Charging the median electric car at home in Virginia costs about $60 a month at 17.22 cents per kilowatt-hour — the 30th cheapest of 51 states, and 6 per cent below the national average. Petrol over the same 1,125 miles costs $170, so the saving is $109 a month, $1,312 a year; on the public side 74 registered cars share each fast-charging plug, against 55 in the typical state.
Public fast charging in Virginia
Virginia has 369 public DC fast-charging sites with 1,826 plugs in the federal AFDC station locator (2026-09-16), for 134,900 battery-electric cars registered in the state at the end of 2025.
Virginia is one of the most crowded states in the country per plug: 134,900 registered EVs share 1,826 public fast-charging plugs, 74 cars each where the typical state manages 55 — 41st 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 23% have a single charger, and the state averages 4.9 plugs per site. A stop being occupied is far less often a dead end in Virginia than the national picture suggests.
Tesla is the largest network in Virginia with 56% of the plugs (1,031 of 1,826), the rest split among the other operators — enough competition that price and reliability are not one company decision.
Which plug fits in Virginia
Neither plug has Virginia to itself: 69% of sites carry CCS1 and 33% 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 Virginia | Share of sites | Cars that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCS1 (J1772 Combo) | 253 | 69% | Almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US |
| NACS / J3400 (Tesla) | 123 | 33% | Teslas, and other cars with an adapter where the site allows it |
| CHAdeMO | 109 | 30% | Older Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi only |
109 sites keep a CHAdeMO plug (30%). Useful if you drive an older Leaf in Virginia; 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 — 2.8 times what the same miles cost at home in Virginia, and still under the $15.07 the petrol car spends on them. Anyone charging mostly in public in Virginia should read the home column as optimistic by a factor of 2.8 — 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 Virginia
The EIA published residential average for Virginia is 17.22 cents per kWh (June 2026), against a US average of 18.34. That puts Virginia at 30th 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 Virginia that is $5.36 per 100 miles and $723 over a year, $-4 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. Virginia is below that line by 31.25 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 Virginia
Efficiency is worth more in Virginia than in most states: $81 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 | $3.98 | $45 | $537 | $125 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 26.0 | $4.48 | $50 | $604 | $119 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 26.4 | $4.55 | $51 | $614 | $118 |
| Lexus RZ 350e FWD | 26.6 | $4.58 | $52 | $618 | $118 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 27.5 | $4.74 | $53 | $639 | $116 |
| Nissan Leaf 75 kWh | 27.8 | $4.79 | $54 | $646 | $116 |
| Subaru Solterra AWD | 28.0 | $4.82 | $54 | $651 | $115 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 28.0 | $4.82 | $54 | $651 | $115 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 28.5 | $4.91 | $55 | $663 | $114 |
| Kia EV3 Long Range FWD | 29.0 | $4.99 | $56 | $674 | $113 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 29.2 | $5.03 | $57 | $679 | $113 |
| Audi Q4 45 e-tron | 29.4 | $5.06 | $57 | $683 | $113 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 29.6 | $5.10 | $57 | $688 | $112 |
| Polestar 2 Single Motor | 29.6 | $5.10 | $57 | $688 | $112 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 29.8 | $5.13 | $58 | $693 | $112 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 30.0 | $5.17 | $58 | $697 | $111 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 30.7 | $5.29 | $59 | $714 | $110 |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ with EQ Technology | 31.0 | $5.34 | $60 | $721 | $110 |
| Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD | 31.1 | $5.36 | $60 | $723 | $109 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 31.4 | $5.41 | $61 | $730 | $109 |
| Cadillac Optiq RWD | 32.1 | $5.53 | $62 | $746 | $107 |
| Chevrolet Blazer EV FWD | 32.3 | $5.56 | $63 | $751 | $107 |
| Honda Prologue FWD | 32.5 | $5.60 | $63 | $756 | $107 |
| Genesis GV60 AWD | 33.6 | $5.79 | $65 | $781 | $104 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 36.6 | $6.30 | $71 | $851 | $99 |
| Cadillac Lyriq RWD | 36.8 | $6.34 | $71 | $855 | $98 |
| Acura ZDX RWD | 36.9 | $6.35 | $71 | $858 | $98 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 9 RWD | 37.0 | $6.37 | $72 | $860 | $98 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 37.1 | $6.39 | $72 | $862 | $98 |
| Rivian R1S Dual Motor, Max pack | 39.9 | $6.87 | $77 | $928 | $92 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 40.0 | $6.89 | $77 | $930 | $92 |
| Tesla Cybertruck Long Range | 40.9 | $7.04 | $79 | $951 | $90 |
| Rivian R1T Dual Motor, Large pack | 42.9 | $7.39 | $83 | $997 | $86 |
| Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range | 47.9 | $8.25 | $93 | $1,114 | $77 |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range | 49.5 | $8.52 | $96 | $1,151 | $74 |
| GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X | 65.1 | $11.21 | $126 | $1,513 | $43 |
| A 27 mpg petrol car at $4.07 a gallon | — | $15.07 | $170 | $2,035 | — |
Every kWh above is measured at the wall. At 17.22 cents the charging losses alone cost the median driver about $5 a month in Virginia — 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.
Virginia against its neighbours
North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia are cheaper than Virginia; Maryland, District of Columbia are dearer. The monthly column is the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD in every row, which makes the border differences directly comparable — $11 a month separates Virginia from its cheapest neighbour.
| State | Cents / kWh | Rank | Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD / month | Fast plugs | EVs per plug |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | 14.07 | 5th | $49 | 1,024 | 54 |
| Kentucky | 14.26 | 8th | $50 | 460 | 45 |
| North Carolina | 14.74 | 11th | $52 | 1,888 | 64 |
| West Virginia | 15.45 | 20th | $54 | 217 | 23 |
| Virginia | 17.22 | 30th | $60 | 1,826 | 74 |
| Maryland | 21.84 | 38th | $76 | 1,527 | 79 |
| District of Columbia | 24.39 | 41st | $85 | 61 | 211 |
How long the charge itself takes does not change with the state, only what it costs: the Tesla Model 3 charging time, Tesla Model Y charging time and Hyundai Ioniq 5 charging time are 28, 27 and 18 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 Virginia’s.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to charge an electric car in Virginia?
About $5.36 per 100 miles at home for the median EPA-rated car, $60 a month at 1,125 miles, using the EIA residential average of 17.22 cents per kWh. The most efficient car here, the Lucid Air Pure RWD, costs $45 a month; the least efficient, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X, $126.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV than to buy petrol in Virginia?
Yes. At 17.22 cents per kWh the median car costs $60 a month against $170 of petrol for a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon — $109 a month in favour of Virginia, $1,312 a year.
How many fast chargers are there in Virginia?
369 sites and 1,826 plugs (AFDC, 2026-09-16), which 134,900 registered cars have to share — 74 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 Virginia?
Where the site is open to other brands, yes, with the right adapter. 123 of the 369 fast-charging sites in Virginia carry the NACS plug (33%) and 253 carry CCS1 (69%), 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 Virginia?
The Lucid Air Pure RWD, at 23.1 kWh per 100 miles: $3.98 per 100 miles and $45 a month in Virginia. Picking it over the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X is worth $81 a month here, which is as much as the Virginia rate ever makes efficiency worth; the full efficiency order is the same in every state.
Sources for the Virginia figures
Electricity price 17.22 cents/kWh: EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A, June 2026. Sites, plugs and connectors for Virginia: 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 Virginia: 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.