Electric Vehicles and Charging Costs

Electric vehicles, or EVs, are an increasingly popular choice for vehicle purchases. But before you buy an electric car, you may want to look at how much it will cost to charge. After all, how much will an EV add to your electricity bill? Here’s how to calculate the costs of charging your EV at home.

How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Car at Home?

Use your car’s battery storage kWh and multiply that by your price per kWh. That’s a good estimate of how much it costs every time you fully charge your EV. For example, a 40 kWh battery, charged with power that costs 11.4¢ per kWh (the Texas average rate), will cost $4.56 to fully charge. That’s 40 * $0.114.

How Much Does an EV Add to Your Electricity Bill?

About 80% of EV charging happens at home, according to Energy.gov. Assuming:

• 40 kWh battery (the most common battery size for EVs)
• 30 amp level 2 charger delivering 7.2 kW

It will take around six hours to fully charge your car. That’s based on 40kWh divided by 7.2KW which is 5.55 hours. We rounded up to six hours because your charging efficiency slows down as the battery charges.

That 5.55 hours of charging time will use around 40 kWh. That’s the number of kilowatt hours based on the KW of the electrical item (in this case, 7.2 kW) multiplied by the number of hours (in this case, 5.55 hours).

So now we know how many kWh we’ll use to charge an EV. Now to calculate how much that will cost.

The Texas average electricity rate is 11.4 cents per kWh, according to EIA.gov. That means it will cost you around $4.56 to charge an EV at your Texas home. (40 kWh * 0.114)

How Much Will an Electric Car Add to Your Electric Bill?

To calculate how much an EV will add to your electric bill annually, let’s assume you get 200 miles per charge, and you drive 13,500 miles a year, which is the US average. That’s 68 charges per year. If you do 80% of your charging at home, you’ll charge your vehicle at home 54 times each year.

In Texas it will cost you around $246 annually to charge your EV. And that low cost is what makes electric vehicles popular in Texas.

Use our energy usage and cost calculator to find how much an electric car will add to your bill.

EV Charging Electricity Plans in Texas

Since EVs are so popular in Texas, and electricity is deregulated in most of the state, you can easily find special EV charging plans. You can find out about Texas EV charging electricity plans, plus read reviews of the best EV charging plans.

Shop EV Charging Electricity Plans in Texas

Is Electricity for Electric Cars Free?

This is one of the big myths about buying an electric vehicle – that electricity for electric cars is free.

The best way to find free EV charging near you is Plugshare, either online or via their app.

Many new EV buyers can also get free charging credits from their dealership or manufacturer. For example, Nissan Leaf purchasers can participate in their “No Charge to Charge” promotion. You’ll receive a prepaid EZ-Charge card with access to all public chargers from providers such as ChargePoint, Blink Network, AeroVironment and NRG eVgo.

The Benefits of EV Ownership

So outside charging an electric vehicle, what are the benefits of EV ownership?

• While sustainability first comes to mind, electric vehicles support the U.S. economy.
• They’re designed to be more efficient through better fuel economy.
• EV owners quickly find that their vehicles require less routine maintenance.
• Although the upfront cost is higher, long-term costs of owning an EV are generally lower.
• EVs produce zero tailpipe emissions.

References

https://rmi.org/electric-vehicle-charging-for-dummies/ https://chargehub.com/en/how-to-choose-home-charging-station.html https://www.kbb.com/car-news/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charge-an-ev/

About Kelly Bedrich

Kelly Bedrich co-founded ElectricityPlans in 2016 with the goal of simplifying the complicated process of buying energy.