Charging the median electric car at home in the District costs about $85 a month at 24.39 cents per kilowatt-hour — the 41st cheapest of 51 states, and 33 per cent above the national average. Petrol over the same 1,125 miles costs $170, so the saving is $84 a month, $1,011 a year; on the public side 211 registered cars share each fast-charging plug, against 55 in the typical state.
Public fast charging in Washington DC
Washington DC has 10 public DC fast-charging sites with 61 plugs in the federal AFDC station locator (2026-09-16), for 12,900 battery-electric cars registered in the state at the end of 2025.
Washington DC is one of the most crowded states in the country per plug: 12,900 registered EVs share 61 public fast-charging plugs, 211 cars each where the typical state manages 55 — 51st 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 10% have a single charger, and the state averages 6.1 plugs per site. A stop being occupied is far less often a dead end in Washington DC than the national picture suggests.
Tesla is the largest network in Washington DC with 59% of the plugs (36 of 61), the rest split among the other operators — enough competition that price and reliability are not one company decision.
Which plug fits in Washington DC
Neither plug has Washington DC to itself: 60% of sites carry CCS1 and 40% 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 Washington DC | Share of sites | Cars that use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCS1 (J1772 Combo) | 6 | 60% | Almost every non-Tesla EV sold in the US |
| NACS / J3400 (Tesla) | 4 | 40% | Teslas, and other cars with an adapter where the site allows it |
| CHAdeMO | 2 | 20% | Older Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi only |
2 sites keep a CHAdeMO plug (20%). Useful if you drive an older Leaf in Washington DC; 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 — 2.0 times what the same miles cost at home in Washington DC, and still under the $15.07 the petrol car spends on them. The multiple is unusually small here, because Washington DC’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 Washington DC
The EIA published residential average for Washington DC is 24.39 cents per kWh (June 2026), against a US average of 18.34. That puts the District at 41st 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 Washington DC that is $7.59 per 100 miles and $1,024 over a year, $21 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. Washington DC is below that line by 24.08 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 Washington DC
At the Washington DC average rate, one car in the database costs more to charge than the petrol car costs to fuel: 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 | $5.63 | $63 | $761 | $106 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 6 Long Range RWD | 26.0 | $6.34 | $71 | $856 | $98 |
| Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD | 26.4 | $6.44 | $72 | $869 | $97 |
| Lexus RZ 350e FWD | 26.6 | $6.49 | $73 | $876 | $97 |
| Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD | 27.5 | $6.71 | $75 | $905 | $94 |
| Nissan Leaf 75 kWh | 27.8 | $6.78 | $76 | $915 | $93 |
| Subaru Solterra AWD | 28.0 | $6.83 | $77 | $922 | $93 |
| Toyota bZ4X AWD 73.1 kWh | 28.0 | $6.83 | $77 | $922 | $93 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 | 28.5 | $6.95 | $78 | $938 | $91 |
| Kia EV3 Long Range FWD | 29.0 | $7.07 | $80 | $955 | $90 |
| Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range | 29.2 | $7.12 | $80 | $961 | $89 |
| Audi Q4 45 e-tron | 29.4 | $7.17 | $81 | $968 | $89 |
| Kia EV6 84 kWh RWD | 29.6 | $7.22 | $81 | $975 | $88 |
| Polestar 2 Single Motor | 29.6 | $7.22 | $81 | $975 | $88 |
| Volkswagen ID.4 Pro | 29.8 | $7.27 | $82 | $981 | $88 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 84 kWh RWD | 30.0 | $7.32 | $82 | $988 | $87 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Extended Range RWD | 30.7 | $7.49 | $84 | $1,011 | $85 |
