Power at Home: Rideshare Driver Shows Why EVs are Winning the Convenience & Cost Race

Most electric vehicle owners charge at home, usually overnight, using either a standard outlet (which adds about 40 miles of range while you sleep) or a Level 2 charger, which needs a home upgrade. A Florida driver named Howard, who racks up more than 4,000 miles a month driving for Uber and Lyft in electric vehicles, says charging costs him under 4 cents a mile, compared to about 15 cents a mile for a gas car. For someone driving 1,100 miles a month, that gap works out to roughly $1,452 a year in fuel savings.

Homeowners with driveways or garages have an easier path to these savings than people in apartments, condos, or homes without off-street parking, since they can't as easily install their own charger and often pay more using public charging stations. Some electric utilities offer lower time-of-use electricity rates for home EV charging, plus help with the cost of installing a charger, so it's worth checking what your utility offers.

Beyond home charging, public charging has expanded quickly. In the Southeast, the number of charging ports nearly tripled since 2020, and more than 64% of Americans now live within two miles of a public charger. New EVs also travel farther on a charge, averaging 325 miles in 2026 models, up from 114 miles in 2013 models, and battery range holds up well over time, typically dropping only about 2 percent a year.