How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Car?

The cost to charge an electric car comes down to two numbers: how many kilowatt-hours (kWh) the car uses per mile, and what you pay for each kWh. Both are published. The EPA rates every EV’s efficiency on fueleconomy.gov, and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes electricity prices for every state each month. This guide combines them for popular 2026 EVs, compares charging with gasoline at current prices, and shows how charger type and location change the bill. To run your own numbers, use the EV charging cost calculator.

How much does it cost to charge an electric car at home?

At the US average residential price of 18.2¢/kWh, charging a popular EV at home costs about $4.37 to $6.01 per 100 miles, or about 4¢ to 6¢ per mile. A full charge for a typical EV costs roughly $13 to $19.

The formula is the same for every car:

Cost per mile = (kWh per 100 miles ÷ 100) × price per kWh

The EPA’s kWh-per-100-miles rating is measured from the wall outlet, so it already includes the energy lost while charging, as the fueleconomy.gov guide to the electric vehicle label explains. The price comes from EIA’s Electric Power Monthly, which put the August 2026 US residential average at 18.16¢/kWh. This site rounds it to 18.2¢.

A kilowatt-hour is the amount of energy used by a 1,000-watt device running for one hour. If the unit is new to you, our guide to what a kilowatt-hour is explains it with everyday examples.

EV charging cost for popular electric cars

Among popular 2026 EVs, the Tesla Model 3 Standard is the cheapest to charge at 24 kWh per 100 miles, and the Honda Prologue FWD is the most expensive of this group at 33 kWh per 100 miles. The spread is about $1.60 per 100 miles at the average US price.

2026 EV (EPA trim)	EPA efficiency	EPA range	Home cost per 100 mi (18.2¢)	Home cost, full range	DC fast per 100 mi (45¢ assumed)
Tesla Model 3 Standard RWD	24 kWh/100 mi	321 mi	$4.37	$14.02	$10.80
Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD	27 kWh/100 mi	327 mi	$4.91	$16.07	$12.15
Nissan Leaf 75 kWh (18 in)	28 kWh/100 mi	303 mi	$5.10	$15.44	$12.60
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Standard Range	29 kWh/100 mi	245 mi	$5.28	$12.93	$13.05
Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD	31 kWh/100 mi	319 mi	$5.64	$18.00	$13.95
Ford Mustang Mach-E RWD	31 kWh/100 mi	260 mi	$5.64	$14.67	$13.95
Honda Prologue FWD	33 kWh/100 mi	308 mi	$6.01	$18.50	$14.85

Source: fueleconomy.gov (US DOE/EPA) 2026 ratings; EIA August 2026 average price. “Full range” is the wall energy needed to drive the EPA-rated range (efficiency × range). DC fast price is an assumption; real prices vary by network and site.

Notice that full-range cost depends on battery size, while cost per mile depends only on efficiency. The Ioniq 5 Standard Range is cheap to “fill up” because its battery is smaller, but per mile it costs more than the Leaf. Compare cars by cost per mile, not cost per charge.

Tesla owners can find every model, including Model S, Model X and Cybertruck, in our guide to the cost to charge a Tesla.

Electric car charging cost vs gas

An EV charged at home costs about a third as much per mile as a 28 mpg gasoline car: roughly 5¢ per mile versus 15.3¢ at EIA’s October 19, 2026 average gasoline price of $4.284 per gallon.

Gasoline cost per mile is the gas price divided by miles per gallon. EIA’s weekly survey put US regular gasoline at $4.284 per gallon for the week of October 19, 2026.

