Road Trip Charging: Cost and Time for a 1,000-Mile Drive

A 1,000-mile US road trip in a 75 kWh EV that goes 3.5 mi/kWh needs about 285 kWh of energy. With Supercharger pricing at 35-50 cents/kWh, the fuel bill is $100-$140 — versus $113 in a 30 mpg gas car at $3.40/gal. The dollar gap is small. The time gap matters more.

Charging stops

Plan to charge from 10 to 80 percent each stop. That is 52 kWh of energy, ~22 minutes on a 250 kW Supercharger. Over 1,000 miles you need 4 charging sessions plus the start and end. Total stop time: roughly 1.5 hours. Gas equivalent for 4 fill-ups: 25 minutes. EV trip is ~1 hour longer.

Practical playbook

1. Plug stops into route planning early. ABRP and your car's nav both show predicted state of charge.
2. Pre-condition the battery 15 minutes before each Supercharger arrival to hit peak speed.
3. Eat and bathroom-break during charging. The 25-minute stop is roughly meal-length.
4. Charge to 80 percent, not 100. The last 20 percent doubles your charge time and only adds 60 miles.

Use the calculator with DC Fast selected to estimate per-stop cost.