Charging Costs at Home and on the Road

Charging Costs at home

Charging at home is almost always the least expensive, here's how you can calculate it:

Look at your electric bill and find out your delivered cost (cost per kWh as often shown on utility bills is only the energy itself, and doesn't include delivery charges). If you can't see it easily, take the total cost for the month and divide it by the kWh used. For instance, if your bill shows $130 for 500kWh used, then your delivered cost is $0.26/kWh.
Next, let's look at what it costs to charge your EV. If you drive 1,000 miles in a month with an EV with an efficiency of 120mpge (or about 3.5mi/kWh) you will use 285kWh of electricity (charging your EV 5-6 times).
Taking $0.26/kWh * 285kWh will give you about $74 of electricity. (Or a total new bill of $130 + $74 = $204)
The gas version of the same vehicle (using 32mpg with gas at $3.80/gal) would cost about $120.

Cost of electricity and gasoline varies greatly throughout North America so your savings will be different than this example. Also, keep in mind that, sometimes cheaper electricity is dirtier electricity, please look at the "Environmental costs of charging" section below to see what the energy source is in your state.

Charging Costs on the Road

If you are charging on the road, you have to be careful about how charging costs are calculated and what the costs are. Fortunately, there are apps for that! You can find out more on the "Charging Networks" page but here is one example I pulled from PlugShare:

For Electrify America at a mall in Braintree MA, the DCFC rate is about double the rate from a home in Massachusetts, and will be about $160 for 1,000mi if you only charged at this L3 station.

On the other side of the same mall at an EV Go station, the rates are lower but vary by time of day. The charger is also much slower at 50kW versus the Electrify America 150kW rate so you could take up to three times longer to charge, depending on your vehicle.. From experience with these stations, there was a time when the Electrify America rates were much lower, so you do have to recheck from time to time.

You may be able to unlock lower rates by signing up for a Charging Plan in the charging apps.

If you use trip planning apps like PlugShare, you may be able to find destination charging at hotels or in the towns you are visiting. Destination chargers are usually L2 chargers. so slower, but you may be able to charge overnight at a hotel for reduced rates, or even free. Planning ahead can reduce the stress of finding charging and reduce your bill. If you can't quite make your destination, you can still charge at a DCFC along the way, but only add what you need to get to your destination.

Environmental costs of charging

Using sites such as Choose Energy and Electric Rate you can look at the electrical grid mix and see what your electric vehicle is actually running on if you are using the default energy source. In a state such as Massachusetts, if you drive 10,000 miles in a year, just over 8,000 of those miles were from natural gas and only 1,400 of those miles were from solar. In a state such as West Virginia, almost 9,000 of those miles would be coal burning. So, depending on where you live, an electrified vehicle may not be as clean as you hoped.

Please be aware of where your energy comes from and consider things such as solar panels or acquire access to cleaner energy sources through energy delivery options for your residence.