EVs Could Save Drivers $400 Yearly With Smart Charging

Your electric car could save you hundreds of dollars a year while making the power grid stronger, not weaker.

That's the finding from a new study by the Brattle Group, which analyzed real-world data from EV owners in Washington state. The secret is smart charging technology that decides when your car charges overnight, based on when you actually need it ready.

Here's how it works. You plug in your EV when you get home at 6 p.m., but the car doesn't start charging right away. Instead, an app asks when you need to leave in the morning and how much battery you need. The system then charges your car sometime during the night, always making sure it's full when you head out.

Most drivers only go about 30 miles a day, which takes roughly two hours to charge. By staggering when different cars charge across a neighborhood, the technology spreads energy demand throughout the night instead of creating one massive spike.

The results are impressive. EV owners in the program saved up to $400 each year on their electric bills, and their cars were fully charged every single morning. No compromises, just savings.

The Ripple Effect

This approach solves a growing problem for everyone, not just EV owners. When people get home from work, they start cooking dinner, doing laundry, and watching TV. That creates peak demand on the grid between 4 and 9 p.m., when electricity is most expensive and hardest to provide.

As more families switch to electric vehicles, heat pumps, and induction stoves, that evening crunch will only get worse. Utilities would need expensive grid upgrades to handle the load, costs that get passed to all customers through higher rates.

Smart charging flips the script. Instead of adding to the evening peak, EVs charge when demand is low and electricity is cheaper. Utilities can delay costly infrastructure upgrades, saving money for everyone on the grid.

The technology works alongside time-of-use pricing, where electricity costs less after 9 p.m. when demand drops. Without smart charging, everyone might plug in right at 9 p.m., creating a new problem. Active management prevents that by spreading the charging throughout the night.

Freddie Hall, a data scientist at EnergyHub, which develops this technology, puts it simply. If customers don't trust the system to have their car ready, they won't use it. That's why the app learns your patterns over time and always prioritizes getting you charged when you need it.

The approach is gaining traction as more EV models add vehicle-to-grid capabilities, which let cars send power back to the grid during emergencies. Combined with smart charging, electric vehicles transform from a challenge into a solution for aging electrical grids across the country.

Your next car could pay for itself while helping power your neighborhood.