EV charger cost by city
| City | EV charger permits | Firms | Usual filed value | Middle half of firms' usual job | Usual days to final | Reached final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elk Grove, CA | 1,353 | 119 | $925 | $850–$1,312 | 18 | 87.8% |
| Cary, NC | 2,922 | 244 | $1,104 | $1,000–$1,400 | 17 | 95.0% |
| Wilmington, NC | 165 | 60 | $1,200 | $1,100–$1,500 | 10 | 95.3% |
| Sacramento County, CA | 839 | 111 | $1,400 | $984–$1,624 | 25 | 94.2% |
| Naperville, IL | 266 | 70 | $1,600 | $1,322–$1,964 | 59 | 70.4% |
| Burlington, VT | 268 | 56 | $1,600 | $1,000–$2,250 | 49 | 74.9% |
| Seattle, WA | 2,602 | 311 | $1,701 | $1,192–$2,500 | 20 | 94.1% |
| Marin County, CA | 213 | 68 | $2,296 | $1,600–$3,000 | 64 | 67.6% |
| Bellevue, WA | 1,257 | 295 | no value filed | — | 14 | 89.7% |
| San Diego County, CA | 490 | 105 | no value filed | — | 95 | 60.3% |
| Anaheim, CA | 549 | 158 | no value filed | — | 12 | 96.5% |
| Bellingham, WA | 248 | 56 | no value filed | — | 18 | 86.1% |
| Bend, OR | 188 | 47 | no value filed | — | 24 | 84.5% |
The spread inside a city is narrow. In Cary, the middle half of 112 firms usually file between $1,000 and $1,400; in Elk Grove, $850 to $1,312. A charger install is a standard job, so a quote two or three times the city's usual figure is worth a question.
Level 1 or Level 2: what you are paying for
| Level 1 | Level 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Plug | 120-volt standard outlet, using the cordset most EVs come with | 240-volt circuit (208 V in commercial buildings) |
| Range added | About 5 miles per hour of charging; about 40 miles in 8 hours for a mid-size EV | About 25 miles per hour of charging |
| Circuit | An existing outlet | A residential unit at up to 30 amps (7.2 kW) needs a dedicated 40-amp circuit under NEC Article 625 |
| Installer and permit | None if the outlet exists | A licensed electrician and an electrical permit; this is the job priced in the table above |
All figures from the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center (read 21 October 2026). If you drive 30 miles a day, eight hours on Level 1 overnight covers it by those numbers, and the installation cost is zero. Charging from an existing outlet needs no permit, so it is not in the table above.
What moves the price
The filed value is the electrician's own figure for the permitted work. What pushes a job above the usual:
- A panel upgrade. If the panel has no room for the charger's breaker, the job becomes a service change, which is a bigger permit and a bigger number. Ask whether the quote includes a load calculation.
- Distance. A garage on the far side of the house from the panel means a longer run of heavier wire and, outdoors, conduit or trenching.
- The charger itself. Some electricians include the wall unit in the filed value and some file labor only. Ask which.
- Permit and inspection fees. Cary's guide puts the minimum at $100 per trade, and a typical home install with a mechanical permit for ventilation at $200 (Town of Cary, rev. September 2025). Your city's fee schedule may differ.
The federal credit has ended
The IRS's page on the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit (section 30C) says that for individuals it was "30% of the cost of the property up to a maximum credit of $1,000 per item", only for a charger at your main home in a low-income or non-urban census tract, and only for property placed in service "from January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2026" (IRS, read 21 October 2026). A charger installed now does not qualify. Utility and state rebates are separate and change often; check your utility's site before you sign, because some require a pre-approval.
Who may install it
A home charger on a 240-volt circuit is electrical work, so the person to check is the electrical contractor. Cary's guide says the installation must "comply with Article 625 of the National Electrical Code" and puts responsibility on "both the owner and contractor" (Town of Cary).
| State | License to ask for | Look it up |
|---|---|---|
| California | CSLB C-10 Electrical | CSLB Check a License |
| Illinois | No state license; Naperville registers electrical contractors | Naperville registration |
| North Carolina | NCBEEC electrical contractor license | NCBEEC search |
| Oregon | CCB license plus a BCD electrical license | BCD search |
| Vermont | Electrician license, Division of Fire Safety | Licensed electricians |
| Washington | L&I electrical contractor license | L&I Verify |
The check takes two minutes: type the license number from the quote into the lookup, confirm it is active and in an electrical class, then open the firm on our compare page. In Cary, 49.4% of EV charger permits went to the five busiest firms, so most quotes there come from firms with a long record you can read. In Elk Grove, 6 of the 25 firms with 10 or more charger permits finished under 70% of them; that is the number to ask a busy installer about. For more on choosing one, see hiring an electrician.
