more accurate calculations

Once gas cars are off the road I believe electricity rates are going to skyrocket

Good informative video - your home solar is very interesting to me as I would have about the same size setup as you I think

There is a clean energy alternative with the same [or more] load carrying capability. A trailer, and a BEV like another Tesla MY [or maybe a 3]. Here in the UK barely anyone buys a pickup because the occasional hooked up trailer does more than enough. Or, there is the Estate/Wagon for smaller loads if you really must carry excess space around with you at all times. I'd like to see a comparison between the entirely logical/practical trailer option, and a pickup.

Ben, I think you want to also talk about payoff for a Tacoma vs the R1T where the difference in purchase price can be offset by the savings of going electric but at a longer time period. Of course this all depends on how much you drive

Great video. Our “off peak” price in Ontario Canada is 0.074 cents right now. Max peak is .15 here Costs me around $140 to fill my gmc Sierra right now. On off peak will cost me $14 to charge my new Silverado Ev rst. Can’t wait

It is hard though for some if you compare to a Tacoma ~37k-47msrp and R1T 73-80kmsrp and more expensive insurance because they know cost a lot to fix. With your calculations saving 60% on gas. You gotta drive 10yrs to make the difference in price of the car.

Ben, I don't know how San Deigo offers 10 or 15 cent off peak rates. Take a look at PGE -- one of the 3 big electricity providers in CA -- and the LOWEST EV rate we get is $0.26 off peak and it's actually 57 cents Peak. That makes charging the R1, even at home at the cheapest rate, almost twice what you showed. And it's unreasonable to compare ONLY home charging cost with a Tacoma that you're using an average gas cost. You really should allocate 20% of the cost of charging by using pricing for DC Fast chargers and that average price should be adjusted downward as many people will add gas at Costco which would be 10-20% lower than the average. Additionally, gas prices fluctuate wildly. We were down to $3.50 Costco gas in NorCAL just a couple of months ago. It's back to a little above $4 now but the point is that gas prices can go UP or DOWN. In contrast, electricity prices are regulated by CPUC and it ONLY ever goes UP. While we can lock in our electricity rates by going solar, we have NO control whatsoever when going outside to charge at super or fast chargers. THAT is the actual 800lb elephant in the room. The cost of fast charging a R1 over time will 100% be more expensive than fueling up a Tacoma at a gas station. Gas prices will go up and down but electricity charging will only ever inflate UP!

I've been driving full EVs for over a decade (2012 Ford Focus Electric, the car that Ford neglected) I also was a first-day reservation holder for the Model 3, and took delivery before the cut-off, so I have life-time free internet. The Disco Volante (flying saucer) will be paid off in a matter of month. We have a 5Kwh system on a 1,500 sq. ft. house. Also, since we got in early, we are grandfathered in to the Peak/Super Off Peak scheme. Our electric bill is consistently negative.

That is all well and if you are doing a cost comparison between gas and EV, I will give you that. However, there is more to it then that. How much was your Rivian to buy? How much is the Toyota that you say? What is the cost difference? How long does will it take you to make back the cost difference? Don't forget that you will be also paying more in interest to the bank. What do you say to people that don't have 80-100k for a vehicle? Will you tell everyone that has their vehicle paid off get into dept so that you can drive an EV?

This last month I paid 5.47 cents per kWh. With other fees added up I average 12 cents overall. 3200 miles (958 kWh) of driving for around $120.

It definitely depends on where you live. I posted on the Rivian subreddit two weeks ago my charging cost experience so far in Washington state with fixed electricity rates. I’ve spent $1,097 to travel 11,033 in under six months. The gas equivalent at 20 mpg would’ve been $2,019. My cost also includes all charging inefficiencies including phantom drain which will hopefully be improved overtime and reduce this cost. If you compare it to a truck with high performance such as a Raptor or TRX that gas cost goes up to around $2,800 and the trucks cost more to purchase by a pretty big amount so the Rivian is an absolute bargain compared to those trucks.

