How much does charging an electric car cost?

Although you need to take regional price variations into account, the cost of filling a conventional car with petrol or diesel is relatively easy to calculate. All you need is the size of the fuel tank and the fuel price per litre.

Things aren’t so simple when it comes to the cost of charging an electric car. You need to consider where the car is being charged and, in some cases, the make and model of car in question.

Here, we’ll provide a basic overview of the charges you can expect to pay when running an electric car

Charging an electric car at home

It makes sense to charge your electric car at home, ideally overnight. Not only will you wake up to a fully charged car in the morning, you can also take advantage of off-peak electricity costs. Home charging is usually the cheapest option.

You should invest in a home charge point – also known as a wallbox. There are plenty of offers out there – some wallboxes will be offered free with your new car, while some electricity companies offer them as part of your energy tariff.

Wallboxes vary in price, but you can expect to pay between £500 and £800 for a 3.6kW unit. A 7kW charger should cost around £1,000.

If you can afford it, we’d recommend upgrading to a 7kW charge point, as it significantly reduces the time it takes to refill an EV battery. For example, it takes around 12 hours to charge a BMW iX3 from empty to full using a 7kW charger, but 22 hours if you use a 3.6kW charger. Using a domestic plug socket? Set aside a whopping 35 hours for a full charge…

Regardless of the charger, make sure you’re on the best home energy tariff available. Many energy firms offer off-peak prices at night when demand is reduced and there’s less pressure on the grid.

EDF offers a range of tariffs designed for electric car drivers, each one backed by zero carbon electricity. Its GoElectric Overnight tariff provides five hours of off-peak electricity for 9p per kWh and is designed for medium- to high-mileage users. The EDF EVolve tariff is designed for lower-mileage users, with the company saying it could save customers around £200 a year.

E.ON Next offers a Next Drive tariff, which delivers electricity at 6.9p per kWh between 12am and 7am, while Octopus Energy’s EV tariff will schedule the charge for when the energy is cheapest and greenest – at a cost of 7p per kWh. The company says customers will save £500 a year compared to a standard tariff.

Zap-Map has a handy calculator you can use to work out the cost of charging at home. Based on a Polestar 2 (single motor 170kW), a 7kW charging unit and an energy cost of 8p per kWh, it will cost £4.27 for a full charge. Based on a standard energy rate of 24.5p, the cost increases to £15.

Using an electric car with a smaller battery as another example, it will cost £2.88 to charge a Honda e. With 129 miles added, the cost per mile is 2.2p – significantly less than the 28p per mile for a typical petrol or diesel car. That’s a saving of around £19.40 when driving the same distance.

How to find your electricity tariff

Your electricity unit rate will be listed on your monthly statement. Look for the unit rate figure followed by ‘p/kWh’.

It should be listed prominently within the statement – for example: ‘unit rate: 14.0p/kWh’.

It is also listed in the ‘Energy’ row, which shows how many kWh of electricity you have used during the past month. For example: ‘500kWh @ 14p/kWh’.

You can use this p/kWh figure to multiply against your EV’s battery capacity and easily find out how much a full charge will cost – for example, a 50kWh battery and a 14p/kWh tariff add up to £7 for a full charge (that’s 50 x 0.14p = £7).

Charging at a public charger

While the energy tariff is the biggest influence on the cost of charging an electric car at home, there are more variables associated with using the network of public chargers.

Some locations offer free EV charging for customers and visitors. Conversely, a rapid charger at a motorway service area will be one of the most expensive ways to charge an electric car. You’re paying for convenience and this is unlikely to be part of your daily routine.

Our advice would be to charge at home whenever possible, using the public network to top up when required. There are a number of different charging operators, each one with a different approach to pricing. For example, some offer free membership and free charging, while some require payment of a membership fee followed by a cost per kWh used.

Here are some of the biggest operators, along with the associated costs. The details are correct at the time of writing (July 2024).

GeniePoint

Membership fee: Free

Cost per kWh: 75p to 79p for registered users or 83p per contactless payments and guest users

Gridserve Electric Highway

Membership fee: Free

Cost per kWh: 49p (AC charging) and 79p (DC charging)

Instavolt

Membership fee: Free

Cost per kWh: 85p

Ionity

Membership fee: Free (Ionity Direct), £10.50 per month (Ionity Passport Power), £5.49 per month (Ionity Passport Motion)

Cost per kWh: 74p (Ionity Direct), 43p (Ionity Passport Power), 53p (Ionity Passport Motion)

Pod Point

Membership fee: Free

Cost per kWh: 44p to 49p (Tesco/fast), 62p to 69p (Tesco/rapid), 65p (Lidl)

Shell Recharge

Membership fee: Free

Cost per kWh: 51p to 93p, depending on device and payment method

Tesla

Membership fee: Free for Tesla owners or £90 a year for non-Tesla owners

Cost per kWh: 52p (Tesla), 65p (Non-Tesla)

This information is sourced from Zap-Map. Click here for more charging operators and a detailed look at the costs.

Charging a Tesla

If you purchased a Tesla Model S or Model X BEFORE 2 November 2018 or AFTER August 2019, you will enjoy free and unlimited access to the Supercharger network. Charges apply for all Model 3 owners.

The cost of charging varies according to the location and time of day, but CAR magazine sourced the following fees for a Supercharger in north London.

• Tesla owner: 29p to 47p per kWh
• Other electric car owner: 32p to 63p per kWh

Click here to find your nearest electric car charger.