Arlington County Plans to Nearly Double Its EV Charging Rates for Drivers

Electric vehicle owners who plug in at Arlington County, Virginia government-run charging stations could soon pay nearly double what they pay today. The county board has directed staff to prepare an ordinance raising the price from the current 17.46 cents per kilowatt-hour to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, a jump of roughly 72 percent that officials say is needed to cover the real cost of running the stations.

The change would not take effect immediately. Arlington staff got direction at a July 21 board meeting to return in the fall with formal recommendations before any ordinance change is finalized. The direction from the board signals a broader shift already playing out in local governments around the country: after years of pricing public EV charging below cost to encourage adoption, cities and counties are recalculating what it actually costs them to keep the plugs running.

Why Arlington is raising its rate now

Part of the increase is already locked in regardless of what the board decides this fall. Arlington’s government charging stations buy their electricity through the Virginia Energy Purchasing Governmental Association, and the wholesale cost the county pays is climbing about 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, a 26 percent increase on its own. Any additional increase beyond that, to reach the proposed 30-cent rate, would require the separate ordinance change county staff are now working on.

Arlington County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti told colleagues at the July 21 meeting that “there is some work ahead of us” to settle on the right number. Board member Susan Cunningham, who raised the idea of a rate increase in June, described the change as an accounting correction rather than a policy reversal. “It’s a small dollar amount, but I think it’s important in these times to make sure we understand the full carrying cost” of running the charging stations, Cunningham said.

That full carrying cost includes more than the electricity itself. County officials say the current rate does not fully account for administrative overhead and the capital cost of installing and maintaining the charging equipment, expenses that have grown as Arlington’s charging network has expanded to keep pace with rising EV ownership. County staff reported in March that the number of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles registered in Arlington has grown 90 percent over the past two years, even as EVs still make up only about 5 percent of all vehicles registered in the county.

What drivers would pay, and where the stations are

Arlington’s public charging stations are Level 2 equipment, the mid-range charging speed common at workplaces, apartment buildings, and municipal lots that typically takes four to ten hours to charge a light-duty vehicle from empty to full. They sit at nine county facilities: Arlington Mill Community Center, Aurora Hills Community Center, Central Library, Courthouse Plaza, Fairlington Community Center, Irving Street Group Home, Long Bridge Aquatics Center, Lubber Run Community Center, and Madison Community Center. Chargers at Madison remain available while the community center itself is closed for a year of renovations.

Beyond the per-kilowatt-hour charge, Arlington also applies a separate dwell fee of $3 per hour, capped at $25, once a vehicle finishes charging but stays parked in the space. That fee, unchanged under the current proposal, keeps drivers from occupying a charging spot for hours after their battery is full, a common complaint at public charging locations where demand outpaces the number of available plugs.

Even at 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, Arlington’s public rate would stay well below the price many drivers pay at commercial fast-charging networks, where DC fast charging nationally averages around 53 cents per kilowatt-hour and can run as high as 85 cents per kilowatt-hour at premium non-member pricing in high-cost states. Charging at home typically remains the cheapest option for most EV owners, generally running the equivalent of a few dollars per 100 miles depending on local electricity rates. For drivers without a home charger or a driveway, publicly available Level 2 stations like Arlington’s are often the only practical daily charging option.

The dollar impact of the proposed rate on a typical charging session is modest but real. A driver adding 40 kWh to a battery, roughly enough to add 130 to 150 miles of range depending on the vehicle, would pay about $6.98 today at 17.46 cents per kilowatt-hour. At 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, that same session would cost $12, an increase of just over $5 per charge. For a driver who charges at a county station twice a week, that works out to roughly $40 more per month, on top of whatever dwell fees apply.

A regional and national pattern

County officials say the proposed 30-cent rate would bring Arlington roughly in line with what neighboring Fairfax and Prince William counties already charge at their own government-operated stations, based on a comparison spreadsheet county leaders reviewed ahead of the July 21 meeting. Nearby Falls Church takes a different approach, offering the first hour of charging free before switching to a 20-cent-per-kilowatt-hour rate.

The move away from subsidized public charging is not unique to Northern Virginia. Local governments that built out charging networks in the early years of EV adoption often set rates deliberately low, sometimes even free, as an incentive to get residents into electric and hybrid vehicles. As adoption climbs and networks age, more governments now face the same math Arlington is: the wholesale price of electricity has risen, the equipment needs upkeep, and the original case for a below-cost rate gets harder to defend as EVs shift from a niche purchase to a mainstream one.

Arlington EV owners got a reminder of that shift earlier this year on a different front entirely. As part of the county’s fiscal 2027 budget, the board equalized the personal property tax rate between clean-energy vehicles and standard vehicles, moving both to 13 percent of the first $20,000 of a vehicle’s assessed value. Clean-fuel vehicles had previously received a 50 percent rebate on that tax, compared with 24 percent for standard vehicles. For the owner of a clean-fuel vehicle assessed at $20,000, that change alone adds $271 to the annual car-tax bill, bringing it to $696 when bills come due in October.

What EV owners in Arlington should watch for

Nothing changes at Arlington’s charging stations immediately. Staff plan to return to the county board in the fall with a formal rate recommendation, which will then require a public ordinance process before any new price takes effect. Drivers who rely on the county’s Level 2 stations for regular charging should watch for that fall announcement, when a final figure could land anywhere between the roughly 22-cent wholesale-adjusted rate and the 30-cent figure currently under discussion.

Drivers who charge primarily at home stay largely insulated from the change, it applies only to Arlington’s government-operated public stations rather than residential electricity rates. For those who depend on public charging without a home charger of their own, comparing the eventual Arlington rate against nearby private networks and neighboring jurisdictions could be worthwhile once the new price is finalized, especially for drivers who split their charging between county stations and commercial fast chargers depending on convenience.

Residents who want to weigh in before the ordinance is finalized can watch the Arlington County Board’s fall meeting schedule, where the rate proposal is expected to return for a public hearing. Public comment periods at county board meetings give residents a direct way to flag concerns about the proposed rate or the dwell fee structure before either gets locked in for the coming year.

Sources:

• ARLnow, “Charging an electric vehicle could get pricier at Arlington County stations,” July 27, 2026