When electric cars first gained popularity in around 2015, it was easy to find cheap or free places to charge. At worst, you’d pay £10 for a card that gave you access to roadside charging points for a year.
That couldn’t last for long – and it hasn’t. Nobody can afford to give motorists free fuel, even if they are driving efficient electric cars. So now there is a significant cost to use public chargers – and it’s almost always cheaper to charge your EV at home.
Another issue with free public charging stemmed from the increasing numbers of plug-in hybrids on the road. These vehicles – which use a petrol engine and an electric motor – have less need to top up, but drivers may choose to if electricity is free. Introducing a cost frees up charging points for proper EVs.
Council roadside and car park chargers
You will be lucky to plug in without paying in England or Wales in 2024, although there are still a significant number of free chargers in Scotland (operated by ChargePlace) and in Nortrhern Ireland (the ecarNI network). In both cases, you have to pay a small membership fee upfront.
Bear in mind that you may still need to pay parking charges as well, even if charging your car is free.
Filling stations
Sadly, there is no chance of finding free electricity at petrol stations now. However, the number of charging points is growing rapidly in these locations, thanks to new networks such as Shell Recharge and BP Pulse.
In future, some petrol stations are likely to be converted to EV-only charging hubs – following the example of the Shell site in Fulham, London.
Supermarkets
Again, free chargers at supermarkets are now few and far-between, although they can still be found at some Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Lidl stores.
Tesco originally partnered with Volkswagen and Pod Point to provide thousands of free 7kWh charging points across the UK, but this offer has now been withdrawn. Topping up at Tesco now costs between 44p and 69p per kWh, depending on the speed of the charger.
Car dealers
Every car dealer that sells electric cars has at least one charging point and may allow customers to charge for free. In our view, though, that’s far from a realistic as an ongoing solution.
Firstly, car dealers are often in places that are out of your way (although the better ones will offer decent coffee and a waiting lounge). Secondly, the point is usually in use recharging their own demonstration vehicles. And finally, have you seen how packed dealer car parks are? It can be impossible to park anywhere.
Hotels
Many hotels, and even some B&Bs, offer electric charging for their customers – and with a modicum of luck you can do this at no additional cost. According to the latest numbers from ZapMap, 406 hotels in the UK still offer free EV charging.
We can’t think of a nicer place to stop than a country house hotel, where you can imbibe tea and cake while your car is being charged.
Tesla owners
This is complicated. Owners of the early Model S and Model X Teslas received free use of the Supercharger network for the lifetime of their car. You could also pass this on to subsequent owners. Later, you couldn’t pass it on, then you didn’t get it for free.
More recently, Tesla has been trying to phase out free Supercharging by offering special trade-in deals to those owners who benefit from it. Contact Tesla before buying an older (pre-2021) Model S or Model X to check if that particular vehicle comes with free Supercharging. It’s a huge potential benefit if so.
All owners of the smaller Model 3 and Model Y have to pay for charging in the UK. However, there are sometimes offers if you are referred by an existing Tesla owner, such as a recent deal that offered ‘1,000 miles’ of free charging with a new car.
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