EV vs. Gas in 2026: The Real Per-Mile Cost Math

By SolarCostData Data Desk · Reviewed September 2026 · Corrections log

The EV-versus-gas argument is usually conducted with adjectives. It is actually two divisions. An electric car’s fuel cost is its efficiency times your electricity rate; a gas car’s is the pump price divided by its mpg. Both inputs are published numbers, so the comparison can be exact — and in 2026, with the purchase credits gone, running cost is the part of the case that still has to stand on its own.

The two formulas

EV: cost per 100 miles = EPA efficiency (kWh/100 mi) × your rate. The EPA figure on the window sticker and fueleconomy.gov is measured at the wall outlet — cable and on-board charger losses are already in it, so adding a further 10% “charging loss” allowance double-counts. We use the US average residential rate of 17¢/kWh (EIA, Electric Power Monthly, table 5.6.A ); real rates run from about 12¢ to over 50¢ across the states.

Gas: cost per mile = price per gallon ÷ mpg. For the pump price we use the EIA’s weekly survey figure rather than a guess: $4.07 a gallon for US regular, week of August 31, 2026 (EIA, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update , released September 1, 2026 — up about 89¢ from a year earlier). For the car, a 30-mpg gas car, a fair stand-in for a mainstream sedan or compact crossover. Direction worth knowing: the EIA’s September 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook projects US regular easing to roughly $3.35 a gallon on average in 2027, so the gas side of this comparison is forecast to get cheaper, not dearer.

That gas car costs $4.071 ÷ 30 = 13.57¢ per mile. Now the other side.

The same EV formula also answers the practical monthly question — what it costs to charge an electric car at home. A Model Y driven 1,000 miles a month draws about 269 kWh at the wall (26.9 × 10), which is roughly $46 a month at the 17¢ average rate — the line item that replaces a ~$136 monthly gasoline bill for the same miles in the 30-mpg car. That 269 kWh also lands on your electric bill like any other appliance, so if your utility prices usage in tiers or by time of day, the marginal rate you charge at is the one that belongs in the formula, not the average.

Three real EVs against it

From the 67 current models in our charging-cost dataset (EPA data, all wall-side), we take the cheapest per mile, the median, and the most expensive:

That per-year column is the “EV vs. gas cost per year” answer at 12,000 miles: the cost to charge an electric car at home runs $549–$1,383 across the whole spread of models, against $1,628 of gasoline. (If the kWh figure itself is fuzzy , the glossary entry sorts kW from kWh in one paragraph.)

Two things stand out. First, at home-charging rates every EV in the set beats the gas car — even the least efficient electric vehicle on sale undercuts a reasonably efficient gas car when gasoline is above $4. Second, the spread among EVs is enormous: the Model Y’s owner keeps about $1,080 a year of the gas budget; the Hummer’s keeps $245. “It’s electric” tells you little — the kWh/100 mi figure tells you almost everything.

The crossover rate: where an EV stops being cheaper

Because both sides are linear, you can solve for the electricity rate at which the EV and the gas car cost the same per mile. Set them equal:

efficiency ÷ 100 × rate = gas ¢/mi, so crossover rate (¢/kWh) = gas ¢/mi × 100 ÷ kWh/100 mi

With the gas car at 13.57¢ a mile:

Read those against real prices. Almost no US residential rate reaches 50¢ — that is Hawaii territory — so an efficient EV charged at home is cheaper than the gas car essentially everywhere. A 40¢ crossover still clears every state average. But 20¢ is a rate plenty of households in California, New England and Alaska pay every day: at today’s gas price, a Hummer EV charged at 20¢/kWh or more costs as much per mile as a 30-mpg gas car. Efficiency is not a rounding error; it decides whether the EV case exists at all. (Cheaper gas moves every crossover down proportionally — at $3.10 a gallon the Model Y’s threshold falls to about 38¢ and the Hummer’s to about 15¢.)

