How much does it cost to charge an electric car at home?
EIA data · June 2026About $103 a month at the U.S. average price of 18.34¢ per kilowatt-hour — but that figure moves a long way depending on where you live. Set your state below.
563.1 kWh a month at the U.S. average, 18.34¢/kWh for June 2026. Excludes fixed charges, taxes and time-of-use rates, which vary by utility and are on your bill.
Typical 1,400–11,500 W. Use the figure on your own label if you have it.
Each charge is assumed to take 6 hours.
What it costs per mile
Charge-hours are the wrong unit for a car. What decides anything is cost per mile, and that depends on how efficient the vehicle is. Efficiency is quoted in miles per kilowatt-hour; most current EVs sit between 3 and 4, with heavy trucks lower and small cars higher.
These figures include the roughly 10% lost as heat between the wall and the battery, so they reflect what your meter records rather than what the car reports.
| Efficiency | Per mile | Per 100 miles | 1,000 mi / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.5 mi/kWh — large truck or SUV | 8.2¢ | $8.15 | $81.51 |
| 3.0 mi/kWh — mid-size SUV | 6.8¢ | $6.79 | $67.93 |
| 3.5 mi/kWh — typical sedan | 5.8¢ | $5.82 | $58.22 |
| 4.0 mi/kWh — efficient compact | 5.1¢ | $5.09 | $50.94 |
At the U.S. average of 18.34¢ per kilowatt-hour for June 2026. Your own state changes this by up to fourfold — check your rate. Public DC fast charging is priced per network rather than per state and typically costs two to three times home charging, so it is not modelled here.
An electric vehicle is #2 of 88 on this site by annual cost, so it is probably not the only thing worth checking. See what an electric vehicle costs beside everything else you run.
This is one of the appliances big enough to move a bill on its own. What usually drives a bill that jumped.
How many watts an electric vehicle uses
A Level 2 home charger on a 240-volt, 40-amp circuit delivers about 7,200 W continuously. The low end is Level 1 charging from an ordinary 120-volt outlet (about 1,400 W); the high end is a 48-amp charger at about 11,500 W.
- Low
- 1,400 W
- Typical
- 7,200 W
- High
- 11,500 W
What it costs across the country
Same appliance, same usage, different electricity price. Annual cost at 7,200 W and the default usage above.
| State | ¢/kWh | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 52.72 | $3,563 |
| California | 34.74 | $2,348 |
| Massachusetts | 29.61 | $2,001 |
| New York | 29.49 | $1,993 |
| Ohio | 19.19 | $1,297 |
| Texas | 15.94 | $1,077 |
| Florida | 15.10 | $1,020 |
| Utah | 13.37 | $904 |
| Nebraska | 13.25 | $895 |
| Nevada | 13.11 | $886 |
Worth knowing
- Charging is not perfectly efficient — roughly 10% of the electricity drawn from the wall is lost as heat before it reaches the battery.
- Home charging is almost always far cheaper per mile than public DC fast charging, which is priced at a premium.
- Many utilities offer a time-of-use rate that makes overnight charging substantially cheaper than the state average price used here.
Other appliances
Prices are statewide residential averages for June 2026 from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. They exclude fixed monthly charges, taxes and time-of-use rates. See how these figures are calculated.