How Owning a House Can Make Your EV Cheaper
Written by
Jake Safane
Edited by
Chris Cluff
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As electric vehicles (EVs) grow more popular, they’re also getting less expensive to own.
In 2023, 1.2 million EVs were sold in the United States, with their share of the overall U.S. vehicle market growing from 5.9% to 7.6%, according to Kelley Blue Book. Meanwhile, the average transaction price has fallen to $50,798, which is close to the overall average price for new vehicles of $48,759, Kelley Blue Book reported.
However, affordability still remains a concern for many. Even though the average price for EVs and gas-powered cars is getting close, there’s a wide range of price points in the gas-powered car market. For EVs, only two models sell for under $40,000 in the U.S., according to the latest Kelley Blue Book data.
Indeed, cost is the top concern preventing consumers from purchasing EVs, according to an S&P Global Mobility survey.
But if you own a house, particularly a single-family home, you can potentially make the operating cost of your EV cheaper and easier.
Controlling Your Charging
One reason some people choose EVs is to save money on gas. On average, charging an EV at home costs close to $60 per month, according to the Department of Energy. That’s less than half of what it would cost to use gas, the DOE estimates, although many variables can affect total costs.
Charging at home is not only more convenient for many drivers, but electricity rates tend to be lower than what you could find at public charging stations. So, homeowners may have advantages over renters when it comes to having more control over installing home chargers.
“If you rent, I imagine you may not always have the ability to have a home charger,” said Jason Mudd, a public relations executive who has been a Tesla driver since 2016.
“While there are commonly found free public chargers, it’s highly convenient to plug in your car when you arrive home for the evening and, by the time you wake up, your car is fully charged. It’s very similar to charging your phone. You plug it in at night and you don’t even think about it until morning when you have 100% charge. Imagine going to another location outside of your home to charge your phone.”
Keep in mind, however, that not all homeowners can easily add chargers.
“The parking arrangement has a much higher impact than the homeownership arrangement,” said Rob Detta Colli, regional director at FirstService Energy. “There are many single-family homeowners that only have street parking, which makes EV ownership and charging difficult — but not impossible.”
But if you’re a single-family homeowner with a driveway, you can install chargers at lower costs than multi-unit homeowners can, he explained.
“First, the distance from the electrical panel to where the charger will be located tends to be much shorter in a single-family home, so the installation costs are much lower,” Detta Colli said. “Second, the operation cost is lower in a single-family home because the charger’s electricity usage does not need to be separately accounted for. For multi-unit homeowners, a service provider needs to read each charger’s usage and bill individual owners.”
To be fair, rental buildings often have parking arrangements where EV chargers can be located close to electrical rooms, making the cost per charger very affordable, Detta Colli said.
Still, not all landlords will agree to add chargers.
Controlling Your Energy
In addition to potentially having more control over adding a charger to their homes, homeowners also might be able to lower EV costs by having more control over their energy source and usage. For example, a single-family homeowner may have more flexibility to choose the utility rate that aligns with lower EV charging costs.
“Some utilities offer low overnight rate structures specifically designed to encourage EV adoption,” Detta Colli said. “A single-family homeowner can readily evaluate their usage profile to see if switching to a low overnight rate makes sense.”
In contrast, others might not have the same ability to change an EV-friendly rate plan.
“The analysis for multi-family buildings is more complicated due to central systems and 24/7 lighting,” Detta Colli said. “So, although it might make sense for the EV driver in a multi-family home to switch to a low overnight rate, a switch would negatively impact the others who don’t drive an EV.”
Owning your home also can give you more flexibility regarding the type of energy you use. For example, after getting an EV, Mudd said he added solar panels; and then, a couple years later, he added a home battery backup system. As a homeowner, Mudd had the ability to choose the technology he wanted for this.
If you own your home, you also might be able to use your EV itself as an energy source.
“If your EV is capable of connecting to your home, you may have the ability to have emergency backup power,” said Zora Chung, CFO at ReJoule.
However, she wouldn’t recommend doing so long term without having your setup looked at by professionals.
Overall, owning a home, particularly a single-family home, can make owning an EV more affordable and accessible. While renters and those who own units in multi-family buildings might have more opportunities in the future, for now at least, the scales seem to be tilted toward single-family homeowners with driveways.
