8.9 EV charging cost

8.9.1 How much power does an EV use?

A normal SUV-class EV gets 2–4 miles per kWh. You can estimate monthly consumption directly from how many miles your gas car previously drove each month.

Using the U.S. median of 1,000 miles/month, an EV draws 300–400 kWh per month.

A Cybertruck or F-150 Lightning, especially loaded, can easily double that.

At California rates, charging an EV without solar is actually more expensive than driving on gasoline.

8.9.2 EVs in California don't automatically win on cost

**Without solar, driving an EV in California can cost *more* than driving a gas car.**

Gasoline is $5/gallon. A normal car gets 20–30 mpg, so per-mile fuel cost is $0.10–0.20.

An EV gets 2–4 mi/kWh. Public DC fast charging runs $0.30–0.70/kWh, which works out to $0.10–0.35 per mile. Home charging at standard rates lands in the same $0.30–0.70 range. EV-specific TOU plans drop overnight rates to $0.10–0.20, but they raise the daytime rate to compensate. Blended cost is typically still $0.20+ per mile.

So in California, without solar, daily EV driving is not meaningfully cheaper than gas — and is often more expensive.

With solar + daytime charging, per-mile EV cost drops to under $0.05 — a third to a quarter of gas. That is the actual financial case for owning an EV in California.