ComEd EV rates: Rate BEST vs Hourly Pricing compared.

Why utility rate design matters more than most incentives

The federal EV tax credit expired September 30, 2025. Illinois still offers a $2,000 EPA Electric Vehicle Rebate at qualifying income tiers. But over a 5-year ownership period, the difference between a well-chosen utility rate plan and the default residential rate can exceed the value of every state and federal incentive combined.

Consider a Chicago EV owner driving 15,000 miles per year at 30 kWh/100 miles — typical Ioniq 5 or Model 3 consumption. On ComEd's standard flat residential rate at approximately $0.170/kWh all-in, annual charging costs $765. On Rate BEST with disciplined overnight charging at approximately $0.045/kWh, that drops to $202. The difference is $563 annually or roughly $2,812 over 5 years — more than the $2,000 Illinois EPA Rebate delivers upfront.

Utility rate choice compounds every year the vehicle is owned. Incentives arrive once. Buyers who spend time optimizing rate plan enrollment often find the payoff exceeds the effort spent researching vehicle rebates.

ComEd's three EV rate pathways

ComEd offers three rate structures designed for or well-suited to EV owners. Each targets a different behavioral profile:

Rate BEST is Time-of-Day pricing with combined supply and delivery. Four time blocks (overnight, morning, mid-day peak, evening) with predictable per-block rates. Best for buyers who want structured predictability and a smart charger scheduled to overnight hours.

DTOD is delivery-only Time-of-Day pricing, layered on top of the customer's existing supply arrangement. Same block structure as Rate BEST, but delivery-side only. Enrolling in DTOD as a registered EV owner triggers an automatic $2 monthly bill credit for up to 24 months — an additional $48 over two years for households that want to keep their supply choice while shifting delivery costs.

Rate BESH (Hourly Pricing) passes real-time wholesale electricity prices directly to the customer. Prices fluctuate every hour based on grid demand. Overnight in Illinois — particularly 1am to 5am — wholesale rates routinely fall to $0.01-0.030/kWh on the supply side. But summer afternoon peaks can exceed $0.500/kWh. This rate rewards ultra-strict automation and punishes lack of it.

All three options require a Wi-Fi-enabled Level 2 smart charger and reasonable scheduling discipline to deliver their savings. None of them save a driver who plugs in at 6pm and lets the car draw whatever it needs.

Option 1: Rate BEST — TOD combined supply and delivery

Rate BEST is ComEd's combined supply-plus-delivery Time-of-Day product. The day is divided into four predictable pricing tiers:

The overnight window is nine hours long — unusually generous compared to peer utility TOD programs (Xcel Colorado's off-peak window is seven hours, SDG&E's is six). This gives ComEd customers meaningful flexibility: a smart charger scheduled to start at 9pm has ample time to complete a full charge before the 6am morning rate takes effect.

Rate BEST is the ComEd rate best suited to buyers who want economic optimization without behavioral gymnastics. Set the smart charger schedule once. Charge nightly. Collect the savings without daily monitoring.

Option 2: DTOD — delivery-only TOD with $2/month EV credit

Delivery Time-of-Day (DTOD) is structurally identical to Rate BEST's time blocks, but applies only to the delivery portion of the electricity bill. Customers keep their existing supply arrangement — either ComEd's default supply or an alternative retail supplier from Illinois's competitive supply market.

The economic case for DTOD over Rate BEST hinges on the customer's current supply arrangement. Two scenarios:

Customer on ComEd default supply: DTOD and Rate BEST produce essentially identical bills for the same charging behavior. Rate BEST bundles both components; DTOD unbundles them but the underlying charges are the same. DTOD offers one advantage — the $2 monthly bill credit for registered EV owners, worth $48 over the 24-month program.

Customer with alternative supplier locked into a lower rate: DTOD lets the customer capture time-of-day savings on delivery while retaining a supply contract that beats ComEd's default rate. This is the only scenario where DTOD produces materially better economics than Rate BEST — and it requires knowing whether the alternative supplier's locked rate actually beats ComEd's bundled Rate BEST supply component (often it does not).