Here in the bay area, the current EVA plan is showing (Winter off peak $0.24060 and peak $0.44434) and (Summer off peak $0.27028 and peak $0.62694). It's getting ridiculous.

In CA (esp with incentives and grid reliability issues), Solar Panels is table stakes. I live in NC (no state incentives), and this was a fantastic investment even before we moved from ICE to EV.

If you live in California you are not almost paying the highest electric rates in the country, you are paying the highest rates.

I would like to know if you get a delivery charge per kw

FYI you can see efficiency of every vehicle by looking at the MPGe that the EPA publishes. 107 for Model X vs 74 for R1T

Thank u very much for This Short and informativ Video. Others Would have done a 20 Min Video but u Kept it simple. 🎉😊

Our EQS gets great range. It’s a big heavy car but the aerodynamics are amazing. We easily get 350 miles of range or more. I hope all the auto makers start making the trucks more aerodynamic. I was a little disappointed that Rivian didn’t, since it was a start up. There is no reason EV trucks have to be so boxy when they don’t have a motor under the hood.

Luckily for Tacoma owners. I have a lightning now and it’s about it. 1200-1400 miles driven monthly. However, I had a 2021 GMC Canyon prior and it averaged 15MPG. The savings in fuel noe are even bigger now in my case. Of course, monthly payment went up but we can’t even compare those trucks.

what's the wh/mi usage of the rivian?

Love facts. Thanks for making this very informative video.

15c at night? How’d you score that sweetheart deal? PGE EV2 TOU has me at 34c at night for generation and delivery.

Here is the problem: trucks are designed to go to work. What can a Rivian do? Tow? Payload? Diesel Colorado makes far more sense to me.

Nice to see your real data. I too find that my R1T saves me significantly compared to say my prior vehicle, a Range Rover Sport. My wife drives a Model S. Last year she spent $594 on charging in our garage - gasoline equivalent would have been $2351. Again, a significant savings. And…always full every morning!

Q. Is there an efficiency mode. Can u select rear , front or all wheel drive ?.

Hello There is something I am curious about regarding EV’s. It has to do with the amount of EMF, ( electric, magnetic field) that the batteries and electric motors produce, and how much of it actually radiates into the cabin area? Thanks

Where in CA do you live and how do I get your rate. I’m in CA on PGE tiered and my off peak is .37/kWh. How are you paying .15?

You would still be saving more money with Tacoma if you compare costs of both.Tacoma is 27g compared to Rivian that cost close 80g.

My old Ram cost me $500-600/month to do 1200-1400 miles a month. Thats before the expensive repairs on an aging truck.

What astounds me about this video is the distance you and your wife (independently) drive each month. I simply can't relate to driving 1,400 miles a month - that's crazy! Are you ever home? Where I live in Canada, the average is 13,000 kms/year or about 1,100 kms/month. That works out to about 650 miles/month - less than half the average in the USA you quoted. Keepng the cost of driving down can be as easy as driving less!

What is the cost difference between a Tacoma vs an rt1. If you factor that in with a loan the price difference might come out a wash or better for ICE vechile. The cost per KE also assume you will never have to charge at any time other than peak which doesn't happy on a long road trip. The price of gas in Cali is crazy...

just to drive daily R1T may be cheaper than gasoline Tacoma but R1T costs more than double of a well equipped Tacoma. With that 30-40k , you can feed gas to the tacoma for more than a decade. And in a decade , R1T range with your 1400ish miles driving ,will be reduced a lot, so more frequently charging more cost.

If you have time reduced rate is really good start for semi off grid housing too imo alongside having EV that could fully charged within that time period

What's more astounding is the price difference per kilowatt hour from daytime and night time. I wonder how long that will last once the utilities realize how many people charge overnight.

Could you work in battery replacements and vehicle cost to your formula?

Thank you for this very informative video. It was very succinct and communicates well the tremendous savings associated with owning an EV compared to a gas engine car. Thank you.

Ben, have you factored In the crazy amount of daily phantom drain while vehicle is parked for hours or days ? Seems to be a Big issue with some (or many) R1Ts owners. Even after updates and low consumption resting settings.

