What every number here is, and is not
This site exists because several higher-authority pages are confidently wrong about the federal tax credit and about what utilities pay. That only means something if this site’s own figures are traceable. So here they all are, with what they rest on.
Cost anchors
The model is anchored on installer-network data, not on home-services content. The primary anchor is $2,442 — the US average for labor and permits, excluding hardware — from EnergySage network installation data, June 2026. The published state spread runs $1,834 (OR) to $3,680 (MS).
| Component | Range |
|---|---|
| Level 2 charger hardware | $300 – $900 |
| Labor plus permitting | $500 – $1,200 |
| Electrician labor rate, per hour | $50 – $130 |
| Materials — wire, conduit, breaker | $200 – $500 |
| Dedicated circuit | $250 – $900 |
| Permit | $45 – $800 |
| Electrical inspection | $100 – $200 |
| Panel upgrade to 200 A | $1,500 – $4,000 |
| Sub-panel | $500 – $1,500 |
| Load management device (EVEMS) | $250 – $400 |
| Long wire run, 60–80 ft | $1,000 – $1,500 |
| Trenching — labor and equipment | $5.00 – $12.00 per linear foot |
| PVC conduit material | $0.90 – $1.50 per linear foot |
| Trench plus conduit, installed | $6.00 – $13.50 per linear foot |
| Power to a detached garage | $10.00 – $25.00 per linear foot |
| 100 ft trench, trenching only | $500 – $1,200 |
A range we deliberately do not use
Angi publishes $554 – $1,380 for a home charger install. Implausibly low against network data. It appears to conflate simple 240 V outlet installs with full Level 2 jobs. Not used anywhere in this model. See /methodology.
It is not a small discrepancy. The top of that range sits below the bottom of the network-data average for labor and permits alone. Using it would produce estimates that no homeowner could actually buy at.
Circuit and labor calibration
The dedicated-circuit line is not a single published figure — it depends on distance and circuit size, and no source publishes that as a formula. So it is calibrated against the figures that are published: a base cost plus a per-foot rate, tuned so a short 40 A job lands inside the published $250–$900 dedicated-circuit range, and a 60–80 ft run reproduces the published $1,000–$1,500 long-run surcharge over that base.
base $320 – $800 (breaker, terminations, first 15 ft) per extra foot $14 – $24 circuit factor 1 + (circuitAmps − 40) × 0.005
The state labor index, and why most states show 1.00
Two state-level figures are published: Oregon at $1,834 and Mississippi at $3,680. Those two get a real index. Every other state holds at the national average.
We could interpolate a plausible-looking index for all fifty from cost-of-living data. It would look more sophisticated and it would be made up. A state showing ×1.00 here means “no published state figure”, not “exactly average”, and the breakdown says so on the line.
Rebate data rules
- Every program carries the date it was last checked, rendered on the card.
- Where a utility’s own terms contradict a public directory, we follow the utility and record the contradiction on the page.
- A utility with no residential rebate gets a card saying so. Absence is a finding.
- ✕An unverified amount is never deducted from an estimate. It is shown, marked, and left out of the arithmetic.
- ✕Behavioural credits and commercial make-ready funding are never counted as install rebates.
- ✕Where we have not read the utility’s own current terms, the source link renders as SOURCE LINK PENDING rather than as a plausible guess.
| Open data debt | Count | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Amounts marked unverified | 8 | Shown with an UNVERIFIED chip. Never deducted from an estimate. |
| Programs without a direct source link | 0 | Rendered as SOURCE LINK PENDING. Top of the maintenance list. |
| Permit fee schedules not captured | 3 | National average applied, and the line item says so. |
The 30C rule
The federal 30C credit expired on 30 June 2026 under P.L. 119-21 and has no successor. In this calculator it can only ever appear as a retroactive line, and only when the install date is on or before that cut-off. There is no input combination that shows it as a forward-looking discount, because that single defect is what makes four higher-authority competitors wrong. The primary sources →
The load calculation
NEC 220.87 for the existing load, NEC 625.42 for the charger. The verdict logic prefers the cheapest correct answer in order: no work, a reduced current setting under 625.42(B), an energy management system under 625.42(A), and only then a service upgrade. The full method, with the arithmetic →
One judgement call is ours rather than the code’s: the reduced-setting verdict is only offered down to 16 A. Below that a Level 2 charger delivers Level 1 speeds, and a ~$300 energy management device that lets the car charge at full rate off-peak is the better buy than a permanent throttle.
Maintenance
Rebate programs open, close, exhaust their funding and change eligibility on rolling schedules. ComEd’s funds ran out early last year. New Smyrna Beach’s program ends on 30 September 2026. DTE became income-qualified only. Georgia Power’s amount changed and the main public directory still has it wrong.
The review cadence is monthly, and the last review date is rendered in the footer of every page. A stale rebate page is worse than no rebate page.
What this site does not do
- ✕No address capture, no email capture, no quote form.
- ✕No installer lead generation. Nobody pays us for a referral.
- ✕No AI chat widget offering electrical guidance.
- ✕No cost-to-charge tool mixed into a cost-to-install tool. They are different questions.
- —Uploaded interval data is parsed in your browser. There is no endpoint to send it to.