| Mercedes-Benz CLA 250+ with EQ Technology | 31.0 | $7.56 | $85 | $1,021 | $85 |
| Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD | 31.1 | $7.59 | $85 | $1,024 | $84 |
| Ford Mustang Mach-E Standard Range RWD | 31.4 | $7.66 | $86 | $1,034 | $83 |
| Cadillac Optiq RWD | 32.1 | $7.83 | $88 | $1,057 | $82 |
| Chevrolet Blazer EV FWD | 32.3 | $7.88 | $89 | $1,064 | $81 |
| Honda Prologue FWD | 32.5 | $7.93 | $89 | $1,070 | $80 |
| Genesis GV60 AWD | 33.6 | $8.20 | $92 | $1,106 | $77 |
| Nissan Ariya e-4ORCE 87 kWh | 36.6 | $8.93 | $100 | $1,205 | $69 |
| Cadillac Lyriq RWD | 36.8 | $8.98 | $101 | $1,212 | $69 |
| Acura ZDX RWD | 36.9 | $9.00 | $101 | $1,215 | $68 |
| Hyundai Ioniq 9 RWD | 37.0 | $9.02 | $102 | $1,218 | $68 |
| Porsche Taycan (rear-wheel drive) | 37.1 | $9.05 | $102 | $1,222 | $68 |
| Rivian R1S Dual Motor, Max pack | 39.9 | $9.73 | $109 | $1,314 | $60 |
| Kia EV9 99.8 kWh AWD | 40.0 | $9.76 | $110 | $1,317 | $60 |
| Tesla Cybertruck Long Range | 40.9 | $9.98 | $112 | $1,347 | $57 |
| Rivian R1T Dual Motor, Large pack | 42.9 | $10.46 | $118 | $1,413 | $52 |
| Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range | 47.9 | $11.68 | $131 | $1,577 | $38 |
| Chevrolet Silverado EV Max Range | 49.5 | $12.07 | $136 | $1,630 | $34 |
| GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X | 65.1 | $15.88 | $179 | $2,144 | −$9 |
| A 27 mpg petrol car at $4.07 a gallon | — | $15.07 | $170 | $2,035 | — |
Every kWh above is measured at the wall. At 24.39 cents the charging losses alone cost the median driver about $8 a month in Washington DC — 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.
Washington DC against its neighbours
Every state on Washington DC’s borders is cheaper: Maryland at 21.84, Virginia at 17.22 cents. The monthly column is the Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD in every row, which makes the border differences directly comparable — $25 a month separates Washington DC from its cheapest neighbour.
| State | Cents / kWh | Rank | Chevrolet Equinox EV FWD / month | Fast plugs | EVs per plug |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 17.22 | 30th | $60 | 1,826 | 74 |
| Maryland | 21.84 | 38th | $76 | 1,527 | 79 |
| Washington DC | 24.39 | 41st | $85 | 61 | 211 |
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 Washington DC’s.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to charge an electric car in Washington DC?
About $7.59 per 100 miles at home for the median EPA-rated car, $85 a month at 1,125 miles, using the EIA residential average of 24.39 cents per kWh. The most efficient car here, the Lucid Air Pure RWD, costs $63 a month; the least efficient, the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X, $179.
Is it cheaper to charge an EV than to buy petrol in Washington DC?
Yes. At 24.39 cents per kWh the median car costs $85 a month against $170 of petrol for a 27 mpg car at $4.07 a gallon — $84 a month in favour of Washington DC, $1,011 a year.
How many fast chargers are there in Washington DC?
10 sites and 61 plugs (AFDC, 2026-09-16), which 12,900 registered cars have to share — 211 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 Washington DC?
Where the site is open to other brands, yes, with the right adapter. 4 of the 10 fast-charging sites in Washington DC carry the NACS plug (40%) and 6 carry CCS1 (60%), 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 Washington DC?
The Lucid Air Pure RWD, at 23.1 kWh per 100 miles: $5.63 per 100 miles and $63 a month in Washington DC. Picking it over the GMC Hummer EV Pickup 3X is worth $115 a month here, which is as much as the Washington DC rate ever makes efficiency worth; the full efficiency order is the same in every state.
Sources for the Washington DC figures
Electricity price 24.39 cents/kWh: EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.A, June 2026. Sites, plugs and connectors for Washington DC: 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 Washington DC: 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.