Vehicle	Energy price	Cost per 100 mi	Cost per 1,000 mi	Cost per 12,000 mi/year
EV, 27 kWh/100 mi, home	18.2¢/kWh	$4.91	$49	$590
EV, 31 kWh/100 mi, home	18.2¢/kWh	$5.64	$56	$677
EV, 31 kWh/100 mi, DC fast only	45¢/kWh (assumed)	$13.95	$140	$1,674
Gas car, 35 mpg	$4.284/gal	$12.24	$122	$1,469
Gas car, 28 mpg	$4.284/gal	$15.30	$153	$1,836
Gas SUV or truck, 22 mpg	$4.284/gal	$19.47	$195	$2,337

Two lessons stand out:

• Home charging wins by a wide margin. Even a less efficient EV saves well over $1,000 a year against a 28 mpg car at current fuel prices.
• Fast-charging-only drivers save much less. An EV fed entirely from DC fast chargers at 45¢/kWh costs about the same per mile as a 35 mpg hybrid-class car.

This comparison covers energy only. Maintenance, insurance, purchase price and depreciation also differ between EVs and gas cars. Emissions differ too: a widely cited life-cycle assessment by Hawkins et al. (2013) found that an EV’s climate benefit depends heavily on the electricity mix that charges it, which is one reason charging from solar or a clean grid matters.

Level 1 vs Level 2 vs DC fast charging: what does each cost?

Level 1 and Level 2 charging at home cost the same per kWh, your household rate; DC fast charging at public stations usually costs two to three times more per kWh but adds range far faster. The US Department of Energy describes the three levels this way:

Charger level	Voltage	Power	Range added (DOE estimate)	Typical price per kWh
Level 1	120 V AC	About 1.9 kW	About 5 miles per hour	Home rate (US avg 18.2¢)
Level 2	240 V (home) or 208 V (commercial)	2.9–19.2 kW; homes typically up to 7.2 kW	About 25 miles per hour	Home rate, or set by the public site
DC fast	Usually three-phase input	Up to 500 kW	About 100–200+ miles per 30 minutes	Set by the network (45¢ assumed here)

Source: US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center. Speeds vary by car, temperature and battery state of charge. The same three-tier split appears in the engineering literature; Yilmaz and Krein (2013) review the charger designs behind each level.

Level 1 uses a standard household outlet. The DOE estimates an 8-hour session adds about 40 miles to a mid-size EV. For a 31 kWh/100 mi car that’s about 12.4 kWh, or $2.26 at the US average rate. It is slow but costs nothing extra to set up.

Level 2 is what most EV owners install at home. It needs a 240-volt circuit and a wall-mounted charger, which means an electrician’s visit. It also loses less energy than Level 1 over a typical session.

DC fast charging (DCFC) feeds direct current straight into the battery. Networks set their own prices, which may be per kWh, per minute or with a session fee, because they must recover hardware, installation and grid demand charges as well as energy; Borlaug et al. (2020) show this “levelized cost of charging” varies widely by state and charger type, and some offer memberships that lower the per-kWh rate. Charging speed slows as the battery fills, so stopping at about 80% is usually faster and cheaper per mile of range.

How much does it cost to charge an EV in each state?

State electricity prices swing EV charging costs more than any other factor: an EV rated at 31 kWh per 100 miles costs about $3.99 per 100 miles in Louisiana and $14.63 in Hawaii. The table uses EIA’s August 2026 residential averages.

State	Residential price, Aug 2026 (EIA)	Cost per 100 mi (31 kWh/100 mi EV)	Cost per 1,000 mi
Hawaii	47.18¢	$14.63	$146
Massachusetts	30.48¢	$9.45	$94
California	29.75¢	$9.22	$92
New York	28.65¢	$8.88	$89
Connecticut	24.51¢	$7.60	$76
US average	18.16¢	$5.63	$56
Texas	15.91¢	$4.93	$49
Florida	14.99¢	$4.65	$46
Washington	14.63¢	$4.54	$45
Idaho	13.37¢	$4.14	$41
Louisiana	12.87¢	$3.99	$40

2026 state values are preliminary EIA estimates. Even at Hawaii’s price, home charging a 31 kWh/100 mi EV costs about the same per mile as a 28 mpg gas car at the October 2026 national average gas price, and less than a 22 mpg SUV.