For most ComEd EV owners without an active alternative supplier contract, DTOD delivers Rate BEST-equivalent economics plus a modest $48 EV credit. For customers who prefer supply-side choice, DTOD is the way to keep it.

Option 3: Hourly Pricing (Rate BESH) — real-time wholesale

Rate BESH exposes the customer to the actual hourly wholesale price of electricity in the PJM regional grid. The supply portion of the bill fluctuates every hour based on total grid demand, weather, and generation mix.

In Illinois, this creates a specific economic pattern. Overnight demand collapses while nuclear baseload and Illinois wind continue generating. Between 1am and 5am, wholesale rates routinely fall to $0.010-0.030/kWh on the supply side. Adding the fixed delivery component (roughly $0.065/kWh), all-in rates for the 1am-5am window can average $0.075-0.095/kWh.

The upside is real: for an EV owner with automation that locks all major charging to 1am-5am, Rate BESH can deliver lower costs than any structured rate. But the downside is equally real. Summer afternoon peaks routinely exceed $0.300/kWh; extreme demand events can push hourly rates past $0.500/kWh. A single afternoon of unscheduled charging during a July heat wave can offset weeks of overnight savings.

Rate BESH is the ComEd rate best suited to buyers with tightly automated scheduling and the discipline to monitor peak demand alerts. It rewards optimization enthusiasts. It punishes casual users — sometimes severely.

The break-even math: when does Hourly beat Rate BEST?

The chart below shows annual EV charging cost across a range of annual mileage for three scenarios: ComEd's standard flat residential rate, Rate BESH (Hourly) with disciplined 1-5am automation, and Rate BEST with disciplined overnight charging.

The visual tells a clear story. Both time-variant options crush the standard flat rate at every mileage level — the case for enrolling in some TOU option is unambiguous. But Rate BEST beats Rate BESH by roughly 2x at every mileage tier. A 15,000 mi/yr driver pays approximately $202 annually under Rate BEST and $405 under Rate BESH — double the cost for the customer taking on real-time price exposure.

Why Rate BEST beats Rate BESH despite Hourly's ultra-low 1-5am windows: the Rate BEST overnight rate of $0.045/kWh reflects a bundled all-in cost that includes ComEd-negotiated capacity, transmission, and distribution charges. Rate BESH exposes the customer to spot supply pricing but keeps all fixed delivery charges intact — and delivery charges are the largest single component of a Chicago electricity bill.

Rate BESH beats Rate BEST only under narrow conditions: the customer must lock 100% of charging to the 1-5am window, have automation reliable enough to skip charging entirely during summer peak alerts, and accept the operational risk of occasional unscheduled draws that instantly forfeit weeks of savings. Few sustain this level of discipline for the full 5-year ownership period. For everyone else, Rate BEST is the better economic choice.

Which path should you choose?

The rate decision reduces to a single question: how disciplined is your charging behavior? Four specific characteristics determine which rate produces the best economics for a given buyer:

• Do you have automated Level 2 charging with schedule enforcement? If yes: Rate BEST or Rate BESH both work. If no: enroll in Rate BEST anyway; even manual overnight plug-in captures most of the savings on Rate BEST's nine-hour overnight window. Rate BESH without automation is economically dangerous.
• Can you strictly lock ALL charging to 1-5am with zero exceptions? If yes: Rate BESH is competitive with Rate BEST and can win in certain months. If no (occasional daytime top-ups, spontaneous trips requiring afternoon charging): Rate BEST is the safer choice. Every hour of Rate BESH charging outside 1-5am risks paying above standard rates.
• Do you actively monitor peak-demand alerts and adjust behavior? If yes: Rate BESH becomes viable because you can pause charging during grid stress events. If no: Rate BEST's predictable structure protects you from Rate BESH's summer peak exposure automatically.
• Do you have an active alternative retail supplier contract you want to preserve? If yes: DTOD lets you keep your supply arrangement while capturing delivery-side TOD savings plus $48 in EV credits over 24 months. If no: Rate BEST is simpler with equivalent bundled economics.

The default recommendation for most Chicago-area EV owners: Rate BEST. Predictable, forgiving of imperfect discipline, and delivers 75%+ of the theoretical maximum savings any TOU program can offer. Rate BESH is worth considering only if all four discipline conditions above are strongly true.

