What charging an EV at home adds to a Texas electricity bill (October 2026)

As of October 9, 2026, charging one of 15 model-year 2025 electric vehicles 1,000 miles a month at home adds 246 to 494 kWh a month to a Texas electricity bill. For a 2025 Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD, that is 288 kWh a month. On the lowest-cost fixed-rate plan without a bill credit, our estimate is about $33.70 a month in Oncor and $33.30 in CenterPoint, before taxes. These are our estimates, not offers.

We do not compare the cost with gasoline: we do not collect gasoline prices.

How we estimate it

1. kWh added a month = miles × kWh per mile ÷ charging efficiency. We use 1,000 miles a month. The kWh per mile comes from the U.S. EPA and DOE (fueleconomy.gov, combined electricity consumption, retrieved October 9, 2026). The EPA figure is measured at the wall, so charging losses are already included and the efficiency is 1.0. For the Model Y, the EPA figure is 28.8 kWh per 100 miles, so 1,000 × 0.288 = 288 kWh. The same EV kWh is added every month.
2. A home using 1,000 kWh a month on average, on a typical Texas seasonal pattern (from 700 kWh in the lowest month to 1,500 kWh in the highest).
3. Cost of the EV = the plan's estimated 12-month bill with the EV, minus the same plan's bill without it, divided by 12. Prices are Power to Choose prices that include delivery charges, before taxes. The comparison plan is the lowest-cost fixed-rate plan without a bill credit or minimum-usage fee in each utility. On October 9, 2026, that plan is True Value 12 from True Power (12 months) in both Oncor and CenterPoint.
4. Our EV charging pages show all 15 vehicles and the six utilities with a ranked fixed-rate plan list; the same calculation is in our API.

What it adds, for four vehicles

Estimates for 1,000 miles a month on the True Value 12 plan (True Power, 12 months), before taxes, Power to Choose data of October 9, 2026. The range of 246 to 494 kWh covers all 15 vehicles; the Model 3 is the lowest and the F-150 Lightning the highest. Utility pages: Oncor and CenterPoint. Prices change with the daily import, and your own plan and usage will differ.

Why a bill-credit plan can show a lower bill with the EV

Many Texas plans give a bill credit in months when usage reaches a threshold. Charging adds kWh, so more months can reach it, and the credit can be worth more than the extra electricity costs.

Example for a Model Y in Oncor, October 9, 2026: the lowest-cost plan overall is Sure Saver 12 from Spark Energy, which gives a $100 bill credit in each billing cycle with usage greater than 1,000 kWh. The home alone uses more than 1,000 kWh in 4 of 12 months, and with the EV in 11 of 12. Our estimate for 12 months is $1,676 without the EV and $1,560 with it, a difference of −$9.66 a month.

That is the credit, not free charging. It applies only while you meet the plan's conditions. This is why our EV figures use a plan without a bill credit as the comparison. Sure Saver 12 is not an offer or a recommendation. On the Model Y, the lowest-cost plan overall is a bill-credit plan whose estimate is lower with the EV in 5 of the 6 utilities.

Free-nights and free-weekends plans

Some time-of-use plans do not charge for energy in set hours. We estimate the ones whose free hours are clearly written in the plan's Electricity Facts Label (EFL):

• Chariot Energy, Bright Nights plans: "Bright Nights hours are 11:00 PM to 06:00 AM. Daytime hours are 06:00 AM to 11:00 PM."
• Champion Energy Services, Free Weekends-24: "Weekend hours are all day Saturday and Sunday, from 12:01 am on Saturday morning to 11:59 pm Sunday night."

Assumptions. The EV charges between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. By default 80% of its kWh is charged overnight, and the rest is billed at the plan's paid rate. For Bright Nights, the free hours cover 7 of those 8 hours, so 70% of the EV's kWh (80% × 7/8) is free. For Free Weekends, we assume charging is spread evenly over the week, so 2/7 of the kWh is free, and the overnight share does not apply. Only the energy charge is free; delivery charges, base charges and fees are billed as usual. The home's own use in the free hours is the share each EFL assumes (35% for Bright Nights, 30% for Free Weekends).

Results for a Model Y (October 9, 2026, per month, before taxes), against True Value 12 at $33.70 in Oncor and $33.30 in CenterPoint:

The whole-bill picture is different from the EV line alone. For a home using 1,000 kWh a month plus the EV, the estimated 12-month bill on Bright Nights 12 compared with True Value 12 is:

So at 50% the free-nights plan costs more than the fixed-rate plan over a year in both utilities, and at 60% the two are close. Free Weekends-24 (CenterPoint) came out higher: the EV adds an estimated $41.85 a month, and the 12-month bill is $444.91 higher than True Value 12's. Home usage is also priced on the time-of-use rates, so results depend on when the home uses power.

Limits. We estimate 26 of 47 time-of-use plans across the six utilities (a plan sold in several utilities is counted in each). We exclude 21: 12 whose free hours are not clearly stated in the EFL (days or times missing), 6 Octopus Energy Flex plans, whose EFL gives no hourly schedule, and 3 whose price structure we could not reproduce from the EFL. We do not guess. The labels print clock times without a time zone; we read them as Texas local time. All figures are estimates, not offers, and the plans' rates are priced for 12 months even when the term is shorter.

Check before you switch

• Look at the EV charging page for your utility, then confirm price, term and fees on the plan's EFL. If the plan has free hours, check when you can actually charge.
• Charger installation costs, rebates and any EV-specific rates from your utility are not in our figures.
• For developers, the calculation is available at the EV charging cost endpoint (/api/v1/electricity/ev-charging-cost); please show the TexasHomeBills name and link when you use it.

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