Your own rate may be quite different from your state average. Divide your bill’s total by its kWh to find your all-in price, then use our electricity cost calculator for other appliances in the house.

How to calculate your own EV charging cost

Find your car’s EPA kWh-per-100-miles rating, your electricity price and your monthly miles, then multiply. It takes about two minutes.

1. Look up your car on fueleconomy.gov and note its kWh/100 mi rating (it appears next to the MPGe figure).
2. Find your price per kWh on your electricity bill. If your bill shows several charges, divide the total by the kWh used.
3. Estimate monthly miles from your odometer or insurance paperwork.
4. Multiply: miles ÷ 100 × kWh/100 mi × price per kWh = monthly charging cost.
5. If you fast charge part of the time, repeat the calculation for those miles at the network’s price and add the two.

Example: 1,200 miles a month in a Mustang Mach-E RWD (31 kWh/100 mi) at 15.91¢ in Texas costs 12 × 31 × $0.1591 = $59.18 a month.

What else affects how much it costs to charge an EV?

Real-world efficiency is usually a little worse than the EPA rating, so weather, speed, wheel size and charging losses all nudge the cost per mile up or down. The EPA figure is a standardized test result, useful for comparing cars, not a promise.

• Cold weather. Heating the cabin and the battery takes extra energy. Preheating the car while it is still plugged in draws that energy from the grid rather than from your range.
• Highway speed. Air resistance rises steeply with speed, so a steady 75 mph uses noticeably more kWh per mile than 60 mph.
• Wheels and trim. Bigger wheels and all-wheel drive usually lower efficiency. The EPA lists the 2026 Tesla Model Y Standard RWD at 24 kWh/100 mi on 18-inch wheels and 26 kWh/100 mi on 19-inch wheels.
• Charging losses. Some energy turns into heat in the charger and battery. Our calculator assumes 90% efficiency by default; Level 1 can be lower.
• Fixed charges on your bill. Monthly customer charges don’t rise when you add an EV, so the extra cost of charging is your per-kWh energy price, not your all-in average.
• Rate tiers. Some utilities charge more per kWh once you pass a monthly usage threshold, which can make EV miles cost more than the average suggests.

Can you charge an electric car with solar power?

Yes: an EV charged from rooftop solar runs on renewable energy produced at your home, and every kWh it uses offsets a kWh you would otherwise buy from the grid. Pairing the two is one of the simplest ways to cut both fuel cost and emissions.

To estimate how much solar you need for driving, multiply monthly miles by your car’s rating. A 1,000-mile month in a 31 kWh/100 mi EV takes about 310 kWh. Add that to your home’s use and enter the total in our solar panel calculator. Our solar energy guide covers costs and output, and advantages of renewable energy explains the wider benefits.

Charging works best when it overlaps with production: weekday charging for people who work from home, or weekend top-ups. With net metering, exported midday power can earn a credit against overnight charging, though many utilities now credit exports below the retail rate.

History of electric cars and charging standards

Electric cars are older than gasoline cars: inventors built crude electric carriages in the early 1800s, and around 1900 electric vehicles made up about a third of vehicles on US roads. Cheap gasoline and the Model T pushed them aside, and the modern plug standards that set how you charge today date only from 1996 onward.

According to the US Department of Energy’s history of the electric car, British inventor Robert Anderson built a crude electric carriage in the early 1800s, and William Morrison of Des Moines, Iowa, built the first successful US electric car around 1890, with a top speed of 14 mph. Quiet, easy to start and free of fumes, electrics were popular with city drivers, but Henry Ford’s mass-produced Model T (1908) made gasoline cars far cheaper, and by 1935 electric cars had all but disappeared.

