How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Car?
If you’ve been considering buying an electric vehicle for the first time, you probably have a lot of questions. After all, you’ve been driving gas-powered vehicles since you got your license. Driving an entirely new type of vehicle can be intimidating— and one of the greatest points of confusion when it comes to EVs is how to charge them, where to charge them, and how much does it cost to charge an electric car.
Fortunately, we’re here to help. Our team of car experts at Freedom National has created this guide to answer all of your questions about electric car charging
Average Cost of Charging an Electric Car
MarketWatch recently completed an analysis of how much it costs the average American to charge their electric vehicle. They factored in average utility costs around the country, average miles per kWh that an electric car can drive, and how much the average U.S. household drives per month. Then, they combined all of these into an equation to determine the average cost to charge an electric vehicle at home over the course of a month.
Their results? The average U.S. household would pay approximately $21.60 per month to charge their EV.
Obviously, your figure may be different depending on your utility pricing, your specific vehicle, and how often you drive it— and for how far. That said, the $21.60 figure is a good ballpark starting point when estimating an answer to the question of how much does it cost to charge an electric car.
Cost of Charging an Electric Vehicle in kWh
So we’ve asked how much does it cost to charge an electric car in total, but what about per kWh. To find this number, you’ll have to determine how many miles your electric car can drive on one kWh. For the average electric car, that number is between 3-4 miles.
If your electricity price per kWh is close to the U.S. average, you’ll likely be paying between 10-12 cents per kwH— or roughly 3-4 cents per mile. In a later section, we’ll compare how that stacks up against the cost of gasoline in cars that use an internal combustion engine.
Charging Your Electric Car at Home
The biggest factor when it comes to the cost of charging your electric car at home is your electricity utility rate. This can depend on a wide range of influences, from your specific region and time of year to the area where you live. After all, utilities in some areas are more expensive than others. You should also take into account peak times, when utility companies charge more per kWh because of high usage.
The good news? These rates are usually lowest late at night, when most people are asleep— and that’s the best time to charge your car at home. That makes overnight, at-home charging the cheapest way to charge your electric car battery.
Where to Find Electric Car Charging
Tracking down electric car charging can be a challenge. While more and more charging stations are being added to public spaces every day, they can still be relatively few and far between— especially if you’re traveling through a rural or suburban area.
One approach is to try using your navigation app on your phone. Apps such as Google Maps have limited databases that will show you at least some of the charging stations in your immediate area or on your route to a destination.
That said, these records are often incomplete and don’t tell you the type of charging available at a given station. If you’re planning a long road trip with an EV, you may have to do a bit of calling around to see who has a station and where it’s located.
Levels of Charging
Did you know that not all EV chargers are created equal? That’s right— some charge more quickly than others, allowing you to get back on the road faster than ever. For now, electric vehicle charging is separated into three ‘levels’. Each level represents a speedier charging capability, with level 1 being the lowest and level 3 being the highest.
Public charging stations can vary between the levels, as can at-home installations. The cost of charging can also change depending on the level of charging capability. The general rule of thumb is that the faster you charge, the higher you rate.
The good news is that all electric vehicles are capable of at least Level 2 charging, though not all of them can use Level 3 fast-charging systems.
Level 1
Level 1 is the base charging level for electric vehicles. Charge time in electric vehicles is usually measured in miles of range per hour. For example, a level 1 charging station usually offers 3-5 miles of range per hour. So for your vehicle to charge from zero to the point that it’s able to go 100 miles without stopping, you would need to charge it for as long as 20 hours. However, many electric vehicle drives use them mainly for commutes. If you only need 10-20 miles of distance between charges, your vehicle can be fully charged in just a few hours or overnight.
The most significant advantage of Level 1 charging is that it simply uses a household outlet. There’s no special charging station or hardware required.
Level 2
Most public charging stations that you’ll find will use Level 2 chargers. These use 240v circuits similar to the ones used in electric dryers or stovetops. You might think that a Level 2 charger offers twice the charging speed of a level 1 charger, but in fact they can offer as much as 5x to 10x as much driving range per hour than a Level 1 charger. 10-50 miles of range per hour is the standard on Level 2 chargers, depending on the charger itself, the vehicle its charging, and the battery in question.
Level 2 chargers are great because they allow you to charge up your vehicle in far less time than an overnight charge, keeping you from getting stuck in one spot for too long.
Level 3
Level 3 chargers aren’t as widely available as Level 2 chargers, but they can be found in public charging stations from time to time. These chargers can provide up to 150 miles of additional range in just half an hour, the equivalent of 300 miles of range per hour. That’s a massive jump from Level 1 and even Level 2 charging.