Thanks for a good and informative video.

What about the added cost in monthly payments ie loan and insurance for the Rivian compared to a Toyota?

It would be a great buy IF you have solar and/or other forms of alternative energy and the car actually cost as much as a Toyota Tacoma. There is no beating around the bush that this cost 2-3x more then a Tacoma. With this price, that relegates this truck to pretty much a toy for rich folks.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding. SDG&E's highest rates are midday during maximum renewables? Usually, TOU rates invert that.

Now factor in the initial cost difference between the 2 vehicles

Great video - I am in southern California. My wife drives a 2021 X5, and just to fill it up is 125.00 or more! We have ordered the Tesla MYP, should be getting it next month. Our average fuel bill with the X-5 and my Chevy Duramax Diesel truck is about 600.00 per month, and we only average about 1000 miles per month max btwn the two vehicles. 31 per month is huge savings! We have solar too! so it will be interesting to compare. Do you have the battery packs for your house? Thinking about adding those. My true up bill is huge!

How much is the rivian in comparison to the Tacoma?

Great video. I’m new to the channel - curious why you don’t have the Rivian in 2 wheel mode when city driving to save and why don’t you have solar on your roof?

Great report! Will the Cybertruck be cheaper to operate, charging with lower monthly fees, etc., due to weight, efficiency, aerodynamic prowess?

What if you take home charging out of the equation and use EA or similar stations? Is it still cheaper?

There are factors I know that have additional effects on cost other then just weight an aerodynamics. Tires, route driven, how fast you drive, how often you drive with the back closed over the bed. Rivian an Ford are new with dealing with these issues.

We were going to get the Rivian, but couldn't swallow those wait times when charging. Around town and back home again sounded better, but decided to go gas for the overall convenience and reliability. I just went on a 800mil trip and while filling up, I got caught in thinking how much of a pain it would of been waiting to charge up the car. It took me under 5min to fill up and we were off again.

more motors tend to be more efficient. This is offset of course by their extra weight, but given they tend to be fairly light it might still be a plus.

Gas trucks will reign for any sort of real work since they don't have the downtime of an electric due to charging. They have gotten better but it's still not there yet on charge time or capacity

Very nice and informative video. Thank you

$31 a month is amazing . How much would that be if she was using gas?

If you own two EVs and live in California and have a sunny roof it makes sense to add solar and a power wall battery

You have to factor the RT1 is 65k over the cost of the Tacoma so 300 dollars/month in gass it would take you 20 years in gas to pay for the Rivian minus the 100 in electric bills so even longer. All you are doing is pre paying for gas approximately 20 plus years ahead. Even if you factor in maintenance on the Tacoma you would need approximately 18 years to pay off the difference. That being said I would keep my ModelY P and get a Rivian also.

In Utah, peak rates are $.25 per kWh peak and $.05 per kWh off-peak if you sign up for the EV plan.

The initial cost of the vehicle and depreciation are far bigger factors. The cost of gas or electricity are negligible in comparison.

If you can charge at home. If not, then public chargers more expensive and your time to charge kills that.

Is the price per kilowatt hour the only cost? In Connecticut we are now paying 23 cents per kilowatt hour but an additional charge for distribution which equals the same or more than the usage. Our electric bill doubled since the beginning of the year. Where we were paying 300 were now paying $600 per month.

Hey! I have a Hummer EV, huge 212kW battery and I'm fortunate though I live in Texas where its 9 cents still a kWh, and half the time I charge with solar ;-)

Living in the Pacific Northwest, most of the electricity is hydroelectric generated and really cheap 🇺🇸. Our gasoline prices are high AF though.

wonder if they put a 2 speed transmission like the tycan will that improve highway efficiency like in gas cars? And also boost range.

