How Much Does it Cost to Charge an Electric Vehicle at Home?

How much does it cost to charge an electric vehicle at home?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working diligently to establish a method for calculating the fuel economy of electric vehicles. Since there are no gallons of gasoline involved, the more conventional miles per gallon (mpg) cannot be used. As a result, the EPA decided that the number of kilowatt-hours (kWh) needed to complete 100 miles of driving should be used to assess cars.

Depending on the car model and the EV charger you use, the majority of electric vehicles need around 7,200 watts (i.e., 7.2 kilowatts) of electricity. Additionally, the majority of EV charging stations use 240-volt outlets and use between 32 and 40 amps of power.

Because they can usually be charged at home, EVs are special. However, you can’t simply plug your car into the outlet you already have in your garage and call it a day.

Instead, you’ll need to make a purchase of an EV charging station, which will give you enough power to overnight charge your vehicle to 100%. It will be adequate if you go no more than 50 miles per day, which is what the US Department of Transportation estimates to be the daily average. Additionally, since the majority of grid-based electricity is still produced using fossil fuels, using a solar-powered EV charging station at home produces the least amount of carbon emissions if your home is equipped with one.

However, if your home doesn’t have a solar energy system, you can start figuring out how big your solar system will need to be once you know how much electricity you’ll need to use in order to charge your EV while also powering the rest of your house.

Approximately 31 kWh/100 miles, or 0.31 kWh/mile, is the average energy consumption for electric vehicles now in use in the United States. At the time of writing, the national average utility price per kWh is $0.1609, with solar only being around $0.06 to $0.08. For an electric vehicle owner expecting to drive around 200 miles a week, that equates to costing around $20 a week in electricity without solar and $4.30 a week for a solar system owner.