The Garage Gap: Why EV Fueling Can Cost More Than Gasoline for Renters
For apartment dwellers without home charging, public EV stations can cost more per mile than gasoline.
Marketing claims that EVs save $1,700 annually in fuel assume 90% home charging, but 30% of U.S. households cannot install Level 2 chargers. For renters and condo owners, public DC fast charging costs roughly double home rates, and in high-cost cities like San Francisco, the differential widens further. The 'EVs save money' pitch only applies to homeowners with garages, creating a structural equity gap in EV ownership costs.
The Qmerit study you saw before buying says $1,700 a year in fuel savings. The salesperson probably mentioned it too. It’s a clean number, easy to quote, and it assumes one thing: that you charge at home, overnight, 90% of the time. But here’s the split that marketing leaves out. About 30% of U.S. households live in apartments, condos, or rental homes where installing a Level 2 charger isn’t an option. No garage. No dedicated parking spot. No landlord willing to run conduit. That 90% home-charging statistic from Energy Harbor simply doesn’t apply to them. I’ve seen the math from the other side. A full charge on a public DC fast charger — say, an 84 kWh IONIQ 5 — runs about $28 at a typical station. The same charge at home, on a residential rate, would be roughly $14.83. That’s already nearly double. Push that into a city where commercial real estate rates spike public charging costs — San Francisco is a good example — and the differential widens further. Over a year of 13,500 miles, you’re not saving $1,700. For a renter or apartment dweller, EV fueling can cost more per mile than gasoline. The surprise isn’t that public charging is expensive. The surprise is that the entire "EVs save you money" pitch evaporates if you don’t own the wall the charger plugs into. The gap isn’t a rounding error — it’s structural. Commercial stations have to cover demand charges, maintenance, equipment depreciation, and profit margin. Your utility’s time-of-use plan, the single biggest lever for home chargers, is irrelevant when you’re paying a flat per-kWh rate at a mall parking lot. So if you can’t install a Level 2 at home, buy an EV for other reasons — emissions, torque, HOV lane access. But budget $50 to $100 extra each month for fuel, not less. The savings promise was written for homeowners with garages. If you don’t fit that profile, the math flips.