Charging the median electric car at home in Illinois costs about $70 a month at 19.89 cents per kilowatt-hour — the 36th cheapest of 51 states, and 8 per cent above the national average. Petrol over the same 1,125 miles costs $170, so the saving is $100 a month, $1,200 a year; on the public side 57 registered cars share each fast-charging plug, against 55 in the typical state.
What electricity costs in Illinois
The EIA published residential average for Illinois is 19.89 cents per kWh (June 2026), against a US average of 18.34. That puts Illinois at 36th 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 Illinois that is $6.19 per 100 miles and $835 over a year, $5 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. Illinois is below that line by 28.58 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 Illinois
Efficiency is worth more in Illinois than in most states: $94 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 | $4.59 | $52 | $620 | $118 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 26.0 | $5.17 | $58 | $698 | $111 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 26.4 | $5.25 | $59 | $709 | $111 |
| Lexus RZ 350e FWD | 26.6 | $5.29 | $60 | $714 | $110 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 27.5 | $5.47 | $62 | $738 | $108 |
| Nissan Leaf 75 kWh | 27.8 | $5.53 | $62 | $746 | $107 |
| Subaru Solterra AWD | 28.0 | $5.57 | $63 | $752 | $107 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 28.0 | $5.57 | $63 | $752 | $107 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 28.5 | $5.67 | $64 | $765 | $106 |
| Kia EV3 Long Range FWD | 29.0 | $5.77 | $65 | $779 | $105 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 29.2 | $5.81 | $65 | $784 | $104 |
| Audi Q4 45 e-tron | 29.4 | $5.85 | $66 | $789 | $104 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 29.6 | $5.89 | $66 | $795 | $103 |
| Polestar 2 Single Motor | 29.6 | $5.89 | $66 | $795 | $103 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 29.8 | $5.93 | $67 | $800 | $103 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 30.0 | $5.97 | $67 | $806 | $102 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 30.7 | $6.11 | $69 | $824 | $101 |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ with EQ Technology | 31.0 | $6.17 | $69 | $832 | $100 |
| Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD | 31.1 | $6.19 | $70 | $835 | $100 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 31.4 | $6.25 | $70 | $843 | $99 |
| Cadillac Optiq RWD | 32.1 | $6.38 | $72 | $862 | $98 |
| Chevrolet Blazer EV FWD | 32.3 | $6.42 | $72 | $867 | $97 |
| Honda Prologue FWD | 32.5 | $6.46 | $73 | $873 | $97 |
| Genesis GV60 AWD | 33.6 | $6.68 | $75 | $902 | $94 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 36.6 | $7.28 | $82 | $983 | $88 |
| Cadillac Lyriq RWD | 36.8 | $7.32 | $82 | $988 | $87 |
| Acura ZDX RWD | 36.9 | $7.34 | $83 | $991 | $87 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 9 RWD | 37.0 | $7.36 | $83 | $994 | $87 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 37.1 | $7.38 | $83 | $996 | $87 |
| Rivian R1S Dual Motor, Max pack | 39.9 | $7.94 | $89 | $1,071 | $80 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 40.0 | $7.96 | $90 | $1,074 | $80 |
| Tesla Cybertruck Long Range | 40.9 | $8.14 | $92 | $1,098 | $78 |
| Rivian R1T Dual Motor, Large pack | 42.9 | $8.53 | $96 | $1,152 | $74 |
| Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range | 47.9 | $9.53 | $107 | $1,286 | $62 |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range | 49.5 | $9.85 | $111 | $1,329 | $59 |
| GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X | 65.1 | $12.95 | $146 | $1,748 | $24 |
| A 27 mpg petrol car at $4.07 a gallon | — | $15.07 | $170 | $2,035 | — |
Every kWh above is measured at the wall. At 19.89 cents the charging losses alone cost the median driver about $6 a month in Illinois — 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 Illinois
Illinois has 605 public DC fast-charging sites with 2,891 plugs in the federal AFDC station locator (2026-09-16), for 164,900 battery-electric cars registered in the state at the end of 2025.
