How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Car?
The honest answer is “it depends” — on your battery, your car’s efficiency, and above all where you plug in. So we ran one transparent model across 10 popular EVs at three places you charge: at home, on a public Level 2 station, and on a DC fast charger. Here is what a charge actually costs, per full charge and per mile.
At home, a mile costs a few cents
Charged at home at $0.17 per kWh, every car here comes in under 10¢ a mile, and the efficient sedans sit near 4.6¢. The number tracks efficiency almost perfectly — the more miles a car gets per kWh, the less each mile costs. Heavy trucks like the F-150 Lightning use roughly twice the energy per mile of a Model 3, so they cost roughly twice as much to drive on the same electricity.
Home charging cost per mile (cents), at $0.17/kWh and 90% efficiency.
Where you charge matters more than what you drive
The rate per kWh is the biggest lever on cost, and it swings hard by location. Public Level 2 typically runs around $0.30 per kWh and DC fast charging around $0.48 — roughly 2.8× the home rate. That multiplier lands on every mile: a Model 3 that costs 4.6¢ a mile at home costs about 13.0¢ on a fast charger, and a Lightning jumps from 9.4¢ to 26.7¢.
Home ($0.17/kWh)Public L2 ($0.30)DC fast ($0.48)
For comparison, a 30-mpg gas car at $3.50 a gallon costs about 11.7¢ a mile. Home charging beats it comfortably for every EV here; DC fast charging meets or exceeds it for most. That is the practical takeaway: an EV is cheapest when you charge slowly overnight and treat fast charging as the convenience it is.
The full 10-car table
Full charge is a 0–100% home charge at $0.17/kWh; the per-mile columns use $0.17 (home), $0.30 (Level 2) and $0.48 (DC fast) per kWh, all at 90% charging efficiency. Want your own car and rate? Open the EV Charging Cost Calculator and change any input.
| EV | Battery | mi/kWh | Full charge | Home | L2 | DC fast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla Model 3 (RWD) | 57.5 kWh | 4.1 | $10.86 | 4.6¢ | 8.1¢ | 13.0¢ |
| Chevrolet Bolt EV | 65 kWh | 3.9 | $12.28 | 4.8¢ | 8.5¢ | 13.7¢ |
| Tesla Model Y | 75 kWh | 3.7 | $14.17 | 5.1¢ | 9.0¢ | 14.4¢ |
| Nissan Leaf | 60 kWh | 3.5 | $11.33 | 5.4¢ | 9.5¢ | 15.2¢ |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 77 kWh | 3.4 | $14.54 | 5.6¢ | 9.8¢ | 15.7¢ |
| Kia EV6 | 77 kWh | 3.4 | $14.54 | 5.6¢ | 9.8¢ | 15.7¢ |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E | 88 kWh | 3 | $16.62 | 6.3¢ | 11.1¢ | 17.8¢ |
| Volkswagen ID.4 | 82 kWh | 3 | $15.49 | 6.3¢ | 11.1¢ | 17.8¢ |
| Rivian R1T | 135 kWh | 2.3 | $25.50 | 8.2¢ | 14.5¢ | 23.2¢ |
| Ford F-150 Lightning | 131 kWh | 2 | $24.74 | 9.4¢ | 16.7¢ | 26.7¢ |
Per-mile figures are cents. Battery and mi/kWh are typical figures per model and vary by trim, model year and conditions — adjust them to your own car.
How to work out your own cost
Every number on this page comes from two lines of arithmetic. To top up from one state of charge to another, the energy that reaches the battery is the battery size times the percentage added; you pay for a bit more than that because of charging losses. Then multiply by your rate:
- Charge cost: (battery kWh × percent added) ÷ efficiency × rate per kWh.
- Cost per mile: (rate per kWh ÷ efficiency) ÷ miles per kWh.
- Assumed rates: home $0.17, public Level 2 $0.30, DC fast $0.48 per kWh.
- Assumed efficiency: 90% (wall to battery); battery and mi/kWh per the table above.
These are illustrative assumptions, not measured field data — charging losses, network pricing and driving conditions vary. Plug in the rate from your own bill or charger for an exact figure. Working out your monthly bill overall? Try the Electricity Bill Calculator.