Charging the median electric car at home in Arizona costs about $53 a month at 15.18 cents per kilowatt-hour — the 17th cheapest of 51 states, and 17 per cent below the national average. Petrol over the same 1,125 miles costs $170, so the saving is $116 a month, $1,398 a year; on the public side 94 registered cars share each fast-charging plug, against 55 in the typical state.
Public fast charging in Arizona
Arizona has 215 public DC fast-charging sites with 1,504 plugs in the federal AFDC station locator (2026-09-16), for 141,800 battery-electric cars registered in the state at the end of 2025.
Arizona is one of the most crowded states in the country per plug: 141,800 registered EVs share 1,504 public fast-charging plugs, 94 cars each where the typical state manages 55 — 45th of 51. If you cannot charge where you sleep, that number is the one to weigh before buying.
Sites here are mostly multi-plug: only 22% have a single charger, and the state averages 7.0 plugs per site. A stop being occupied is far less often a dead end in Arizona than the national picture suggests.
One network owns the state. Tesla accounts for 64% of every public fast-charging plug in Arizona (970 of 1,504), so whether its plug fits your car, and what it charges per kWh, largely decides what fast charging costs here.
Which plug fits in Arizona
Neither plug has Arizona to itself: 72% of sites carry CCS1 and 39% carry the Tesla NACS connector. Most drivers will meet both on a long route, which is the position the rest of the country is moving towards as manufacturers switch to NACS.
| Connector | Sites in Arizona | Share of sites | Cars that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCS1 (J1772 Combo) | 155 | 72% | Almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US |
| NACS / J3400 (Tesla) | 84 | 39% | Teslas, and other cars with an adapter where the site allows it |
| CHAdeMO | 53 | 25% | Older Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi only |
53 sites keep a CHAdeMO plug (25%). Useful if you drive an older Leaf in Arizona; irrelevant to everything else on this page, and the count falls every year as sites are refitted.
Public fast charging does not follow the residential rate. At a typical network price of $0.48 per kWh the median car costs $14.93 per 100 miles — 3.2 times what the same miles cost at home in Arizona, and still under the $15.07 the petrol car spends on them. Anyone charging mostly in public in Arizona should read the home column as optimistic by a factor of 3.2 — that multiple, not the state, is what decides whether the sums work. How long each car takes on a fast charger is on its charging page.
What electricity costs in Arizona
The EIA published residential average for Arizona is 15.18 cents per kWh (June 2026), against a US average of 18.34. That puts Arizona at 17th of 51 states and DC, cheapest first — the cheaper half of the country. Put the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD on that rate — the middle car of the 36 rated here, at 31.1 kWh per 100 miles — and it costs $4.72 per 100 miles, $53 a month, $637 a year.
Against a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon, electricity stops being the cheaper fuel at about 48 cents per kWh. Arizona is below that line by 33.29 cents, so the saving holds at the state-average rate before any overnight tariff is applied. It is an average across every household and every hour of the month: an overnight window beats it, a summer peak does not. The running-cost calculator takes your own tariff instead of the state’s.
Every EPA-rated car, charged at home in Arizona
Efficiency is worth more in Arizona than in most states: $72 a month separates the Lucid Air Pure RWD from the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X, and every car in the table still beats the $170 the petrol car burns through.
| Car | EPA kWh / 100 mi | Per 100 miles | Per month | Per year | Saved vs petrol / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Air Pure RWD | 23.1 | $3.51 | $39 | $473 | $130 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 26.0 | $3.95 | $44 | $533 | $125 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 26.4 | $4.01 | $45 | $541 | $124 |
| Lexus RZ 350e FWD | 26.6 | $4.04 | $45 | $545 | $124 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 27.5 | $4.17 | $47 | $564 | $123 |
| Nissan Leaf 75 kWh | 27.8 | $4.22 | $47 | $570 | $122 |
| Subaru Solterra AWD | 28.0 | $4.25 | $48 | $574 | $122 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 28.0 | $4.25 | $48 | $574 | $122 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 28.5 | $4.33 | $49 | $584 | $121 |
| Kia EV3 Long Range FWD | 29.0 | $4.40 | $50 | $594 | $120 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 29.2 | $4.43 | $50 | $598 | $120 |
| Audi Q4 45 e-tron | 29.4 | $4.46 | $50 | $602 | $119 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 29.6 | $4.49 | $51 | $607 | $119 |
| Polestar 2 Single Motor | 29.6 | $4.49 | $51 | $607 | $119 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 29.8 | $4.52 | $51 | $611 | $119 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 30.0 | $4.55 | $51 | $615 | $118 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 30.7 | $4.66 | $52 | $629 | $117 |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ with EQ Technology | 31.0 | $4.71 | $53 | $635 | $117 |
| Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD | 31.1 | $4.72 | $53 | $637 | $116 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 31.4 | $4.77 | $54 | $643 | $116 |
| Cadillac Optiq RWD | 32.1 | $4.87 | $55 | $658 | $115 |
| Chevrolet Blazer EV FWD | 32.3 | $4.90 | $55 | $662 | $114 |
| Honda Prologue FWD | 32.5 | $4.93 | $56 | $666 | $114 |
| Genesis GV60 AWD | 33.6 | $5.10 | $57 | $689 | $112 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 36.6 | $5.56 | $63 | $750 | $107 |
| Cadillac Lyriq RWD | 36.8 | $5.59 | $63 | $754 | $107 |
| Acura ZDX RWD | 36.9 | $5.60 | $63 | $756 | $107 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 9 RWD | 37.0 | $5.62 | $63 | $758 | $106 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 37.1 | $5.63 | $63 | $760 | $106 |
| Rivian R1S Dual Motor, Max pack | 39.9 | $6.06 | $68 | $818 | $101 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 40.0 | $6.07 | $68 | $820 | $101 |
| Tesla Cybertruck Long Range | 40.9 | $6.21 | $70 | $838 | $100 |
| Rivian R1T Dual Motor, Large pack | 42.9 | $6.51 | $73 | $879 | $96 |
| Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range | 47.9 | $7.27 | $82 | $982 | $88 |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range | 49.5 | $7.51 | $85 | $1,014 | $85 |
| GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X | 65.1 | $9.88 | $111 | $1,334 | $58 |
| A 27 mpg petrol car at $4.07 a gallon | — | $15.07 | $170 | $2,035 | — |
EPA combined ratings are measured at the socket, not at the battery, which is why these numbers are about a tenth higher than a pack-size calculation would give. That is the honest figure: it is what the meter in Arizona records. The four cars without a US rating are in kilometres on the national page.
Arizona against its neighbours
Nevada, Utah, New Mexico are cheaper than Arizona; California, Colorado are dearer. The monthly column is the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD in every row, which makes the border differences directly comparable — $7 a month separates Arizona from its cheapest neighbour.
| State | Cents / kWh | Rank | Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD / month | Fast plugs | EVs per plug |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada | 13.11 | 1st | $46 | 1,174 | 73 |
| Utah | 13.37 | 3rd | $47 | 1,009 | 68 |
| New Mexico | 15.06 | 14th | $53 | 611 | 27 |
| Arizona | 15.18 | 17th | $53 | 1,504 | 94 |
| Colorado | 17.13 | 29th | $60 | 1,687 | 97 |
| California | 34.74 | 50th | $122 | 18,572 | 99 |
How long the charge itself takes does not change with the state, only what it costs: the Ford Mustang Mach-E charging time, BMW i4 charging time and Porsche Taycan charging time are 32, 28 and 19 minutes from 10 to 80 per cent wherever you plug in, and each of those pages runs the same cost arithmetic as this one at the national average rate rather than Arizona’s.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to charge an electric car in Arizona?
About $4.72 per 100 miles at home for the median EPA-rated car, $53 a month at 1,125 miles, using the EIA residential average of 15.18 cents per kWh. The most efficient car here, the Lucid Air Pure RWD, costs $39 a month; the least efficient, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X, $111.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV than to buy petrol in Arizona?
Yes. At 15.18 cents per kWh the median car costs $53 a month against $170 of petrol for a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon — $116 a month in favour of Arizona, $1,398 a year.
How many fast chargers are there in Arizona?
215 sites and 1,504 plugs (AFDC, 2026-09-16), which 141,800 registered cars have to share — 94 per plug, against 55 in the median state. Only DC fast chargers are counted; Level 2 is not.
Can a non-Tesla use a Tesla charger in Arizona?
Where the site is open to other brands, yes, with the right adapter. 84 of the 215 fast-charging sites in Arizona carry the NACS plug (39%) and 155 carry CCS1 (72%), so a CCS car still has the larger of the two networks to fall back on. The plug on each car is listed on its model page.
Which electric car is cheapest to charge in Arizona?
The Lucid Air Pure RWD, at 23.1 kWh per 100 miles: $3.51 per 100 miles and $39 a month in Arizona. Picking it over the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X is worth $72 a month here, which is as much as the Arizona rate ever makes efficiency worth; the full efficiency order is the same in every state.
Sources for the Arizona figures
Electricity price 15.18 cents/kWh: EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A, June 2026. Sites, plugs and connectors for Arizona: AFDC station locator, public DC fast only, 2026-09-16. A site counts once per connector it carries, so those rows sum above the site total. Registered EVs in Arizona: AFDC registration counts, 2025, battery-electric only. Energy per 100 miles: EPA combined ratings, credited on each car’s page. Mileage, petrol price and the public DC rate are the standing assumptions on the methodology page.