How Much Does It Cost to Charge an EV vs Gas in Buena Park?

Charging at home is cheap because you are buying electricity at residential rates instead of retail gasoline. The U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center gives a clean benchmark: at an electricity price of 12.3 cents per kWh, adding 100 miles of range to an EV costs about $2.46, or roughly two and a half cents per mile. Southern California power costs more than that national average, so a Buena Park driver will pay more than the benchmark. Even so, the structure holds. Charging an electric car is measured in pennies per mile, not the dollars per gallon a gas car pays at the pump.

The same driving on gasoline costs several times more. As of early October 2026, AAA put the California average for regular unleaded at about $6.39 a gallon, among the highest in the country. A sedan averaging 28 miles per gallon at that price spends roughly $22.80 to cover 100 miles, or about 23 cents per mile. Set that against an EV's single-digit cents per mile and the gap is not subtle. The Department of Energy's annual fuel-cost review found the same pattern at the yearly scale: every all-electric model it tracked cost under $1,000 a year to fuel, while the cars landing between $2,000 and $7,000 were almost all conventional gasoline models.

Put simply, the EV wins on cost per mile in almost every realistic scenario. Even if a Buena Park driver pays two or three times the national benchmark rate on an SCE plan, home charging still lands in the single-digit cents per mile. A gas car at California pump prices sits around 20 to 25 cents per mile for a typical sedan, and worse for a truck or SUV. The wider the gap, the faster an EV pays back the difference in how you fuel it, especially for a long daily commute.

When you charge is nearly as important as the fact that you charge at home. Southern California Edison, which serves Buena Park, encourages EV owners onto time-of-use plans, and the utility notes that drivers can expect lower rates in the morning, early afternoon, and overnight, with the most expensive power during the early-evening peak. SCE also offers residential rate plans built specifically for EV households. Scheduling your car to charge after the peak window, or in the solar-rich midday hours, is the single easiest way to push your cost per mile toward the low end of the range. A Level 2 charger with a built-in timer or app makes that automatic.

Efficiency decides how far each kWh takes you, and it varies a lot between models. An efficient compact EV might travel four miles or more on a single kWh, while a large electric truck or SUV may manage closer to two. At the same electricity rate, the efficient car costs half as much per mile to drive as the thirsty one. This is the electric equivalent of miles per gallon, and it is worth checking before you buy, because a car's rated efficiency affects your running cost every single day, not just on the sticker.

Home charging is where the savings live. Public DC fast chargers are priced for convenience and speed, and they routinely cost two to three times what you pay at home, which narrows the advantage over gas when you rely on them. For most Buena Park households, the realistic pattern is overnight charging in the garage or driveway for daily driving, with fast charging saved for road trips. That is exactly why a dependable home setup matters: the more of your miles you cover at your own Level 2 charger, the closer your real-world cost stays to the low end of every figure above.

For a typical North Orange County commuter, the savings are concrete. Buena Park sits at the crossroads of the 91, the 5, and Beach Boulevard, and plenty of residents drive serious weekly mileage to jobs across Orange and Los Angeles counties. The more miles you cover, the more a few cents per mile versus 23 cents compounds in your favor over a year. The region's mild climate helps too, since EVs lose the most range in extreme cold, which Southern California simply does not see. Pair steady mileage with cheap off-peak power and reliable home charging, and the yearly fuel savings are often the most visible benefit of going electric here.