How much does it cost to charge an electric car at home?
About £7.90 a run on a standard tariff, or around £821 a year at 2 times a week. Less at the right time on a time-of-use tariff.
Today's cost where you live
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Charging at home is where the savings of an electric car come from. A typical top-up of 30 units of electricity on a standard tariff costs a few pounds, and on an EV tariff's cheap overnight rate it can cost under half that. Public rapid chargers can cost several times more.
How we work it out
A typical electric car uses about 30kWh for 30kwh on a 7kw home charger, taking around 4.5 hours. Electricity on a standard variable tariff costs about 26p a unit across Great Britain at the moment (it varies a little by region), so one run comes to about £7.90. Your own model may use more or less: the energy label, or a plug-in energy monitor, will tell you.
If you're on a tariff where the price changes through the day, such as Agile Octopus, Economy 7 or an electric car tariff, the same run can cost much less at the right time. The Cheap Watts tool finds that time for you on your own tariff.
How to spend less
- Look at an EV tariff. Octopus Go, EDF GoElectric and E.ON Next Drive have cheap overnight hours made for charging, and most smart chargers can be set to use them.
- On Agile, let the car or charger follow the half-hourly prices, or use the cheapest half hours this site shows.
- A 7 kilowatt home charger adds about 3.5 units each half hour; a three-pin plug about 1.