EV vs. gas cost per mile by state

The 17¢ national average hides the same spread that decides every energy comparison on this site. Run the two bookend EVs against the residential rates from our state cost pages (July 2026 EIA data) and the verdict changes shape as you cross the map — gas held at the national $4.07 here, though pump prices vary by state too:

Cheap-power states are EV country: in North Dakota even the Hummer undercuts gas by a wide margin. In the high-rate Northeast the efficient EV still wins comfortably while the inefficient one now loses to gasoline. And Hawaii is the proof of the crossover math above — at 52.7¢, past the Model Y’s ~50¢ threshold, even the most efficient EV in the set costs slightly more per mile than the 30-mpg gas car at standard rates. (Overnight time-of-use rates , where offered, can pull the effective charging rate well below the state average — that’s the lever high-rate-state EV owners actually use.)

The fast-charging asterisk

All of the above assumes home charging, and that assumption is doing real work. Public DC fast charging commonly runs around 48¢/kWh — roughly three times a typical home rate — and the honest finding from checking the networks’ own pricing pages is that no network publishes one flat national rate: pricing is set per location, shown in the app, often with paid-membership discounts. At 48¢, the Model Y costs about $12.91 per 100 miles — barely under the gas car’s $13.57 — and the median Mach-E costs more than gas. A driver who cannot charge at home should price the comparison at their real public rate, not the residential average; the EV + TOU whole-home calculator is built for exactly that, including the fast-charging share.

Cost of ownership: what the fuel math leaves out

Per-mile fuel cost is the biggest recurring line, but “is an electric car worth it” is a cost-of-ownership question, and two 2026-specific items belong in the total even though they are not fuel. There is no federal purchase credit: §30D (new) and §25E (used) ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025 — the credit-by-credit status — including the charger credit that also ended June 30, 2026 — is in what changed and what’s still available , and the broader law in the 2026 energy tax credit guide . And most states now charge an annual EV registration surcharge, roughly $50 to $250+ depending on the state, in lieu of gas taxes; rather than restate fifty numbers here, use the state-by-state list (from the Kansas Legislative Research Department’s compilation of NCSL data) on the EV-TOU calculator page . On a car saving $900–$1,100 a year in fuel, a $150 fee trims the advantage without erasing it; on a marginal case like a heavy truck in a high-rate state, it can tip the sum.

Winter also moves the number seasonally — consumption commonly rises 20–40% in freezing conditions — but it moves it for a few months, not for the ownership. Budget on the annual average.

The verdict, in one sentence each

An efficient EV charged at home beats gasoline at almost any US electricity rate, saving on the order of $1,000 a year at today’s $4.07 gas. A median EV still wins comfortably anywhere below about 40¢/kWh. A heavy, inefficient EV wins only where power is cheap — and a driver who depends on public fast charging should do the arithmetic before assuming any EV savings at all. Run your own rate, car and mileage through the EV vs. gas calculator , or start from your car’s page in the charging-cost index .

Sources

• Gasoline price — EIA, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update : US regular average $4.071/gal, week of August 31, 2026 (released September 1, 2026).
• Electricity rate — EIA, Electric Power Monthly, table 5.6.A , US average residential rate ≈ 17¢/kWh.
• Vehicle efficiency — EPA combined kWh/100 mi and mpg via fueleconomy.gov ; wall-side, charging losses included.
• Credit status — IRS, §30D new clean vehicle credit and §25E used clean vehicle credit ; both ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025.

Fuel prices and rates move weekly; the formulas do not. Recompute with current figures before deciding, and treat everything here as an estimate, not a quote. Nothing here is tax advice.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) electricity rates · DSIRE incentive records · public IRS/OBBBA guidance. Figures are modeled estimates, not quotes or tax advice. See our methodology.

Where to go next

• EV vs. gas calculator — The same per-mile math with your own rate, mpg and mileage instead of the national averages used here.
• Every EV's charging cost — All 67 tracked models ranked by kWh/100 mi, each with its own page and calculator.
• EV + TOU net-effect calculator — Whether a time-of-use rate actually saves money once the whole house is on it — plus the state EV fee list.
• EV tax credit status — Why the purchase credits are gone, and the charger credit that ended June 30, 2026.
• The credit rules in full — Every federal energy credit that ended or survived into 2026, in one place.