What It Really Costs to Charge an EV at Home

An EV is the largest load most homes ever add — and the easiest one to move. The car doesn't care when it charges, only that it's full by morning. That indifference is worth several hundred dollars a year.

An electric car adds roughly 250–350 kWh a month for typical driving — about a third more electricity than many California homes used in total beforehand. It's the largest single load most households ever add.

It's also the most flexible load in the house. The car does not care whether it charges at 6pm or 1am. It only cares that it's full when you leave. Almost nothing else in a home is that indifferent, and that indifference is worth real money.

The arithmetic

Take 1,000 miles a month at about 3.5 miles per kWh — roughly 285 kWh. What that costs depends entirely on when you plug in:

| When you charge | Typical rate | Monthly cost |

|---|---|---|

| Peak, 4–9pm | ~$0.52/kWh | ~$148 |

| Mid-peak, daytime | ~$0.38/kWh | ~$108 |

| Off-peak, after 9pm | ~$0.28/kWh | ~$80 |

| EV plan super off-peak, midnight–6am | ~$0.12/kWh | ~$34 |

*Illustrative California TOU rates; yours will differ. The point is the spread, not the exact figures.*

Same car, same miles, same electricity. Over $110 a month between the worst and best case — around $1,370 a year, for a scheduling decision.

Charging on arrival is the expensive habit

The default behavior is to plug in when you get home. For most people that's between 5pm and 7pm — squarely in the most expensive window of the day, and precisely when the grid is most strained.

The fix takes two minutes and never needs revisiting. Every EV made in the last decade supports scheduled charging, set either in the car or in its app: set the departure time and let the car work backwards, or simply set charging to start at 9pm or midnight.

Departure-time scheduling is the better option where it's offered, because the car finishes just before you leave — which is marginally better for the battery than sitting at 100% all night, and automatically avoids the peak window.

Whether an EV rate plan is worth it

Utilities offer dedicated EV plans with a very cheap overnight window — sometimes under $0.15/kWh — in exchange for a steeper peak rate that applies to *everything* in the house, not just the car.

That trade is the whole decision. An EV plan is usually worth it when you can genuinely move nearly all charging into the cheap window and your household isn't heavy in the peak hours. It's usually not worth it when you frequently need to charge in the evening, or when the rest of your household load is concentrated at 4–9pm — because the steeper peak then applies to your cooking, cooling, and lighting too.

Some utilities offer EV plans with a separate meter for the charger, which isolates the cheap rate to the car and leaves the rest of the house on your existing plan. That removes the trade-off, but the second meter has an installation cost worth weighing against the savings.

The honest way to decide is to price your actual usage — including the car — against both plans. Your utility will do this for you against your real 12 months, and it's a much better answer than any rule of thumb.

The things people miss

Charging losses are real. You'll pull roughly 10–15% more from the wall than lands in the battery. Level 1 charging on a standard outlet is meaningfully less efficient than Level 2, because the overhead runs for far longer. If you charge on a wall outlet daily, a Level 2 charger pays for part of itself in reduced losses alone.

Preconditioning while plugged in is nearly free; doing it on battery is not. Warming or cooling the cabin before you leave, while still connected, draws from the wall rather than the pack.

Public DC fast charging is often more expensive than home charging, sometimes considerably. It's for road trips, not routine.

An EV can push you into a higher tier on a tiered plan. If you're on tiered rates, adding a car is a good moment to reconsider the plan entirely.

And if you're considering solar because of the car

It's a reasonable thought — a home charging an EV is exactly the high-usage profile where generating your own power starts to make sense.

But do the free things first. Get the charging schedule right, get the rate plan right, and see what the bill looks like *then*. Sizing a system against a bill you could have reduced for nothing means paying to offset a problem you didn't need to have. Once you've done that, CheckYourSolar will model the system properly.

See what your charging is costing you →

Frequently asked questions

How much does an EV add to your electric bill?

Typically 250–350 kWh a month for average driving. The cost ranges from about $35 to $150 a month depending entirely on when you charge and which rate plan you're on.

What's the cheapest time to charge an EV?

Overnight, after the evening peak ends — usually 9pm at the earliest, and on dedicated EV plans the cheapest window is often midnight to 6am. Set a schedule in the car once and it handles it from then on.

Should I switch to an EV rate plan?

It depends on the rest of your household. EV plans offer a very cheap overnight window in exchange for a steeper peak that applies to your whole home, not just the car. They work well if you can move nearly all charging overnight and aren't heavy users at 4–9pm. Ask your utility to price your real 12 months on both.