Charging the median electric car at home in California costs about $122 a month at 34.74 cents per kilowatt-hour, 89 per cent above the national average — the 50th cheapest of 51 states. It still beats the $170 a petrol car costs over the same 1,125 miles, by $48 a month, but California is close enough to the break-even that the tariff you are on matters more than the car you buy.
Public fast charging in California
California has 2,690 public DC fast-charging sites with 18,572 plugs in the federal AFDC station locator (2026-09-16), for 1,843,100 battery-electric cars registered in the state at the end of 2025.
California is one of the most crowded states in the country per plug: 1,843,100 registered EVs share 18,572 public fast-charging plugs, 99 cars each where the typical state manages 55 — 47th of 51. If you cannot charge where you sleep, that number is the one to weigh before buying.
30% of the sites in California have a single plug and the state averages 6.9 plugs per site — enough that a busy stop usually has another bay, not enough to count on it off the interstate.
One network owns the state. Tesla accounts for 60% of every public fast-charging plug in California (11,159 of 18,572), so whether its plug fits your car, and what it charges per kWh, largely decides what fast charging costs here.
Which plug fits in California
Neither plug has California to itself: 75% 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 California | Share of sites | Cars that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCS1 (J1772 Combo) | 2,016 | 75% | Almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US |
| NACS / J3400 (Tesla) | 1,045 | 39% | Teslas, and other cars with an adapter where the site allows it |
| CHAdeMO | 1,124 | 42% | Older Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi only |
CHAdeMO is unusually well represented here: 42% of California’s sites still carry it (1,124 of 2,690). That is a legacy of early buildout rather than a live standard — no car sold new in the US takes it, and those bays are worth nothing to a car bought this decade.
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 — 1.4 times what the same miles cost at home in California, and still under the $15.07 the petrol car spends on them. The multiple is unusually small here, because California’s residential rate is already close to network pricing; public charging costs less of a premium than it does in most of the country. How long each car takes on a fast charger is on its charging page.
What electricity costs in California
California is one of the ten most expensive places in the country to buy a kilowatt-hour, which changes the arithmetic before any car is chosen. The EIA published residential average for California is 34.74 cents per kWh (June 2026), against a US average of 18.34. That puts California at 50th of 51 states and DC, cheapest first — the dearer half of the country. The Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD sits in the middle of the 36 cars rated here at 31.1 kWh per 100 miles; in California that is $10.80 per 100 miles and $1,459 over a year, $57 a month more than the same car would cost at the national average rate.
Petrol wins once electricity passes roughly 48 cents per kWh — the figure worth knowing in a dear state. California is below that line by 13.73 cents, so the saving holds at the state-average rate before any overnight tariff is applied. A summer peak on top of 34.74 cents can push a California household past the break-even on its own, which is why the average is a floor to argue from rather than a figure to rely on. Put your real tariff into the running-cost calculator.
Every EPA-rated car, charged at home in California
At the California average rate, 3 of the 36 cars costs more to charge than the petrol car costs to fuel: Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range, Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range, GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X. Everything above $170 a month in the table is in that position; everything below it saves money at the meter.
