Charging the median electric car at home in Delaware costs about $67 a month at 19.29 cents per kilowatt-hour — the 34th cheapest of 51 states, and 5 per cent above the national average. Petrol over the same 1,125 miles costs $170, so the saving is $102 a month, $1,225 a year; on the public side 51 registered cars share each fast-charging plug, against 55 in the typical state.
What electricity costs in Delaware
The EIA published residential average for Delaware is 19.29 cents per kWh (June 2026), against a US average of 18.34. That puts Delaware at 34th 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 Delaware that is $6.00 per 100 miles and $810 over a year, $3 a month more than the same car would cost at the national average rate.
Against a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon, electricity stops being the cheaper fuel at about 48 cents per kWh. Delaware is below that line by 29.18 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 Delaware
Efficiency is worth more in Delaware than in most states: $91 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 | $4.46 | $50 | $602 | $119 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 26.0 | $5.02 | $56 | $677 | $113 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 26.4 | $5.09 | $57 | $687 | $112 |
| Lexus RZ 350e FWD | 26.6 | $5.13 | $58 | $693 | $112 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 27.5 | $5.30 | $60 | $716 | $110 |
| Nissan Leaf 75 kWh | 27.8 | $5.36 | $60 | $724 | $109 |
| Subaru Solterra AWD | 28.0 | $5.40 | $61 | $729 | $109 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 28.0 | $5.40 | $61 | $729 | $109 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 28.5 | $5.50 | $62 | $742 | $108 |
| Kia EV3 Long Range FWD | 29.0 | $5.59 | $63 | $755 | $107 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 29.2 | $5.63 | $63 | $760 | $106 |
| Audi Q4 45 e-tron | 29.4 | $5.67 | $64 | $766 | $106 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 29.6 | $5.71 | $64 | $771 | $105 |
| Polestar 2 Single Motor | 29.6 | $5.71 | $64 | $771 | $105 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 29.8 | $5.75 | $65 | $776 | $105 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 30.0 | $5.79 | $65 | $781 | $104 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 30.7 | $5.92 | $67 | $799 | $103 |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ with EQ Technology | 31.0 | $5.98 | $67 | $807 | $102 |
| Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD | 31.1 | $6.00 | $67 | $810 | $102 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 31.4 | $6.06 | $68 | $818 | $101 |
| Cadillac Optiq RWD | 32.1 | $6.19 | $70 | $836 | $100 |
| Chevrolet Blazer EV FWD | 32.3 | $6.23 | $70 | $841 | $99 |
| Honda Prologue FWD | 32.5 | $6.27 | $71 | $846 | $99 |
| Genesis GV60 AWD | 33.6 | $6.48 | $73 | $875 | $97 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 36.6 | $7.06 | $79 | $953 | $90 |
| Cadillac Lyriq RWD | 36.8 | $7.10 | $80 | $958 | $90 |
| Acura ZDX RWD | 36.9 | $7.12 | $80 | $961 | $90 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 9 RWD | 37.0 | $7.14 | $80 | $964 | $89 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 37.1 | $7.16 | $81 | $966 | $89 |
| Rivian R1S Dual Motor, Max pack | 39.9 | $7.70 | $87 | $1,039 | $83 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 40.0 | $7.72 | $87 | $1,042 | $83 |
| Tesla Cybertruck Long Range | 40.9 | $7.89 | $89 | $1,065 | $81 |
| Rivian R1T Dual Motor, Large pack | 42.9 | $8.28 | $93 | $1,117 | $76 |
| Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range | 47.9 | $9.24 | $104 | $1,247 | $66 |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range | 49.5 | $9.55 | $107 | $1,289 | $62 |
| GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X | 65.1 | $12.56 | $141 | $1,695 | $28 |
| A 27 mpg petrol car at $4.07 a gallon | — | $15.07 | $170 | $2,035 | — |
Every kWh above is measured at the wall. At 19.29 cents the charging losses alone cost the median driver about $6 a month in Delaware — a real line on the bill, and the reason this site does not quote battery-size arithmetic. Four cars have no US rating; they are in kilometres on the national page.