Plug supply is the weaker half of the picture in Illinois: 57 registered EVs for every public fast-charging plug where the typical state manages 55 — 28th of 51 states, fewest cars per plug first. Home charging carries more of the load here than the raw site count suggests.
Sites here are mostly multi-plug: only 21% have a single charger, and the state averages 4.8 plugs per site. A stop being occupied is far less often a dead end in Illinois than the national picture suggests.
No operator dominates Illinois: the largest, Tesla, holds 32% of the plugs (926 of 2,891). That is a more competitive market than most states, and it also means more apps and accounts to keep.
Which plug fits in Illinois
The plug question in Illinois has a clear answer: 88% of the sites carry CCS1, the connector on almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US, against 21% carrying the Tesla NACS plug. A CCS car has the run of the state; a Tesla is at home on its own network and needs an adapter elsewhere.
| Connector | Sites in Illinois | Share of sites | Cars that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCS1 (J1772 Combo) | 530 | 88% | Almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US |
| NACS / J3400 (Tesla) | 126 | 21% | Teslas, and other cars with an adapter where the site allows it |
| CHAdeMO | 113 | 19% | Older Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi only |
113 sites keep a CHAdeMO plug (19%). Useful if you drive an older Leaf in Illinois; 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 — 2.4 times what the same miles cost at home in Illinois, and still under the $15.07 the petrol car spends on them. The multiple is unusually small here, because Illinois’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.
Illinois against its neighbours
Every state on Illinois’s borders is cheaper: Wisconsin at 19.56, Iowa at 15.93, Missouri at 16.22, Kentucky at 14.26, Indiana at 17.51 cents. The monthly column is the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD in every row, which makes the border differences directly comparable — $20 a month separates Illinois from its cheapest neighbour.
| State | Cents / kWh | Rank | Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD / month | Fast plugs | EVs per plug |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | 14.26 | 8th | $50 | 460 | 45 |
| Iowa | 15.93 | 23rd | $56 | 577 | 26 |
| Missouri | 16.22 | 25th | $57 | 893 | 49 |
| Indiana | 17.51 | 31st | $61 | 1,012 | 47 |
| Wisconsin | 19.56 | 35th | $68 | 910 | 46 |
| Illinois | 19.89 | 36th | $70 | 2,891 | 57 |
How long the charge itself takes does not change with the state, only what it costs: the Hyundai Ioniq 6 charging time, Kia EV6 charging time and Kia EV9 charging time are 17, 17 and 22 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 Illinois’s.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to charge an electric car in Illinois?
About $6.19 per 100 miles at home for the median EPA-rated car, $70 a month at 1,125 miles, using the EIA residential average of 19.89 cents per kWh. The most efficient car here, the Lucid Air Pure RWD, costs $52 a month; the least efficient, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X, $146.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV than to buy petrol in Illinois?
Yes. At 19.89 cents per kWh the median car costs $70 a month against $170 of petrol for a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon — $100 a month in favour of Illinois, $1,200 a year.
How many fast chargers are there in Illinois?
605 sites and 2,891 plugs (AFDC, 2026-09-16), which 164,900 registered cars have to share — 57 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 Illinois?
Where the site is open to other brands, yes, with the right adapter. 126 of the 605 fast-charging sites in Illinois carry the NACS plug (21%) and 530 carry CCS1 (88%), 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 Illinois?
The Lucid Air Pure RWD, at 23.1 kWh per 100 miles: $4.59 per 100 miles and $52 a month in Illinois. Picking it over the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X is worth $94 a month here, which is as much as the Illinois rate ever makes efficiency worth; the full efficiency order is the same in every state.
Sources for the Illinois figures
Electricity price 19.89 cents/kWh: EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A, June 2026. Sites, plugs and connectors for Illinois: 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 Illinois: 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.