Fully charging your plug-in electric vehicle at home will cost significantly less than fueling up your gasoline vehicle – about $2 – $13 per ‘tank’.

Between the x3 efficiency of an electric powertrain and cheaper, more stable electricity prices, plug-in vehicles are significantly cheaper to charge, especially when done at home or work, where ~90% of charging occurs. Some popular vehicle examples are below; prices given at $0.129/kWh, the national average residential electricity price.

Battery electric vehicles (BEV):

• Chevrolet Bolt EV – $7.74, 238 mile range
• Nissan Leaf – $5.16, 151 mile range
• Tesla Model S (75 kWh) – $9.68, 259 mile range
• Tesla Model S (100 kWh) – $12.90, 335 mile range

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV):

• Chevrolet Volt – $2.37, 53 mile electric range
• Audi A3 e-tron – $1.14, 17 mile electric range
• Toyota Prius Prime – $1.14, 22 mile electric range
• Hyundai Ioniq plug-in hybrid – $1.15, 29 mile electric range

Source – Clipper Creek cost chart

Looking at it in other terms, driving an electric vehicle is like paying ~$1/gallon gasoline. And this is unlikely to change; all of the electricity used in the US is domestically produced, a big reason costs remain stable.

Charging on the go – a bit more expensive, but less common

Charging away from home or the workplace, while not as common, is still an important consideration for owning an electric vehicle. The cost varies widely depending on the specific network. They range from free (for example, in downtown Ann Arbor, aside from normal parking structure costs) to pay-as-you-go to monthly subscriptions.

• Free – as of March 2018, the majority of public chargers are free – about 47,000 of them
• (Some of the) EV charging networks – Aerovironment (AV), Blink, ChargePoint, eVgo, Tesla Superchargers, Tesla destination chargers

• Aerovironment – unlimited monthly access for $20/month or $7.50 per session for DC fast charging / $4 per session for level 2 charging
• Blink – no annual or monthly membership fees; usage-based (ie per-kWh) charge ranging from $0.39 to $0.79 per kWh – this is about 3x – 6x as expensive as charging at home
• ChargePoint – prices are determined by the property owner, many stations are free
• eVgo – level 2 charging is $1.50 per hour; DC fast charging is $0.20 per minute
• Tesla Superchargers and destination charging – 400 kWh per year, good for about 1000 miles of driving is included with vehicle purchase; a “small” (TBD) fee applies over that limit but it will be cheaper than buying gasoline

Source – PlugInCars – the ultimate guide to electric car charging networks

Finding where to charge

Download the PlugShare app. PlugShare is a free application for allows users to find and review charging stations. This awesome application allows you to filter by plug-type, charging network, and details like free/paid, currently in-use, and restricted locations. You can even check-in and leave a rating of the listing.

Source – An introduction to electric vehicles