Times are changing and so do measurement units. Because people in the U.S. are used to thinking of gasoline consumption in miles per gallon, and electric/plug-in hybrids have to do with kilowatt-hours, the Department of Energy is now introducing a measuring unit called the eGallon.
The eGallon, as they define it (and it will be important from now on), is “the cost of fueling a vehicle with electricity compared to a similar vehicle that runs on gasoline.” So basically you’re not worried so much about the actual fuel consumption, but rather about the money you spend on energy – be it gas or electricity.
The DoE even put up a formula that’s fed with a 28 mpg average economy, 35 kWh per 100 miles in an electric car and 12.33 cents per kWh and will update these figures monthly.
So, the good news that anyone can now interpret correctly is that the eGallon is today only $1.14 – only “free” is better than this. What’s also fair is that they used $3.42 for a gallon of gas as reference.
