2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 vs Toyota Camry in Florida: Home Charging at 13¢/kWh vs DC Fast at 48¢/kWh Changes Your 5-Year Cost by $5,220
When a Mining Company Shows You How to Think About Charging Costs
Fortescue, one of the world's largest iron ore miners, made headlines this week when an analyst calculated the company is saving nearly $400 million per year in fuel costs after electrifying its haul truck fleet. According to Electrek's reporting on the program, each diesel-to-electric truck swap generates enormous savings — because Fortescue charges its equipment at mine-site power infrastructure, at close to industrial electricity rates.
Four hundred million dollars. Per year. From controlling how the trucks get their energy.
The same principle applies to your driveway — just with smaller zeros.
If you're deciding between a 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 and a 2026 Toyota Camry in Florida, the single biggest variable in your 5-year fuel cost isn't whether electricity is cheaper than gas in your state. It's whether you have access to home charging. Based on Celvari's analysis of EIA electricity price data across 3,672 state-level data points, the spread between home charging and DC fast charging in Florida creates a fuel cost difference of approximately $5,220 over five years — enough to flip which car actually wins the total cost comparison.
Here's every number behind that claim.
The Three Charging Scenarios Every Florida EV Buyer Must Model
Florida's residential electricity rate sits at approximately 13.2¢/kWh according to Celvari's eia_electricity_prices dataset, sourced directly from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That's close to the national average. But public charging in Florida is a different story entirely:
- Home charging (Level 1 or Level 2 in your garage): 13.2¢/kWh — and as low as 9–11¢/kWh if you're on Duke Energy Florida's or Tampa Electric's off-peak EV rate, charging overnight
- Level 2 public charging (ChargePoint, Blink, EVgo stations): roughly 28–32¢/kWh in Florida
- DC fast charging (Electrify America, Tesla Supercharger non-member rate): roughly 44–48¢/kWh
That's a 3.6x spread between your home charger and a highway DC fast charger. At scale, this is enormous.
The 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 RWD Long Range carries an EPA-rated efficiency of approximately 4.5 miles/kWh. Applying a real-world efficiency adjustment of 12% — consistent with Recurrent's fleet tracking and Geotab telematics data on actual Ioniq 6 driving patterns — brings us to about 4.0 miles/kWh in everyday use. At 12,000 miles per year, you'll need roughly 3,000 kWh annually to fuel your Ioniq 6.
| Charging Scenario | Rate (¢/kWh) | Annual Fuel Cost | 5-Year Fuel Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home charging (Level 1/2) | 13.2¢ | $396 | $1,980 |
| Level 2 public | 30¢ | $900 | $4,500 |
| DC fast charging | 48¢ | $1,440 | $7,200 |
| 2026 Toyota Camry LE (32 MPG at $3.40/gal) | — | $1,275 | $6,375 |
Read that table a second time. If you rely primarily on DC fast charging, your 5-year fuel cost for the Ioniq 6 exceeds the Camry's gasoline bill by $825. The EV's fuel advantage doesn't just shrink — it reverses.
This is the kind of localized charging analysis Celvari runs for you — pulling live EIA electricity rates and EIA gasoline price data by state, so you see your actual numbers, not national averages.
What Fortescue's $400M Teaches Individual Drivers
Here's the key to Fortescue's savings: they control their energy supply. The company is pairing electric haul trucks with renewable generation at mining sites, effectively charging at close to generation cost. This week, Liebherr also delivered a 330-ton electric excavator to Bulgaria's Assarel copper mine, which Electrek reports is already delivering meaningful efficiency gains impossible with diesel equivalents. At every scale — from a 330-ton digger to your commute — the efficiency advantage of electric powertrains is real. Electric motors convert roughly 85–90% of input energy to motion. A combustion engine manages 20–40%.
What neutralizes the efficiency advantage for consumers is retail charging markup. A DC fast charging network operator needs to cover real estate, hardware, maintenance, and margin. You're not paying for electrons — you're paying for convenience. When you charge at home overnight, you get something close to the Fortescue equation: paying for energy at close to cost, not convenience.
The consumer version of Fortescue's mine-site depot is a Level 2 EVSE in your garage on a time-of-use rate plan. If you're in Florida on Duke Energy's EV off-peak program charging between 11 PM and 7 AM, your effective rate can fall to 9¢/kWh — cutting your 5-year Ioniq 6 fuel bill to just $1,620, versus the Camry's $6,375. That's the full Fortescue math working in your favor.
The Complete 5-Year TCO Comparison
Now let's stack the full picture — purchase price, incentives, fuel, and maintenance — across all three charging scenarios.
Purchase price assumptions:
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2026 Hyundai Ioniq 6 RWD Long Range MSRP: $41,450
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Federal EV tax credit (IRA Section 30D, if eligible): -$7,500
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Florida sales tax exemption on zero-emission vehicles (FLA Stat. 212.08): ~-$2,490 (at 6% on $41,450)
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Effective Ioniq 6 net cost after incentives: ~$31,460
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2026 Toyota Camry LE MSRP: $28,400
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No applicable credits
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Effective Camry cost: $28,400
Price premium for the Ioniq 6 after incentives: ~$3,060
Important caveat: The $7,500 federal credit requires owing at least $7,500 in federal income taxes in the year of purchase. Florida has no state income tax, so there is no state credit to stack on top — and many Florida residents may find their federal tax liability falls short of the full $7,500. If you don't qualify for the full federal credit, the price premium can jump significantly. Check our complete 2026 EV incentive stacking guide for income and eligibility scenarios. There's also a scenario where the federal credit no longer exists — we've modeled that in detail for this exact matchup in our Ioniq 6 vs. Camry post on the tax credit repeal question.
