EV Charging Cost Calculator Trending

Electric vehicle charging costs depend on where and how you charge. Home charging using a 7 kW wallbox is the cheapest option at around 26p per kWh on a standard electricity tariff (26.32p under the October to December 2026 cap), or as low as 7 to 10p per kWh on an off-peak EV tariff such as Octopus Go or Intelligent Octopus. A typical EV with a 60 kWh battery costs about £15.80 for a full charge at home on standard rates, and roughly £4.20 if the whole session lands inside an Octopus Go window at 7p between 00:30 and 05:30. At 4 miles per kWh that £4.20 buys about 240 miles, or 1.75p a mile.

Public rapid chargers rated 50 to 150 kW are significantly more expensive, typically 60 to 80p per kWh, while ultra-rapid units of 150 to 350 kW can reach 70 to 85p. Filling the same 60 kWh battery at 60p on a network such as Ionity or BP Pulse Rapid costs about £36, which works out at roughly 15p a mile. Workplace charging is often free or subsidised by the employer, and some supermarket chargers still offer free slow charging while you shop.

This calculator estimates your charging costs across different scenarios. It takes your annual mileage, your vehicle's efficiency in miles per kWh, the split between home and public charging, and your electricity tariff, then works out running costs you can set against petrol or diesel. Driving 10,000 miles a year at 3.5 miles per kWh needs 2,857 kWh; charging 80% of that at home on a 10p off-peak rate costs £228.60, the remaining 571 kWh at a 70p public rate adds £399.70, and the annual total comes to £628.30 against about £1,955 for a 40 MPG petrol car at £1.72 a litre (the UK average in the week commencing 21 September 2026), a saving of roughly £1,327.

Choosing the right tariff moves the number more than almost anything else you can control. Octopus Go charges 7 to 9p per kWh in a five-hour window between 00:30 and 05:30, Octopus Intelligent varies the timing to suit grid conditions and charges when power is cheapest, EDF GoElectric Overnight sits at 9p, Eon Next Drive at 6.7p and the British Gas EV tariff at 7.9p. Most of these need a smart meter, which suppliers fit free. Pair a tariff with solar panels and a sunny day can charge the car for virtually nothing.

How you split home and public charging matters just as much as the rate. The average UK EV driver does 80 to 90% of charging at home and only 10 to 20% in public, and leaning too hard on public rapids cancels out much of the saving. Tesla's Supercharger network is usually the cheapest public rapid option at roughly 45 to 55p per kWh. Even on a long road trip, a mix of 80% home and 20% rapid still beats an equivalent petrol car by more than half. The people who lose out are flat dwellers with no driveway, because charging almost entirely in public at 15 to 20p a mile costs about what petrol does.

On the hardware side, a 7 kW home wallbox costs £400 to £800 fitted, the government grant for homeowners having ended in 2022, and a tethered unit with the cable attached runs £50 to £100 more than an untethered one. Faster 22 kW chargers need three-phase power, which is rare in UK homes, and the DC rapid units of 50 to 150 kW are built for public and commercial sites rather than driveways. The ZapMap app lists more than 60,000 public chargers across the UK with live availability. New homes built since June 2022 must include EV charging infrastructure, which slowly removes the driveway problem for buyers.