Home › Electric car › Virginia
Cost to run an electric car in Virginia (August 2026 rates)
At 17.64¢ per kilowatt-hour — Virginia's average residential price in August 2026 — running an electric car costs $670 a year. That is 3% less than the national average of $690. Virginia's residential rate is up 11.3% from August 2025, which moves this appliance from $602 to $670 a year.
- Per day
- $1.84
- Per month
- $55.86
- Per year
- $670
Assumption: 3,800 kWh a year. 12,000 miles a year at roughly 3.5 miles per kWh, plus about 10% charging losses, on home Level 2 charging. Use the calculator to swap in the numbers from your own model.
How Virginia compares
Virginia pays 17.64¢/kWh, the 20th most expensive residential electricity of the 51 U.S. jurisdictions EIA reports. For this appliance that works out to $19.76 less a year than the typical U.S. household pays for the same use. Running the same electric car costs $483 a year in Nevada and $1,793 in Hawaii, so where you live changes this bill by $1,309 a year.
| State | Rate | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | 17.17¢ | $54.37 | $652 |
| Minnesota | 17.20¢ | $54.47 | $654 |
| Virginia | 17.64¢ | $55.86 | $670 |
| Delaware | 18.70¢ | $59.22 | $711 |
| Illinois | 19.32¢ | $61.18 | $734 |
States ranked by average residential price, cheapest first. See all 51 states for an electric car.
What else costs about the same in Virginia
Cutting the number down
- Charging on an off-peak or EV rate plan is usually the single largest lever, and it costs nothing but a schedule setting.
- Charging losses are real: the meter sees noticeably more than the battery receives, especially in cold weather.
- Cost per mile, not cost per charge, is the number that compares cleanly against a tank of gasoline.
Questions
- How much does an electric car cost per month in Virginia?
- About $55.86 a month, assuming 3,800 kWh a year at 17.64¢/kWh.
- How many kilowatt-hours does an electric car use?
- Roughly 3,800 kWh a year under these assumptions.
- Is that expensive compared with other states?
- Virginia has the 20th most expensive average residential rate in the country, so this appliance costs less here than the U.S. average of $690 a year.