The downside is that Level 3 chargers are expensive, which makes them far less common in public and almost nonexistent in people’s homes. But if you can find one, it will get you back on the road in no time.
Fast Charging: What to Know
The idea of ‘fast charging’ for electric vehicle batteries has been a relatively recently development, as electric cars have moved from a niche to a mainstream method for getting around on a regular basis.
Level 3 fast-charging stations are not as common as Level 2 stations, and it’s not hard to see why— purchasing and installing them is expensive.
The other distinction is that Level 3 chargers use direct current (DC) power, whereas Levels 1 and 2 use alternating current (AC) power. This allows them to charge more quickly and efficiently.
You should also know that not all electric vehicles can currently accept Level 3 charging. For example, the Nissan LEAF accepts Level 3 charge while the Chevy Volt does not.
Costs of Fast Charging
Fast charging in public can sometimes be free, subscription-based, or using a model where you only pay for kWh used. The cost can also differ depending on how quickly you charge— faster charging usually means a higher cost per kWh. For example, in California the average cost to fully charge an EV with a 150-mile range would cost around 30 cents per kWh hour on Level 2 and 40 cents per kWh to charge on Level 3, DC fast charging.
Fortunately, many public fast charging stations are free or inexpensive. Tesla, for example, makes many of their fast charging stations free for Tesla drivers.
Is Charging an Electric Car Cheaper than Gasoline?
So, how much does it cost to charge an electric car versus a gasoline-powered one? After all, we’ve learned in this guide that keeping an electric vehicle’s battery charged is far from free.
That said, charging your EV is almost certain to be less expensive than paying for gasoline. Remember earlier when we mentioned that the average U.S. driver pays roughly $26 per month on charging? Currently, it costs around $40 to fill up a gas tank in the U.S. Even if you fill up just once per month, you’re still spending consistently more on gasoline than you would on charging for an electric vehicle.
eGallon: What Does It Mean?
The term ‘eGallon’ is used to compare the fuel efficiency of traditional vehicles with the mileage capabilities of an electric car. Basically, it’s the cost of fueling an electric vehicle compared to a similar, gas-powered vehicle.
On average, the U.S. Department of Energy says that it costs roughly half as much to drive an electric vehicle compared to a gasoline-powered one. As of March 2021, the average price for a gallon of gasoline is $2.85. Meanwhile, the average price for one eGallon is $1.16. That means a gallon of gas would cost you $2.85 while an electric car could travel the same distance that one gallon of gas would get you for just $1.16.
This means you’d be saving around $1.70 for every gallon of gasoline you would have had to buy if you were driving an internal combustion engine vehicle.
If you ask us, that’s an economic no-brainer.
Can You Use Solar Power to Charge an Electric Car?
You can in fact use solar power to charge an electric car at your home. Solar panels installed on your home can be used for a full range of electricity requirements, including car charging.
Just remember that installing solar panels can be costly, even after federal tax credits designed to incentivize solar panel use. The cost of a 10 kWh solar panel setup can cost around $20,000— even after tax credits and other incentives.
That said, solar can be a great source of energy for your electric vehicle. It also minimize your environmental impact even further, because even the energy you’re using to power your vehicle is coming from a clean energy source.
Rebates for Charging Stations
Interested in installing a Level 2 charging station in your home? There’s good news for your wallet. There are many federal and state-level incentives designed to encourage more people to drive electric vehicles by making it more convenient and affordable to do so.
The US Federal Tax Credit for electric vehicles offers 30% off a home charging station, plus covering the cost of installation up to $1,000. The discount is claimed as a credit on tax returns the calendar year the installation occurred.
Meanwhile, many states also offer additional incentives on top of the federal tax credit. These can also come from specific utility providers. One provider in the state of Utah, for example, offers $200 credits per charger installed plus installation costs in some cases. These rebates are one of the many advantages to owning an electric vehicle.
Conclusion
Electric vehicles are no longer a niche product for hobbyists to putter around town in. They’re now becoming every bit as capable of long drives, fast speeds, and high performance as gas-powered cars. And with charging stations and capabilities growing all over the country, driving an EV has never been more affordable or convenient.
If you recently purchased an electric vehicle, we can answer a lot more than ‘how much does it cost to charge an electric car.’ At Freedom National, we offer fast quotes for cheap car insurance online so that you can get on the road safely and securely, and be covered in the event of an accident.
