The short answer
EV charging at home on TOU rates costs 2-4¢/mile. Home charging on flat-rate plans costs 4-7¢/mile. Public Level 2 stations cost 5-9¢/mile. DC fast charging on road trips costs 10-18¢/mile. Gas in a 30 mpg car at $3.50/gallon costs about 12¢/mile. Home charging is 3-6x cheaper than gas; DC fast is roughly comparable.
EV charging cost per mile varies from 2¢ to 18¢ depending on where and when you charge. Home charging on EV-specific TOU rates runs 2-4¢/mile. Home charging on flat-rate plans runs 4-7¢/mile. Public Level 2 charging runs 5-9¢/mile. DC fast charging on the road runs 10-18¢/mile. Compared to gas at $3.50/gallon in a 30 mpg car (~12¢/mile), home charging is 3-6x cheaper but DC fast charging is roughly comparable.
Home charging vs public charging
Home charging is structurally cheaper because you pay residential electricity rates. On EV-specific TOU rates, super-off-peak rates run 4-8¢/kWh, translating to 1.5-3¢/mile for a typical EV (3.5 miles/kWh). On flat rates at 17¢/kWh, home charging costs 5¢/mile.
Public Level 2 charging (charging stations at malls, hotels, workplaces) runs 25-45¢/kWh, or 7-13¢/mile. Workplace charging is sometimes free as an employee perk — when available, this is the absolute cheapest option.
DC fast charging on the road runs 35-60¢/kWh, or 10-18¢/mile. For road trips, DC fast charging is the only practical option but the cost approaches gas economics. The optimal strategy: charge at home for 80-90% of miles, use DC fast only for road trips.
State-by-state cost variation
Texas, Tennessee, Idaho — cheapest states for home EV charging. Off-peak rates of 6-9¢/kWh (Texas REPs) translate to 2-3¢/mile.
California, Hawaii, Massachusetts — most expensive states. Even off-peak rates of 25-35¢/kWh translate to 7-10¢/mile.
Mid-Atlantic states (PA, NJ, MD, DC) sit in the middle: TOU off-peak at 11-14¢/kWh translates to 3-4¢/mile. For the highest-cost states, charging at home still beats gas (~12¢/mile) by a meaningful margin even on flat rates.
Optimal charging strategy by use case
Daily commuter (<50 miles/day): EV TOU rate plan + Level 2 home charger + overnight scheduling. Cost: 2-4¢/mile. The ev-home-charging-rate-plan-guide walks the rate-plan choice.
Light driver (<30 miles/day): flat rate is fine — Level 1 charging keeps up overnight, the TOU optimization is not worth the complexity.
Mixed commuter + road tripper: same as daily commuter for daily, plus join a DC fast network membership (Tesla Supercharger, EVgo, ChargePoint) for road trips. Multi-EV household: EV-only submetering + dedicated EV TOU rate. Cost: 1.5-3¢/mile across the fleet.
Recap
Bottom line
Home charging on EV-specific TOU rates is by far the cheapest way to fuel an EV — 2 to 4 cents per mile vs roughly 12 cents per mile for gas in a 30 mpg car. Even on flat-rate plans, home charging beats gas by 2 to 3x in most US states. DC fast charging on road trips is the only EV charging mode that approaches gas economics.
For optimal EV ownership economics: install a Level 2 home charger ($1,500 to $2,500 installed including federal Section 30C credit), enroll in your utility EV-specific TOU rate, and program overnight charging to start at 11 PM and complete by 6 AM. The ev-home-charging-rate-plan-guide covers rate-plan selection; the time-of-use-rate-vs-flat-rate guide covers TOU evaluation broadly.
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About the author
Harry ParkerEnergy Consultant, Seenra Inc
Energy Consultant at Seenra Inc. Harry advises US commercial buyers and households on supplier procurement, multi-site aggregation, and the operator-level math behind locked-rate contracts. Eight years on the buy side across PJM and ERCOT zones — he has run the load profile, the reverse auction, and the renewal calendar for portfolios from 50 kW restaurants to 18 MW manufacturing campuses.