How much will an EV charger add to your ComEd bill?

Last updated: October 11, 2026

A typical Chicago-area driver covering about 12,000 miles a year uses roughly 300 kWh per month charging an EV at home. On ComEd's standard residential rates, that's about $48 a month. Charge overnight on off-peak rates and it typically drops to $25–$45.

That's it. That's the whole scary number: less than a tank of gas, per month, to fuel your car. The rest of this page shows exactly how that number is built, so you can adjust it for your own driving.

Three steps, no black box:

1. Miles to energy. A typical EV uses roughly 0.30 kWh per mile (about 3.3 miles per kWh). Your driving determines everything downstream.

2. Energy to monthly kWh. Divide annual miles by 12, multiply by 0.30.

3. kWh to dollars. ComEd's "price to compare" — the benchmark supply rate — is 10.103 cents per kWh from October 2026 through May 2027, per the Citizens Utility Board. Add roughly 5.9 cents per kWh in delivery charges ComEd expects for 2026, and the all-in variable rate lands near 16 cents per kWh. (Fixed monthly customer charges don't change with charging, so they're excluded here.)

These are estimates built from the rates above — your actual bill depends on your exact rate plan, driving efficiency, and how much charging lands in off-peak hours. But the order of magnitude is the point: home EV fuel costs are measured in tens of dollars a month, not hundreds.

Barely. You pay per kilowatt-hour either way, so the energy cost of a full charge is nearly identical — Level 2 is slightly more efficient (less energy lost as heat), but the difference is a few percent. What the charger type changes is speed:

• Level 1 (standard 120V outlet): draws about 1.4 kW, adds roughly 4–5 miles of range per hour. A full overnight charge (12 hours) recovers about 50–60 miles — fine for plug-in hybrids or very short commutes, but most full-EV owners outgrow it.
• Level 2 (240V, typically 40 amps): draws about 9.6 kW, adds roughly 30 miles of range per hour. A typical 60 kWh battery fills in about six and a half hours — easily inside the cheapest overnight window.

Here's why that matters for your bill: Level 2 lets you fit all your charging into off-peak hours. On Level 1, a heavy driving day can force daytime charging at peak rates. Level 2 plus a smart charger's scheduling feature means you plug in at 6pm and the car actually charges at 1am. That's the combination that gets you to the low end of the table above.

Wondering what the installation itself costs? Our Chicago installation cost guide breaks down the hardware and electrical work — typically $800–$2,500 all-in for Level 2.

• Charge overnight — always. This is 80% of the game. Electricity is cheapest when demand is lowest, roughly 9pm to 6am. Set it once in your car's app or the charger's scheduler and forget it.
• Consider ComEd Hourly Pricing. You pay the real hourly wholesale price instead of a flat rate. Overnight hours are consistently the cheapest of the day. ComEd reported 70,000+ residential customers enrolled as of September 2026, with over $63 million in supply savings since 2007 — more than 80% of participants paid less than the standard rate in 2025, saving an average of $166 a year.
• Look at Time-of-Day Pricing. Launched in July 2026, it varies both supply and delivery charges by time of day. Enrolled EV owners also earn $2 per vehicle per month in bill credits for up to 24 months (two vehicles max) — a small but real rebate for charging off-peak.
• Don't fear the data-center headlines. Wholesale capacity costs have pushed supply prices up — ComEd's price to compare is about 53% higher than two years ago. But the effect is measured in cents per kWh, and overnight charging largely offsets it. We dug into the full story in our data centers and EV charging explainer.

Cold temporarily reduces EV range — expect roughly 20–30% less range on the coldest Chicago days, which means proportionally more kWh per mile in January and February. Your winter charging bill will run higher than the table above; summer will run lower. This is also the best argument for Level 2 here: you start every winter morning with a full battery instead of hoping the trickle charger kept up overnight.