At a DC charger last summer..... Pulled in with 10% left and was heading into a charging desert. I plugged in next to a rivian pik up that had just plugged in at 7%. My vehicle can only handle 100 kW for charging - I used a 150 while the rivian was on a 350kw. We both hit 100% in the same 30seconds. My fee was $9, rivian was $75 - we chatted and realized we got the same range per charge. Was so sad watching him go away so disappointed

1 min it and seeing you spend 105 a month on charging. I can already say gas is significantly more expensive... Lol

Ben, the biggest issue is the phantom drain, I believe it is close to 2.7kwh per 24 hour period (latest software update), which adds to being a big boxy truck inefficiency.

Our power comes from the local nuke plant; a full charge for our area costs about $10 for the week. I guess the takeaway is that it all depends on your location and what gas/electricity costs where you're at. We also do 90% of our driving locally in the city vs. long haul. We're looking at either a new Rivian, a new hybrid CRV, or maybe waiting on the EX30. We really want to end up with one EV for errands in the city and one pickup truck for utility and longer hauls, kayaking, and camping. It's nice to see all the options we have now.

Wish Rivian would allow customers to Lease their vehicles, I would like the option to lease the R1T for a few years to see if I would keep it or not. I priced a R1T and it came out to over $2k/mo. It’s funny how the new technology is supposed to save you money but then it’s just so damn expensive that in the end your not really saving any money at all. I have an 06 Tundra that still runs like a champ, never any issues. Very nice toys for people that can truly afford them.

Thank you. This is one of the best explanation on EV energy cost. I'm going Electric Vehicle. Bye-bye to the costly and complicated-maintenance-required all the time combustion engine.

There is also the electric delivery charge per kWh that is 39 cents you need to add on. This rate does not change in off peak times. So here in San Diego the cheapest rate per KWh is 45 cents in super off peak and 53 cents during peak times.

Solar is a super important part of this discussion I wish would have been touched on further. It can have a dramatically positive impact on spend (and the environment!). It would be cool to see a video about the upfront costs and payoff, especially now with gov subsidies coming. The house I rent has solar which I pay $0 for. I have driven ~10,000 miles with my R1T and spent a total of $240 on energy. That $240 has come entirely from road trips and third party chargers. (I also have used the RAN network a lot which is free)

simple physics: F (Force)=m(mass) x a (acceleration) & W(Work~Energy)= m x a x s So no matter whether the Energy required comes from diesel or a battery. One needs more E=Wh or Joules the higher the mass to be accelerated. And of course the aerodynamics factor...when owning solar panels ->not a problem, but if not, an e-motorcycle is an energy-efficient way to commute. For short distances, the Stromer ST7 is a lot of fun...

Is the sense worth it? I've thought about getting that but wondered if it was a bit "gimmicky". Maybe a good video idea.

I don’t have a ev but good video bro nice truck

Did you calculate the rate while carrying a 500 lb load per each type of vehicle? Or, is this based on driving a truck around that never gets used as a truck?

Nice video Ben. Maybe the reason Tesla didn't have a truck is because of the shape for efficiency. You are the data guy!

Thanks for your careful accounting, Ben. As (a lazy) solar owner I don’t include the basic solar installation (panels and inverter) in to the cost of charging since it will pay for itself over time. Have you calculated a projected ROI for the batteries, which are also part of your charging costs?

Still, driving a big bad pickup for $100/month is pretty cheap. When I was adjusting, we would have to fill up the diesel F250 every 2 days. That’s $75 per fill up. That’s almost $1,000/month to haul ladders around. We had to do this for over a year. If we could have plugged in nightly it would have saved us thousands of dollars, especially at the current cost of fuel. This was over 10 years ago.

Excellent!! We’re paying .2417¢/kWh in CT

Move to Houston, TX. You can get a free nights plan. 9p to 7a all power is free. I have solar panels and Powerwalls to power me through the day when I would have to pay so no more power bill.

My free nights plan has worked out for me this past year. .25c peak isn’t bad. All charging at night

Informative... thanks

What is the price of the Rivian compared to the Toyota? How long to recoup the extra cost?

Btw Rivian in general has really bad phantom drain for telemetry and battery conditioning Are you about to dig into that?