See every Cary EV charger installer by finished share →
What these numbers cannot tell you
Five of the thirteen cities file no job value on charger permits, so they appear above for counts and timing only. We do not have a clean year-by-year price series for chargers, so we cannot say whether 2026 installs cost more than 2025's; the usual value here covers the whole three-year window. Filed values are the contractor's statement to the city, not the invoice, and a job with a panel upgrade may be filed under a separate service permit we do not count here. A charger plugged into an existing outlet needs no permit and appears nowhere in this file.
How we know this
EV charger permits are those each city files under an EV charger work type or description, over its three-year window (Burlington April 2023 to March 2026; the others October 2023 to September 2026). The usual filed value is the median of permits that carry a value; the middle-half range uses firms with 3 or more charger permits; "reached final" is the share of permits a year or more old that the city closed with a final, and days to final is the median from issue to final. The tax credit and Cary fee facts are quoted from the IRS and Town of Cary pages under Sources, read 21 October 2026.
Numbers come from Town of Cary building permit applications (issued permits only); City of Elk Grove TRAKiT building permits on single-family, duplex, mobile-home and ADU homes; Sacramento County building permits on single-family, duplex and townhouse homes in the unincorporated county (the County's Accela permit layer); City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports); City of Naperville building permits (the current permit system plus the city's older records); City of Burlington permits on 1–4 family homes, condos and mobile homes (the city's OpenGov permit feed); Marin County Community Development Agency building permits on homes in unincorporated Marin (the County's open-data permit and inspection files); New Hanover County Building Safety permits on homes inside the City of Wilmington (the County issues the City's building permits), data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- How much does it cost to install a home EV charger?
By the permit record, usually between $925 and $2,296. The usual filed value of an EV charger permit was $925 in Elk Grove, $1,104 in Cary, $1,400 in Sacramento County, $1,701 in Seattle and $2,296 in Marin County. A new panel or a long wire run costs more.
- Is there still a federal tax credit for a home charger?
Not for chargers installed now. The IRS says the 30C credit (30% of the cost, up to $1,000 per item for individuals, only in eligible low-income or non-urban census tracts) covers property placed in service from 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2026.
- Do I need a permit for an EV charger?
For a hard-wired charger or a new 240-volt circuit, usually yes; all thirteen cities here issue them. Cary, North Carolina, says the permit is required under state law, with a minimum fee of $100 per trade, and a typical home install with a mechanical permit for ventilation comes to $200.
- How long does an EV charger permit take?
Days to a few weeks. The usual EV charger permit reached its final in 12 days in Anaheim, 14 in Bellevue, 17 in Cary and 20 in Seattle.
- Can I charge from a regular outlet instead?
Yes, at Level 1: the cord that comes with most EVs plugs into a standard 120-volt outlet and adds about 5 miles of range per hour, or about 40 miles in 8 hours for a mid-size EV (U.S. DOE). No installer or permit is needed if the outlet is already there. A Level 2 charger adds about 25 miles an hour and needs a 240-volt circuit.
- Who should install an EV charger?
A licensed electrical contractor, who pulls the electrical permit in its own name: CSLB C-10 in California, NCBEEC in North Carolina, an L&I electrical contractor license in Washington. Check the number before you pay a deposit.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- General contractor vs handyman: where your state draws the line
- HVAC replacement cost in 2026: what furnace and AC permits were filed at in 16 cities
- Electrical work cost in 2026: what electrical permits were filed at in 18 cities
- How long does an HVAC system last? Furnace, AC and heat pump lifespans, and when to replace
For one city
- Electric Vehicle Charging Stations — U.S. DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit — IRS (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Residential EVSE Permitting and Inspections Guide (rev. 9/25) — Town of Cary (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Licensing Classifications — CSLB (C-10 Electrical) (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Check a License — CSLB (accessed 2026-10-20)
- License search — NC Board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Electrical Contractor Registration — City of Naperville (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Electrical licensing — Vermont Division of Fire Safety (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Electrical Contractor — Washington L&I (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Verify a Contractor — Washington L&I (accessed 2026-10-20)
- License Search — Oregon Building Codes Division (accessed 2026-10-20)