EV Charging Cost by State

States with the cheapest EV charging

The ten cheapest states all sit under 12.5¢ per kWh, well below the US residential average of about 16.0¢. What they share is generation that's cheap and close to the customer — Columbia River hydro in Washington and Idaho, wind in Nebraska and North Dakota, coal in Wyoming, and a mix of gas and nuclear along the Gulf.

At the top of the list, a year of driving costs about $441 in electricity. The same miles in a 30 mpg gas car cost $1,430. Put differently, gas would have to fall to $1.02 a gallon before the pump caught up — under a third of the $3.30 baseline used here.

States where EVs save the most vs gas

Because electricity rates vary by 3.7× across the country while a gas car burns the same fuel everywhere, the savings ranking follows the rate ranking almost exactly. The cheap-power states are also the biggest savers: about $989 a year in Utah and North Dakota, against roughly $806 for a driver on the national average rate.

The more useful number is in the last column of the table: the break-even gas price, or what a gallon would have to cost for a 30 mpg car to match your EV per mile. It ranges from $1.02 in the cheapest states to $3.72in Hawaii. It answers the question people actually have — “how far would gas have to fall before I regret this?” — and it doesn't depend on guessing today's pump price.

Only one place flips the answer. Hawaii at 41.3¢ per kWh works out to 12.39¢ a mile, more than the 11.00¢ a 30 mpg car costs at $3.30 a gallon. Hawaii's pump prices also run far above the national average, which in practice usually puts the EV back in front — but it is the one state where the answer turns on your local gas price rather than being settled in advance. Everywhere else, home charging wins before you account for maintenance, and the TCO calculator shows how much wider the gap gets once depreciation, servicing, and tax credits enter the picture.

How to find your state's electricity rate

The averages above are a starting point, not your bill. Rates differ between utilities inside a single state, and every state average hides a spread between an urban investor-owned utility and a rural cooperative. Three steps get you to a number worth putting in a calculator:

1. Divide your total bill by the kWh you used.Not the “supply” or “generation” rate printed on the statement — that line excludes delivery, distribution, and fixed charges, and it will understate your real cost by a third or more. Total dollars ÷ total kWh is the all-in rate that applies to the electricity your car draws.
2. Check whether you're on a flat or tiered plan. If your utility charges more per kWh above a monthly threshold, adding an EV can push your whole household into the higher tier. The marginal rate — what the next kWh costs — is the one that prices your charging, and it can be well above your average.
3. Ask about an EV time-of-use rate.Most utilities now offer an overnight super-off-peak window, commonly 11 PM to 6 AM, at 8–12¢ per kWh. That's below the flat average rate in all but a handful of states, and a car that charges on a timer captures it automatically. Some utilities meter the vehicle separately so the rest of the house stays on its old plan.

Once you have your real rate, run it through the EV charging cost calculator with your actual charging mix. Every figure on this page assumes 100% home charging, which is the best case. Public Level 2 roughly doubles the per-kWh price and DC fast charging roughly triples it, so an apartment dweller in a cheap-electricity state can easily pay more per mile than a homeowner in an expensive one.