Maintenance cost assumptions (from Celvari's maintenance_costs dataset, cross-referenced with AAA annual vehicle cost research across 30 vehicle segments):
- EV annual maintenance: ~$450/year (tires, cabin air filters, brake fluid service — no oil changes, no transmission fluid, significantly less brake wear due to regenerative braking)
- Gas car annual maintenance: ~$925/year (oil changes, air filter, transmission service, more frequent brake replacement)
- 5-year EV maintenance savings: $2,375
| Cost Category | Ioniq 6 (Home) | Ioniq 6 (Level 2) | Ioniq 6 (DC Fast) | Camry (Gas) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net purchase cost | $31,460 | $31,460 | $31,460 | $28,400 |
| 5-year fuel | $1,980 | $4,500 | $7,200 | $6,375 |
| 5-year maintenance | $2,250 | $2,250 | $2,250 | $4,625 |
| 5-Year Total | $35,690 | $38,210 | $40,910 | $39,400 |
- Home-charging Ioniq 6 beats the Camry by $3,710 over five years. Clear EV win.
- Level 2 public Ioniq 6 beats the Camry by $1,190. Slim margin.
- DC fast-charging Ioniq 6 costs $1,510 more than the Camry. You paid the EV premium for a worse outcome.
You can model your specific version of this table at Celvari — including your actual utility's rate structure, your real charging access mix, and your annual mileage.
The Apartment Dweller Reality Check
If you rent and your building doesn't have Level 2 charging, a realistic mix might be 60% Level 2 public at 30¢/kWh and 40% DC fast at 48¢/kWh:
Blended rate = (0.60 × 30¢) + (0.40 × 48¢) = 37.2¢/kWh Annual fuel cost: 3,000 kWh × $0.372 = $1,116/year 5-year fuel cost: $5,580
Plug that into the TCO table and your total comes to roughly $39,290 — essentially a coin flip with the Camry at $39,400. The maintenance savings keep you barely ahead, but there's no meaningful financial advantage to owning the EV.
Celvari's analysis of census_county_ev_data — 6,287 county-level rows from the U.S. Census ACS 2022 — shows that in Florida's highest-density counties (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach), multifamily building EV charging installation rates are still lagging EV registration growth by a significant margin. In those counties, more EV owners than the state average are relying on public charging as their primary fuel source. If you're in one of those zip codes, your actual blended charging rate is probably not 13.2¢.
What Auto China 2026 Means for This Decision
Electrek's reporter who attended this week's Beijing Auto Show (Auto China 2026) described seeing more EV models in a single hall than exist in the entire current U.S. market. BYD, NIO, Li Auto, and dozens of smaller Chinese manufacturers are shipping affordable EVs with long real-world ranges at price points that will put serious pressure on U.S. and Korean manufacturers over the next few years.
The practical implication for buyers: EV sticker prices will likely fall over the next 24–36 months. That changes the purchase-price side of this comparison and could bring the Ioniq 6's price premium down toward zero — or flip it to an outright price advantage at the lower end of the market.
But charging costs are determined by your utility company and your building's infrastructure — and those won't change based on what ships out of Shenzhen. If you're waiting for a cheaper EV before buying, the math in the table above applies to whatever model you eventually choose. Lock down your charging situation first.
The Battery Degradation Cost You Can't Ignore
One cost the TCO table above doesn't fully capture: frequent DC fast charging accelerates battery capacity loss. Based on real-world fleet data from Recurrent and Geotab telematics analysis, EVs that primarily DC fast charge show approximately 4–6% more capacity loss at 100,000 miles compared to predominantly home-charged counterparts on the same platform.
For the Ioniq 6's 77.4 kWh usable pack, that's 3–4.6 kWh of additional degradation — which quietly reduces range and real-world efficiency in years four and five of ownership, pushing your per-mile charging cost higher than the clean-rate math in the table above. We've modeled this in detail for the IONIQ 5 platform (which shares core battery architecture with the Ioniq 6) in our battery degradation comparison for California buyers. The DC fast charging penalty compounds over time, making the "DC fast vs. home charging" gap even wider than the fuel cost table shows.
The Bottom Line
If Fortescue can save $400 million a year on fuel by controlling how its trucks get their energy, the lesson for individual drivers is exactly the same principle at a different scale:
- Home charging in Florida at 13.2¢/kWh: Ioniq 6 wins by $3,710 over 5 years. Buy the EV.
- Mixed Level 2 public charging at 30¢/kWh: Ioniq 6 wins by $1,190. Thin margin, worth it if you qualify for full incentives.
- DC fast charging as primary at 48¢/kWh: Camry wins by $1,510. The EV premium bought you nothing.
- No federal tax credit: Every scenario shifts $7,500 against the Ioniq 6. DC fast charging is a clear financial loss; even home charging is now a coin flip.
Before you sign a purchase agreement, run your actual numbers — your real utility rate, your real charging access, your specific federal tax liability, and your annual mileage. That's exactly what Celvari is built to do: pull live EIA electricity and gasoline data for your state, apply real-world efficiency curves from fleet telematics, and stack every applicable incentive — so the decision you make is based on your math, not the brochure's.
Sources
- Electric haul trucks could save Fortescue over $400 million in fuel per year [update] — Electrek
- Liebherr delivers 330 ton electric excavator to Bulgarian copper mine — Electrek
- I went to the Beijing Auto Show and it’s a glimpse at the future of the auto industry — Electrek
- Solar-Powered Boat Travels Thousands Of Miles — CleanTechnica
- The City Of Providence, Rhode Island Is Ready To Decarbonize — CleanTechnica