Public fast charging in Delaware
Delaware has 56 public DC fast-charging sites with 311 plugs in the federal AFDC station locator (2026-09-16), for 16,000 battery-electric cars registered in the state at the end of 2025.
There are 51 registered EVs for every public fast-charging plug in Delaware, a little below the 55 of the typical state — 24th of 51 states, fewest cars per plug first. Plug supply is roughly keeping pace with the cars here.
Sites here are mostly multi-plug: only 16% have a single charger, and the state averages 5.6 plugs per site. A stop being occupied is far less often a dead end in Delaware than the national picture suggests.
One network owns the state. Tesla accounts for 60% of every public fast-charging plug in Delaware (188 of 311), so whether its plug fits your car, and what it charges per kWh, largely decides what fast charging costs here.
Which plug fits in Delaware
Neither plug has Delaware to itself: 63% 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 Delaware | Share of sites | Cars that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCS1 (J1772 Combo) | 35 | 63% | Almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US |
| NACS / J3400 (Tesla) | 22 | 39% | Teslas, and other cars with an adapter where the site allows it |
| CHAdeMO | 15 | 27% | Older Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi only |
15 sites keep a CHAdeMO plug (27%). Useful if you drive an older Leaf in Delaware; 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 — 2.5 times what the same miles cost at home in Delaware, and still under the $15.07 the petrol car spends on them. The multiple is unusually small here, because Delaware’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.
Delaware against its neighbours
Every state on Delaware’s borders charges more per kilowatt-hour — Delaware is the cheapest place to plug in on this map. Crossing a border to charge is not a saving anyone in Delaware can make; the monthly column is the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD throughout, so the rows line up with every other state page here.
| State | Cents / kWh | Rank | Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD / month | Fast plugs | EVs per plug |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | 19.29 | 34th | $67 | 311 | 51 |
| Pennsylvania | 21.73 | 37th | $76 | 2,020 | 56 |
| Maryland | 21.84 | 38th | $76 | 1,527 | 79 |
| New Jersey | 24.95 | 43rd | $87 | 2,114 | 99 |
How long the charge itself takes does not change with the state, only what it costs: the Toyota bZ4X charging time, BYD Seal charging time and Tesla Model 3 charging time are 28, 36 and 28 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 Delaware’s.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to charge an electric car in Delaware?
About $6.00 per 100 miles at home for the median EPA-rated car, $67 a month at 1,125 miles, using the EIA residential average of 19.29 cents per kWh. The most efficient car here, the Lucid Air Pure RWD, costs $50 a month; the least efficient, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X, $141.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV than to buy petrol in Delaware?
Yes. At 19.29 cents per kWh the median car costs $67 a month against $170 of petrol for a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon — $102 a month in favour of Delaware, $1,225 a year.
How many fast chargers are there in Delaware?
56 public DC fast-charging sites and 311 plugs in the AFDC locator as of 2026-09-16, for 16,000 registered EVs — 51 cars per plug. Level 2 chargers are not counted here; only DC fast.
Can a non-Tesla use a Tesla charger in Delaware?
Where the site is open to other brands, yes, with the right adapter. 22 of the 56 fast-charging sites in Delaware carry the NACS plug (39%) and 35 carry CCS1 (63%), 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 Delaware?
The Lucid Air Pure RWD, at 23.1 kWh per 100 miles: $4.46 per 100 miles and $50 a month in Delaware. Picking it over the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X is worth $91 a month here, which is as much as the Delaware rate ever makes efficiency worth; the full efficiency order is the same in every state.
Sources for the Delaware figures
Electricity price 19.29 cents/kWh: EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A, June 2026. Sites, plugs and connectors for Delaware: 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 Delaware: 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.