See it in our case studies

Two Drive Economics case studies show the ComEd rate choice in practice with real buyer scenarios:

Chicago Ioniq 5 vs Tucson Hybrid. A Lincoln Park software engineer weighing the compact EV crossover against the efficient hybrid. Rate BEST enrollment shifts the 5-year cash outcome by $1,600+ compared to standard residential. The case demonstrates how rate discipline can outweigh vehicle choice for cash-flow-focused buyers.

Chicago Ioniq 6 vs Accord vs Elantra Hybrid. An Oak Park data engineer comparing the aspirational EV sedan against a mainstream gas sedan and an efficient hybrid. Rate BEST enrollment is worth $1,764 over 5 years — the difference between the Ioniq 6 tying the Accord (with enrollment) and losing by $1,938 (without enrollment). The case also demonstrates a counterintuitive finding: workplace charging saves only $302 over 5 years in Chicago because Rate BEST is already so cheap that replacing 40% of it with "free" workplace electricity barely moves the needle.

Both cases assume Rate BEST enrollment as the baseline; the sensitivity sections explore what happens when the driver defaults to standard residential instead. Rate plan discipline emerges as one of the largest single variables in Chicago EV economics.

How this compares to peer utility EV plans

ComEd's Rate BEST holds up well against comparable utility programs in other markets, though the analytical shape differs meaningfully:

*PG&E EV-2A off-peak window includes weekends all day. Rates are approximate and reflect published tariffs as of publication.

Two observations. First, ComEd Rate BEST at ~$0.045/kWh with no fixed monthly charge is among the most attractive utility EV rate offerings in the country. Only DTE Detroit's ~$0.085/kWh comes close on unit rate; no other peer utility avoids the fixed monthly charge that punishes low-to-moderate mileage drivers on rates like SCE TOU-D-PRIME. Second, California rates run 4-6x ComEd's per-kWh rate, driven by higher generation costs and grid infrastructure investment; California EV owners save meaningfully through TOU discipline but never reach the absolute cost floor that midwest utility structures deliver.

Related: ComEd's demand response programs

ComEd operates several demand response programs that intersect with EV charging economics. These are not rate options but rather layered programs that can further reduce costs or provide bill credits for EV owners already enrolled in Rate BEST, DTOD, or Rate BESH:

Smart Charger Rebate Program. Up to $1,000 (standard) or $2,500 (income-eligible) rebate toward equipment and installation of a Wi-Fi-enabled Level 2 smart charger. Enrollment requires the customer to sign up for a time-variant rate (Rate BEST, DTOD, or Rate BESH) and remain enrolled for at least 3 years. The rebate essentially subsidizes hardware in exchange for the customer's commitment to structural demand response through TOU-scheduled charging.

Peak Time Savings. On high-demand summer days, ComEd announces peak-hour windows. Customers who reduce charging during those windows earn bill credits. Manual participation via smart charger app or automated participation through supported platforms.

Residential Optimized Charging (pilot). A recently concluded pilot where ComEd remotely throttled or paused smart chargers during grid-stress events. Successfully demonstrated that peak load reduction is possible without compromising the driver's required morning battery charge. Expected to influence ComEd's upcoming Virtual Power Plant (VPP) rollout under the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act.

These programs shift economics further in favor of EV owners on TOU rates — but the primary economic decision is still the underlying rate choice. Demand response layers on top of Rate BEST or Rate BESH; it does not substitute for choosing the right rate in the first place. See our full ComEd demand response deep-dive for economic analysis of each program.

Rate figures reflect ComEd published tariffs as of September 2026 and are approximate. Rate BEST off-peak of ~$0.045/kWh assumes 100% disciplined charging within the 9 PM to 6 AM overnight window. Rate BESH figures assume disciplined automation locking major charging draws to the 1 AM to 5 AM window with minimal peak leakage. Actual rates vary based on ComEd's current published tariff, seasonal adjustments, capacity factor changes, and individual customer usage patterns. Verify current rates at comed.com before making enrollment decisions. Peer utility rates in the comparison table are similarly approximate and reflect the utilities' published EV rate tariffs; see individual utility program pages for detail on each.