Instead of a broad national pattern, electricity prices cluster around regional utility structures.
Hawaii stands out as the most expensive state for charging an EV, at roughly $3.45 per gallon equivalent, with California close behind.
Hawaii's isolated grid makes generation more expensive than on the mainland, while California's stretched infrastructure, wildfire mitigation measures and rate policy structures have resulted in above-average utility costs for years.
Several New England states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, also rank among the most expensive.
At the other extreme sit Louisiana, Idaho, Washington, Utah and several Plains states, where EV fueling costs are close to or even below $1.10 per gallon equivalent.
Those differences are enormous, and drastically change the appeal of EVs depending on where you live.
A driver recharging an EV in Hawaii faces fuel costs more than three times higher than a driver in Louisiana.
Few consumers realize that the cost of operating the same vehicle can vary so widely within the same country.
Yet EVs currently beat gasoline everywhere in terms of refueling costs. Even in Hawaii, where electricity costs are highest, the equivalent cost of driving an EV is substantially lower than buying regular gasoline.
California's drivers pay some of the highest prices for both electricity and gasoline.
Yet even there EV owners maintain a significant operating-cost advantage.
The implications of sharply lower charging costs compared to fueling costs extend beyond household bills.
For decades, transportation costs in the US were largely shaped by forces far beyond the control of most consumers or state governments. Crude oil prices, refinery capacity, fuel inventories and geopolitical events were the primary drivers of what motorists paid to fill up.
As EV adoption expands, utilities, power generators and state regulators are assuming a growing role in determining transportation costs as well.
Residential electricity rates, time-of-use pricing plans and investments in power infrastructure will increasingly influence how much drivers pay to travel each mile.
In effect, transportation costs are becoming linked not only to global energy markets but also to local power markets.
That shift will create new regional winners and losers.
Drivers in states with abundant low-cost electricity could enjoy a growing cost advantage over motorists elsewhere, while residents of states with persistently high power prices may see fewer economic benefits from switching to electric vehicles.
In that sense, the transition from gasoline to electricity is not simply changing the type of fuel that powers the nation's cars. It is also changing who determines the price of mobility.
As more Americans switch to electric vehicles, the gap between those two systems is likely to become increasingly important, making geography an ever larger factor in who benefits most from the energy transition.
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