- How much does it cost to charge an electric car at home?
- At the current price cap rate of 26.32p a kWh, about 8.7p a mile for a car doing 3.3 miles per kWh, including the energy lost charging through a wallbox. On an EV tariff’s overnight rate of around 7.6p it falls to about 2.5p a mile. At 7,000 miles a year that is roughly £607 on a standard tariff or £175 overnight.
- Is an EV tariff always cheaper?
- No. An EV tariff covers the whole home, and its day rate is around 36.7p a kWh against the price cap’s 26.32p. For a home using 2,500 kWh a year, everything outside the cheap window costs about £147 a year more, standing charge included. The car has to save more than that before the tariff pays. With all charging at home, that happens above roughly 2,400 miles a year; below it, a standard tariff is cheaper.
- How much does public charging cost?
- Zapmap’s price index for September 2026 puts pay-as-you-go rapid and ultra-rapid charging at 79p a kWh and slow or fast charging at 54p. At 3.3 miles per kWh, rapid charging is about 23.9p a mile: around 10 times the cost of charging overnight at home, and more than the 17.6p a mile a 45 mpg petrol car costs in fuel.
- Is an electric car cheaper to run than petrol?
- If you can charge at home, yes, by a wide margin. At 174.57p a litre a 45 mpg petrol car costs about 17.6p a mile in fuel, against 2.5p to 8.7p charging at home. If you rely on rapid public chargers the gap closes or reverses. This compares energy only, not purchase price, insurance or servicing.
- Does charging from a three-pin plug cost more?
- Slightly, because more energy is lost as heat. ADAC measured losses of 5% to 7% on a wallbox and 13% to 24% on a household socket. We use 8% for a 7 kW wallbox and 15% for a plug. A plug is also slow: 2.3 kW over a six-hour cheap window is about 14 kWh, which can be too little for a long day’s driving on a fixed-window tariff.