Interest returned with the oil shocks of the 1970s and California’s clean-air rules. General Motors leased the EV1 from 1996, and the same year SAE International first issued SAE J1772, the North American standard for conductive charging. The modern round J1772 plug used by almost every non-Tesla EV for Level 1 and Level 2 charging arrived with the January 2010 revision.

Fast charging split into rival plugs. Japanese automakers and Tokyo Electric Power formed the CHAdeMO Association in March 2010, and SAE added a DC “combo” version of J1772 in October 2012, known as the Combined Charging System (CCS1). Tesla built its own connector, then opened it as the North American Charging Standard in November 2022; SAE published it as J3400 in December 2023.

Year	Milestone	Source
Early 1800s	Robert Anderson builds a crude electric carriage	US DOE
c. 1890	William Morrison builds the first successful US electric car (14 mph)	US DOE
1900	Electric cars account for about a third of vehicles on the road	US DOE
1908	Ford Model T makes gasoline cars affordable	US DOE
1996	GM EV1 introduced; SAE J1772 first issued (October)	US DOE, SAE
2010	J1772 revised with today’s Level 1/Level 2 plug (January); CHAdeMO Association formed (March); Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt launch in the US (late 2010)	SAE, CHAdeMO, US DOE
2012	SAE publishes the J1772 DC combo (CCS1) connector (October)	Wikipedia
2022	Tesla opens its connector as NACS (November)	Electrek
2023	SAE issues J3400, the standardized NACS coupler (December)	SAE

The practical upshot: any EV can use any Level 1 or Level 2 outlet with the right plug or adapter, and the connector battle now mainly affects which DC fast-charging networks a car can use without an adapter.

Is there a tax credit for buying an EV in 2026?

No federal purchase credit is available for most buyers: the §30D new clean vehicle credit and the §25E used credit ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. They were terminated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Plante Moran, 2025).

Some states and utilities still run rebate programs for EVs, home chargers or EV rate plans. These change frequently, so check your state energy office and utility directly before you buy.

Scientific references

The cost method on this page follows the EPA’s published efficiency ratings; these papers and standards supply the wider science:

1. US EPA and US DOE. “Electric Vehicles: Learn More About the Label.” fueleconomy.gov. fueleconomy.gov label methodology
2. Borlaug, B., Salisbury, S., Gerdes, M., & Muratori, M. (2020). “Levelized Cost of Charging Electric Vehicles in the United States.” Joule, 4(7), 1470–1485. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2020.05.013
3. Hawkins, T. R., Singh, B., Majeau-Bettez, G., & Strømman, A. H. (2013). “Comparative Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Electric Vehicles.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 17(1), 53–64. doi:10.1111/j.1530-9290.2012.00532.x
4. Muratori, M., Alexander, M., Arent, D., Bazilian, M., Cazzola, P., Dede, E. M., et al. (2021). “The rise of electric vehicles: 2020 status and future expectations.” Progress in Energy, 3(2), 022002. doi:10.1088/2516-1083/abe0ad
5. Yilmaz, M., & Krein, P. T. (2013). “Review of Battery Charger Topologies, Charging Power Levels, and Infrastructure for Plug-In Electric and Hybrid Vehicles.” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 28(5), 2151–2169. doi:10.1109/TPEL.2012.2212917
6. SAE International (2010). SAE J1772: Electric Vehicle and Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler (J1772_201001; first issued October 1996). SAE Mobilus
7. SAE International (2023). SAE J3400: NACS Electric Vehicle Coupler (J3400_202312). SAE Mobilus

Bottom line

Charging an electric car at home costs about 4¢ to 6¢ per mile at the US average of 18.2¢/kWh, roughly a third of what a 28 mpg gas car spends at October 2026 fuel prices. Your state’s electricity price and how often you use DC fast chargers matter more than which EV you drive. Charge at home, use off-peak hours or solar where you can, and run your own numbers in the EV charging cost calculator. For brand-specific figures, see the cost to charge a Tesla, and for wider context on why EVs fit into a low-carbon future, read our clean energy guide.