To calculate the cost to fully charge your electric vehicle (EV) battery, you’ll need a few pieces of information.
- Your average unit price of electricity—look on your utility bill for something called cost per kilowatt hour (kWh). The national average in the U.S. is $0.18 per kWh.
- Your EV battery size—we can help you find this with your vehicle make and model.
Then, multiply your cost per kWh by your battery size.
For example, you live in Austin, Texas and drive a Ford F150 Lightning. The cost per kWh in your area is $0.281 per kWh and your battery capacity is 130 kWh, with a range of 200 miles.
130 kWh x $0.281/kWh = $36.53 for every 200 miles you drive.
To calculate your estimated fuel costs annually, find your cost per mile and multiply it by your yearly mileage.
Continuing the previous example, divide the cost to fill your battery by your vehicle’s range.
$36.53 for a full charge / 200 mile range = $0.183 per mile
Next, let’s assume you usually drive 15,000 miles a year and multiply that by your cost per mile.
$0.183/mile x 15,000 miles = $2,745 to recharge your car all year.
When you compare the annual electric costs to the annual fuel costs for a gas F150, you can see 20%+ savings. In fact, on average the savings from driving an EV are significant, and can be anywhere from 40% to 60%.
