Going Electric? Time to Check the eQ Factor

What is the eQ Factor? Simply put, it’s an easy, accurate way of calculating the true cost of fuel in an electric vehicle.

Manufacturer’s are required to provide MPGe ratings for their electric vehicles, but those figures can be misleading if used on a one-to-one basis with the MPG numbers for gasoline powered vehicles. Here’s why – and why RPM’s Rich Taber created the eQ Factor.

The cost of a gallon of gasoline varies from location to location, but typically the prices are reasonably close within a region of the country. Not so with electricity.

In one community, a resident might pay significantly less than in a neighboring community depending on where the power is generated and who is delivering it.

Since MPG and MPGe don’t take that into consideration, one could easily misinterpret the figures assuming that there’s no difference. But it would be incorrect to think that the cost to operate an EV getting 80 MPGe is half of what it costs to operate a gasoline powered vehicle getting 40 MPG.

The eQ factor is used to determine how many miles one gets in an electric vehicle for the same dollars spent on a gallon of gasoline.

So, what exactly is the eQ Factor? It’s the ratio of the cost of a gallon of gasoline to the cost of an equivalent amount of electrical energy, based on a gallon of gasoline having 115,000 BTUs which is equivalent to 33.7 kilowatt-hours.

To figure the eQ factor, first calculate the the cost of an equivalent amount of electrical energy in your locale by multiplying 33.7 KwH by the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity (including delivery charges, if any). Call that the “Cost of a Gallon of Electricity”. Take the cost of a gallon of gasoline in your locale, and divide it by the “Cost of a Gallon of Electricity” to get the eQ factor.

The eQ factor changes depending on the prices of gasoline and electricity in a particular location on any given day. To figure out how economical that electric car really is for you, multiply the MPGe rating from the EPA by the eQ factor to see how many miles you’ll get for the same dollars you spend on a gallon of gasoline.

(portions of this article were originally published March 4, 2014 on Urban Dictionary)