EV Charging Cost Calculator
What charging an electric car costs per month, and how it compares with petrol or diesel.
Charging an electric car costs far less per mile than fuel, but the number depends on where you charge: home electricity is usually the cheapest, public fast chargers the most expensive.
Enter your monthly distance, the car’s consumption and the price you pay per kilowatt hour. Adding your current fuel cost shows the monthly saving.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Distance driven per month, Consumption (kWh per 100 units), Electricity price per kWh, Charging efficiency, What you pay for fuel now
- What you get
- Charging cost per month, Charging cost per year, Monthly saving against fuel, Annual saving against fuel
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the EV Charging Cost Calculator
- 1 Enter Distance driven per month
- 2 Enter Consumption (kWh per 100 units) - Most electric cars use 15 to 20 kWh per 100 miles.
- 3 Enter Electricity price per kWh
- 4 Enter Charging efficiency - The share of the electricity that reaches the battery.
- 5 Enter What you pay for fuel now - Monthly fuel bill for the same driving. Enter 0 to skip the comparison.
- 6 Press Calculate. You get Charging cost per month, Charging cost per year, Monthly saving against fuel, Annual saving against fuel, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 7 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
1,000 miles a month charged at home
17 kWh per 100 miles at $0.15 per kWh and 90% charging efficiency, against a $120 fuel bill.
You enter
- Distance driven per month
- 1,000
- Consumption (kWh per 100 units)
- 17
- Electricity price per kWh
- $0.15
- Charging efficiency
- 90%
- What you pay for fuel now
- $120.00
You get
- Charging cost per month
- $28.33
- Charging cost per year
- $340.00
- Monthly saving against fuel
- $91.67
- Annual saving against fuel
- $1,100.00
The car needs 170 kWh at the battery and about 189 kWh from the grid, which costs $28.33 a month or $340 a year. Against the $120 fuel bill that is a saving of about $92 a month and $1,100 a year.
1,200 miles charged mostly in public
19 kWh per 100 miles at $0.28 per kWh and 85% charging efficiency, against a $200 fuel bill.
You enter
- Distance driven per month
- 1,200
- Consumption (kWh per 100 units)
- 19
- Electricity price per kWh
- $0.28
- Charging efficiency
- 85%
- What you pay for fuel now
- $200.00
You get
- Charging cost per month
- $75.11
- Charging cost per year
- $901.27
- Monthly saving against fuel
- $124.89
- Annual saving against fuel
- $1,498.73
Charging costs about $75.11 a month, or $901 a year, which is roughly $6.26 for every 100 miles. Against the fuel bill the saving is about $125 a month, or about $1,499 a year, so charging still wins here but by much less than at home rates.
Guides that go with it
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Frequently asked questions
How does charging efficiency change the cost?
The car needs a certain amount of energy at the battery, worked out as distance multiplied by consumption per 100 miles. Some electricity is lost between the socket and the battery, so the calculator divides that energy by the efficiency percentage to find what you actually draw from the grid, then multiplies by your price per kWh.
At 90% efficiency you pay for about 11% more electricity than the battery stores. Cold weather and some chargers push the loss higher, so a winter figure of 80% is not unusual. Charging losses do not change the car, only the bill.
Why does the cost per kWh vary so much between charging at home and in public?
Home electricity is billed at a domestic rate, often with a cheaper overnight tariff, while public rapid chargers charge a premium for speed and location and may add a connection or membership fee on top. The difference between the cheapest and the most expensive way to charge the same car is a multiple, not a few percent.
This calculator uses the single price you enter, so the honest way to use it is to run it twice: once with your home rate and once with the public rate you would really pay, and treat the two results as the range your month will fall inside.
Are the official kWh per 100 miles figures realistic?
They have the same problem as official fuel consumption. They come from a standard test with mild temperatures and moderate speeds, while real use adds cabin heating in winter, cooling in summer, high motorway speeds and battery preconditioning. Most electric cars land somewhere around 15 to 20 kWh per 100 miles in mixed use, and worse than that in the cold.
Measure your own: note the miles driven between charges and the energy the car reports as added, or read the consumption screen your car already keeps. Enter that measured figure rather than the brochure number, and the monthly cost stops being a guess.
Does the comparison with my fuel bill include everything?
No. It compares the monthly fuel figure you enter with the charging cost, so it is a running energy comparison and nothing more. The cost of a home charger and its installation, public charging membership fees, any difference in road tax or insurance, and the time spent charging are all outside it.
For the comparison to mean anything, the fuel figure must be for the same monthly distance you entered above. If your mileage changes when you switch cars, or if you would charge mostly in public, put those numbers in before you trust the saving.
Terms used here
Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.