Dick Nixon compared the cost per mile between an EV and an ICE. This obviously will change depending on how much you pay for electricity vs the cost of your gas. The national average is $0.1701kw/h and $3.165gal, which means gas is 55.2% cheaper per kwh than electricity. So if you have an AWD Equinoxev or id4 that get roughly 2.97mi/kwh (100mpge), it’s the cost equivalent of getting 55.2mpg in a gas car. I will acknowledge that this analysis does not address time of day billing that some local utilities have so your pricing may be quite different than the stated rates.
Another observation is that the states with some large percentage of EV purchases also have the higher than average electricity rates. You would assume that these states would be the later adopters. But this is not the case.
Massachusetts, with its well above the national average electricity rate of $0.3028kw/h, and below average fuel prices of $3.035gal, gas is just 29.7% the cost of electricity, making it the worst state in the US to own an electric car. It is followed by Rhode Island at 31.1% ($0.2871kwh/$3.01gal), Connecticut at 31.5% ($0.2915kwh/$3.093gal), Hawaii at 34.1% ($0.3962kwh/$4.554gal), and Maine at 34.9% ($0.263kwh/$3.096).
Washington on the other hand has below average electricity rates of $0.1239kw/h and expensive gas at $4.147gal, which makes gas 99.3% the cost of electricity. So the mpge and mpg are cost comparable. The next best states are Idaho at 84.3% ($0.1134kwh/$3.221gal), Utah at 84.1% ($0.1091kwh/$3.092gal), North Dakota at 78.8% ($0.1131kwh/$3.003gal), and Oregon at 75.4% ($0.1484kwh/$3.771gal).
Disclaimer, gas prices are based on AAA website and gas is cheap right now in comparison to the average cost over the last year.
The percentage in the map only reflects the difference in cost of fuel, not cost of ownership or per mile. But gas cars are usually around 30% as efficient as electrics so any state that is over 30% cost difference is cheaper to drive an EV.