| Car | EPA kWh / 100 mi | Per 100 miles | Per month | Per year | Saved vs petrol / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Air Pure RWD | 23.1 | $8.02 | $90 | $1,083 | $79 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 26.0 | $9.03 | $102 | $1,219 | $68 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 26.4 | $9.17 | $103 | $1,238 | $66 |
| Lexus RZ 350e FWD | 26.6 | $9.24 | $104 | $1,248 | $66 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 27.5 | $9.55 | $107 | $1,290 | $62 |
| Nissan Leaf 75 kWh | 27.8 | $9.66 | $109 | $1,304 | $61 |
| Subaru Solterra AWD | 28.0 | $9.73 | $109 | $1,313 | $60 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 28.0 | $9.73 | $109 | $1,313 | $60 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 28.5 | $9.90 | $111 | $1,337 | $58 |
| Kia EV3 Long Range FWD | 29.0 | $10.07 | $113 | $1,360 | $56 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 29.2 | $10.14 | $114 | $1,369 | $55 |
| Audi Q4 45 e-tron | 29.4 | $10.21 | $115 | $1,379 | $55 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 29.6 | $10.28 | $116 | $1,388 | $54 |
| Polestar 2 Single Motor | 29.6 | $10.28 | $116 | $1,388 | $54 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 29.8 | $10.35 | $116 | $1,398 | $53 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 30.0 | $10.42 | $117 | $1,407 | $52 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 30.7 | $10.67 | $120 | $1,440 | $50 |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ with EQ Technology | 31.0 | $10.77 | $121 | $1,454 | $48 |
| Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD | 31.1 | $10.80 | $122 | $1,459 | $48 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 31.4 | $10.91 | $123 | $1,473 | $47 |
| Cadillac Optiq RWD | 32.1 | $11.15 | $125 | $1,505 | $44 |
| Chevrolet Blazer EV FWD | 32.3 | $11.22 | $126 | $1,515 | $43 |
| Honda Prologue FWD | 32.5 | $11.29 | $127 | $1,524 | $43 |
| Genesis GV60 AWD | 33.6 | $11.67 | $131 | $1,576 | $38 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 36.6 | $12.71 | $143 | $1,717 | $27 |
| Cadillac Lyriq RWD | 36.8 | $12.78 | $144 | $1,726 | $26 |
| Acura ZDX RWD | 36.9 | $12.82 | $144 | $1,731 | $25 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 9 RWD | 37.0 | $12.85 | $145 | $1,735 | $25 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 37.1 | $12.89 | $145 | $1,740 | $25 |
| Rivian R1S Dual Motor, Max pack | 39.9 | $13.86 | $156 | $1,871 | $14 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 40.0 | $13.90 | $156 | $1,876 | $13 |
| Tesla Cybertruck Long Range | 40.9 | $14.21 | $160 | $1,918 | $10 |
| Rivian R1T Dual Motor, Large pack | 42.9 | $14.90 | $168 | $2,012 | $2 |
| Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range | 47.9 | $16.64 | $187 | $2,246 | −$18 |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range | 49.5 | $17.20 | $193 | $2,322 | −$24 |
| GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X | 65.1 | $22.62 | $254 | $3,053 | −$85 |
| A 27 mpg petrol car at $4.07 a gallon | — | $15.07 | $170 | $2,035 | — |
At California prices the roughly ten per cent lost in the charger and cable is worth about $11 a month on its own, which is why these are EPA ratings measured at the socket rather than pack-size arithmetic. The four cars with no US rating are in kilometres on the national page.
California against its neighbours
Every state on California’s borders is cheaper: Oregon at 16.32, Nevada at 13.11, Arizona at 15.18 cents. The monthly column is the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD in every row, which makes the border differences directly comparable — $76 a month separates California 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 |
| Arizona | 15.18 | 17th | $53 | 1,504 | 94 |
| Oregon | 16.32 | 26th | $57 | 1,319 | 74 |
| 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 Tesla Model Y charging time, Hyundai Ioniq 5 charging time and Hyundai Ioniq 6 charging time are 27, 18 and 17 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 California’s.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to charge an electric car in California?
More than in most of the country: $10.80 per 100 miles, $122 a month for the median car at 34.74 cents per kWh. The Lucid Air Pure RWD brings that down to $90; the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X pushes it to $254, and in California that choice is worth $164 a month.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV than to buy petrol in California?
Yes. At 34.74 cents per kWh the median car costs $122 a month against $170 of petrol for a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon — $48 a month in favour of California, $576 a year.
How many fast chargers are there in California?
2,690 sites and 18,572 plugs (AFDC, 2026-09-16), which 1,843,100 registered cars have to share — 99 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 California?
Where the site is open to other brands, yes, with the right adapter. 1,045 of the 2,690 fast-charging sites in California carry the NACS plug (39%) and 2,016 carry CCS1 (75%), 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 California?
The Lucid Air Pure RWD, at 23.1 kWh per 100 miles: $8.02 per 100 miles and $90 a month in California. Picking it over the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X is worth $164 a month here, which is as much as the California rate ever makes efficiency worth; the full efficiency order is the same in every state.
Sources for the California figures
Electricity price 34.74 cents/kWh: EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A, June 2026. Sites, plugs and connectors for California: 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 California: 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.