Short answer: charging at home costs about $36 per 1,000 miles in North Dakota and about $125 in Hawaii, a 3.5-to-1 spread. The national average works out to roughly $52. In the 48 contiguous states plus DC, California is the most expensive at about $95 per 1,000 miles, and North Dakota and Idaho are the cheapest. Use the home charging cost calculator to compare against your own gasoline spend. A Hawaii or California driver pays about $1,000 to $1,500 a year to charge, while a North Dakota driver pays about $430.
These figures come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) average residential electricity price for each state, averaged over the 12 months from August 2025 through July 2026. We use the 12-month average instead of one month because summer and winter rates swing, and a single month can make a state look cheaper or pricier than it is over a year. The math is the same worked example used across this site: a typical EV at 3.5 miles per kWh, 1,000 miles a month, with no charging losses.
The ten cheapest states
| Rank | State | Avg. rate (¢/kWh) | Per 1,000 miles | Per full 60 kWh charge | Per year (12,000 mi) |
|---|
| 1 | North Dakota | 12.53 | $35.80 | $7.52 | $430 |
| 2 | Idaho | 12.67 | $36.20 | $7.60 | $434 |
| 3 | Nebraska | 12.90 | $36.86 | $7.74 | $442 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 13.07 | $37.34 | $7.84 | $448 |
| 5 | Utah | 13.31 | $38.03 | $7.99 | $456 |
| 6 | Arkansas | 13.46 | $38.46 | $8.08 | $461 |
| 7 | Nevada | 13.56 | $38.74 | $8.14 | $465 |
| 8 | Oklahoma | 13.63 | $38.94 | $8.18 | $467 |
| 9 | Tennessee | 13.66 | $39.03 | $8.20 | $468 |
| 10 | Missouri | 13.89 | $39.69 | $8.33 | $476 |
The cheapest ten are packed tightly: 1.4 cents separates first from tenth, about $4 per 1,000 miles. A ranking tells you who is cheapest, not why, and we do not assign a cause here.
The ten most expensive places
| Rank | State | Avg. rate (¢/kWh) | Per 1,000 miles | Per full 60 kWh charge | Per year (12,000 mi) |
|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | 43.70 | $124.86 | $26.22 | $1,498 |
| 2 | California | 33.13 | $94.66 | $19.88 | $1,136 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | 30.39 | $86.83 | $18.23 | $1,042 |
| 4 | Rhode Island | 29.39 | $83.97 | $17.63 | $1,008 |
| 5 | Maine | 29.28 | $83.66 | $17.57 | $1,004 |
| 6 | New York | 28.36 | $81.03 | $17.02 | $972 |
| 7 | Connecticut | 28.20 | $80.57 | $16.92 | $967 |
| 8 | Alaska | 27.01 | $77.17 | $16.21 | $926 |
| 9 | New Hampshire | 26.76 | $76.46 | $16.06 | $917 |
| 10 | District of Columbia | 24.21 | $69.17 | $14.53 | $830 |
Hawaii stands alone. Its latest monthly rate in our data (July 2026) is 48.0 cents per kWh, and its 12-month average is about a third above second-place California. Outside Hawaii and Alaska, the expensive list is California, the Northeast and DC, where 12-month averages run from about 24 to 30 cents per kWh.
Where your state sits in between
The national average over the same 12 months is 18.04 cents per kWh, or about $52 per 1,000 miles and $10.82 for a full 60 kWh charge. Some large, populous states land near or under that line: Texas (16.00 cents, about $46 per 1,000 miles), Florida (15.41, about $44), and Georgia (15.07, about $43). Others land well above it: Michigan (21.00, about $60), Pennsylvania (20.75, about $59), and New Jersey (23.61, about $67).
For any of the 50 states and DC, the Cost to Charge by State pages show the same math with that state's rate, and the home charging cost calculator lets you swap in your own utility rate, your own car's efficiency, and your own mileage.
What to take from the ranking
The spread is real but smaller than the headlines. Going from $36 to $125 per 1,000 miles is a 3.5x gap, yet in dollars it is $89 a month for a driver covering 1,000 miles. That is a meaningful bill in Hawaii and California, and a rounding error against the car payment in Idaho. Where electricity is expensive, the choice of charging window matters more, which is the case for reading your utility's schedule (see best time to charge your EV at home).
A state average is not your rate. The EIA figure averages every residential customer in the state, including those on tiered, seasonal and time-of-use plans. Your utility can sit well above or below its state's number. In states with several large utilities, such as California, the spread between utilities is wide. Check your own bill, or find your utility on our state guides, before you plan around a figure in this article.
These numbers are averages, not an EV-specific price. Many utilities sell electricity for EVs on time-of-use or dedicated EV plans that undercut the standard rate overnight. Some utilities also add a flat monthly fee for a separate EV meter. Neither effect is in the state average.
Real charging costs a bit more than this math. The worked example assumes no charging loss. In practice, wall-to-battery losses on AC charging add roughly 10 to 15 percent to the kilowatt-hours you buy, so scale each cost above up by roughly a tenth to a seventh, and use the calculator to model it. The 3.5 miles per kWh efficiency is a midsize EV; a large truck or SUV will be lower, a compact sedan higher.
Rates move, and some move fast. Connecticut is the clear example. Its July 2026 rate in our EIA data is 24.16 cents, well below its 12-month average of 28.20. State officials moved part of the public benefits charge off ratepayer bills starting in May 2026 and cut standard supply rates on July 1, and the savings are described as temporary. Connecticut's rate is falling, so check the latest month rather than relying on a year-long average.
Does cheap electricity mean cheap ownership?
Not by itself. Electricity is only one line of ownership cost: many states also charge EV registration fees or road-usage charges, and rebates that offset installation vary widely by state and utility. Our guides on EV registration fees by state and utility EV charger rebates cover both, and what home EV charging actually costs puts the hardware, installation and electricity costs side by side.
Last factually verified: October 30, 2026. Rates are the EIA residential average retail price by state (Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, via the EIA Open Data API), averaged over August 2025 through July 2026 from the site's snapshot dated October 3, 2026; the national average and the Hawaii and California July figures were cross-checked against secondary reports of the same EIA data (electricrates.org and other aggregators). The Connecticut bill changes (a public benefits credit from May 2026 and lower supply rates on July 1, 2026) come from search-result summaries of Connecticut governor's office releases and Connecticut Public reporting from September 2026, which we could not open directly. Direct access to eia.gov, ct.gov and the aggregator pages was unavailable from our research environment, so figures for individual states other than those named above rest on the site's EIA snapshot, which we did not re-pull from EIA at write time. EIA monthly data are preliminary and revised. Costs assume 3.5 miles per kWh, 1,000 miles a month and no charging losses.
evcharginghelp.com is editorially independent and receives no compensation from any company mentioned.