EV Charging Savings Calculator
Estimated savings per year by charging at home
Home charging: $549/yr vs gasoline: $1,543/yr.
How much do you save charging at home?
This calculator compares the cost of charging your EV at home against public charging and against the gasoline you'd buy for a comparable car. For most drivers, home charging is dramatically cheaper, often the equivalent of paying well under $1.50 per gallon.
The savings come from two places: home electricity is far cheaper per mile than public DC fast charging, and electricity in general is cheaper per mile than gasoline. Charging overnight on a low time-of-use rate widens the gap further.
Why home charging wins
- Home electricity costs a fraction of public fast-charging rates
- Overnight time-of-use rates are often the cheapest power of the day
- No per-session or idle fees like public networks charge
- You start every day full, no detours to a charging station
- Pairing with solar can drop your cost near zero
Maximizing your savings
Two moves boost your savings most: charging on an off-peak or EV-specific utility rate, and, if you have it, charging from your own solar and battery system. Many utilities offer special EV rate plans that make overnight charging exceptionally cheap.
A home EV charger is what unlocks these savings, and it often pays for itself in fuel savings within the first year or two of ownership.
Beyond fuel savings
The fuel savings are the headline, but home charging also saves time, no station trips, and EVs typically cost less to maintain than gas cars. Factor in available EV charger rebates, and the total cost of ownership picture tilts strongly toward charging at home.
Making the comparison honest
Fuel comparisons hide assumptions, so surface them. Use your actual electric rate (the bill's average per-kWh including delivery, not the teaser supply rate), your car's real efficiency (the trip computer's mi/kWh over months, not the EPA optimum), and the gas price of the car you'd actually drive otherwise. Honest inputs still favor home charging almost everywhere, but now the number defends itself.
Layer time-of-use on top: charging scheduled into an overnight EV rate often halves the per-mile energy cost again. It's the rare savings that requires no hardware, just a rate-plan call and a departure-time setting in the car.
The annual picture for a typical driver
Twelve thousand miles at 3.3 mi/kWh is ~3,640kWh. At a 16¢ average rate: $580/year. The same miles in a 28-mpg car at $3.40/gallon: $1,460. Home charging saves roughly $880 annually, before the overnight-rate discount, before oil changes never bought, before the public-charging premium avoided on the occasional road trip becomes the only fuel line item left.
Multiply by a decade of ownership and the 'expensive EV' conversation usually inverts: the charger install pays back in months, and the drivetrain economics do the rest. Run your own inputs above with honest numbers, save the result, and revisit after your first full month of home charging, the projection-versus-bill comparison is the moment most owners stop double-checking the math and start recommending the setup to neighbors.
Beyond fuel: the full cost-of-ownership delta
Fuel is the visible saving; the quieter ones accumulate alongside. No oil changes ($100–$200 yearly), minimal brake wear thanks to regeneration (pads routinely last twice as long), no transmission service, fewer moving parts failing out of warranty. Studies consistently place EV maintenance 30–40% below combustion equivalents over ownership.
Stack those against the fuel delta this calculator shows and the annual gap widens by several hundred dollars for typical drivers. The charger installation, the one-time cost that enables all of it, starts to look like the cheapest component in the entire ownership equation.
Frequently asked questions
Home charging is almost always cheaper, often a fraction of the cost of public DC fast charging, which carries premium per-kWh rates plus session and idle fees. Charging overnight at home on an off-peak rate is the cheapest option of all.
It varies by local electricity and gas prices, but most drivers find home charging equivalent to paying well under $1.50 per gallon. Over a year of typical driving, that adds up to hundreds or even over a thousand dollars saved.
A big one. Many utilities offer low overnight or EV-specific rates. Charging during those windows can cut your per-mile cost substantially compared to charging at peak times.
Yes. Pairing an EV charger with solar, and ideally a battery, lets you charge on energy you generate, which can bring your effective fueling cost close to zero.
They'd have to outrun gas prices dramatically, electricity's per-mile cost is a third of gasoline's, so proportional increases preserve the gap. Households with solar step off the rate escalator entirely.
Heavy DC use erodes savings quickly at 3–4x home rates. The pattern that preserves the economics: home for the routine, DC for road trips only, which is how most owners naturally settle.
Search your utility's site for 'EV rate' or 'time-of-use,' or just ask us during an assessment, we track the plans across our service territories. Enrollment is usually a form, and the overnight discount typically cuts charging costs 30–50% with zero hardware.