The story · one household
So we tried the supercharger
Two of the five options on our neighborhood vote board involved giving up home charging and driving somewhere to plug in. Thirty-three neighbors picked one of them. Then a pledge to stop charging at home made the question real, so we ran the experiment properly: one round trip to a public fast charger, timed and metered, on an ordinary weekend.
One trip, start to finish
The 25 minutes each way is all-in time, not driving time alone. That session bought 31.0 kWh — about 116 miles of range — which is less than this household actually uses in a week. Sized to the real weekly requirement, the charge runs 41 minutes and the trip 91 minutes, once a week, every week.
What it cost
- 18.7¢ per kWh — the marginal rate on an actual Dominion bill
- $399 a year for the 2,132 kWh this household charges at home
- The fuel cost of an 80-mpg gasoline car
- Happens overnight, costing nobody any time
- 52¢ per kWh — metered at the charger
- $1,109 a year for that same 2,132 kWh
- The fuel cost of a 29-mpg gasoline car
- 91 minutes of someone's week, every week
Fast charging costs 2.8 times what the same electricity costs at home — enough, on its own, to erase most of the fuel-cost advantage of driving electric. An EV charged in a driveway is the cheapest car on the road to fuel. The same EV charged exclusively at a public fast charger is an ordinary economy sedan, with the added inconvenience that the fuel takes forty minutes to pump.
The annual arithmetic
| Component | How it arises | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Higher price per kWh | 2,132 kWh moved from 18.7¢ to 52¢ | ~$710 |
| Electricity burned getting there | A 16.4-mile round trip, 52 times — 853 miles and 229 kWh the household would not otherwise drive | ~$119 |
| Direct energy penalty | What the electricity alone costs | ~$829 |
| 79 hours of non-productive time | 91 minutes a week, valued at the household's gross rate of $85/hour | ~$6,700 |
| Total incremental burden | Energy and time together | ~$7,530 |
The 79 hours is the physical burden and is not an estimate — it follows from the measured charging rate and the distance to the charger. The dollar valuation of that time is an economic assumption and can be varied; the hours cannot.
The comparison people reach for
“It's the same as buying gas” is very nearly true on cost — and it is the whole problem. Gasoline is sold on almost every commercial corner in Alexandria, in a transaction that takes four minutes. A fast charger is a destination you drive to and wait at. Matching the per-mile price of gasoline is not parity when the errand costs ninety minutes.
I was right: it does suck!
I have generally tried to maintain a positive attitude through this. (I will probably make another sign about how stressful this has been and the actual time burden of dealing with this harassment, but let's not talk about that right now.) My experience going to a supercharger damaged my calm a little bit.
It takes 25 minutes to get to the supercharger I picked. This is all-in time, not travel time specifically. Electricity there costs $0.52 per kWh, which meant that a 28 minute session added about a hundred miles of range for a cost of $16.
It's about the same cost as gas, but there are gas stations everywhere. The 50 minute round trip turned this into a whopping hour and a half adventure, which is why I started getting discouraged. Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary, and I have chores to do around the house, shopping to do, and I want to spend time with my wife and kids. Instead I'm literally sitting in my car waiting, waiting, waiting… because there's nothing productive to do at this supercharger.
On an annual basis, given how much we drive, this will cost us an extra $829 per year in electricity costs alone. If I go once a week, that's 80 hours spent charging my car. That is two full work weeks of unnecessary time lost. If I value my time at my gross pay, that's almost $7,000 per year.
But money and time are not equivalent. Money can be replenished, but time cannot. It is truly incredible that an anonymous stranger is taking away 90 minutes of time with my family every week.
These bullies are forcing me to choose between resigning from volunteer public service on the Environmental Policy Commission and spending an extra $829 on electricity and losing 80 hours of my life every year.
If you think this is bonkers, please consider emailing city council.
How this was measured
None of the figures above are modelled. They come from one metered charging session, a year of this household's actual driving, and one actual utility bill.
| Input | Measured value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Annual driving | ~11,000 miles | Vehicle odometer, trailing year |
| Annual charging | 2,944 kWh — of which 2,132 kWh (72%) at home | Vehicle charging log |
| Efficiency | 268 Wh per mile | Derived; matches the vehicle's rated real-world figure |
| Home electricity | $302.73 for 1,625 kWh — 18.6¢/kWh all-in, ~18.7¢ marginal | Dominion Energy bill, August 2026 |
| Fast-charge session | 31.0388 kWh for $16.14 — 52¢/kWh, 28 minutes | Charger receipt |
| Distance to charger | 16.4-mile round trip, 25 minutes each way | The test trip |
The marginal rate excludes fixed monthly charges, which do not change with the amount charged; the all-in bill average of 18.6¢ and the marginal estimate of 18.7¢ are close because this household's usage is large enough that fixed charges are a small share of the bill. Gasoline equivalents assume $4.00 a gallon.
Why this is on a policy site
The finding
Every alternative to charging at home is priced as though a household's time were free. It is not, and the cost falls hardest on exactly the residents a curbside program is meant to serve — people without driveways, who are disproportionately in smaller and older homes. A permit pathway is not a convenience; it is the difference between an EV that is the cheapest car on the road to fuel and one that costs as much per mile as a 29-mpg sedan, plus two working weeks a year spent buying the fuel. That is what the proposal asks Council to fix.
The sign
The results went up on the fence as the seventh sign in the series. The full set is on The Signs We've Posted.