Public charging can cost over 20 times more than at home

According to a report by Allstar, drivers could be spending more than twenty times as much recharging their electric vehicle (EV) at public charge points compared to the cost of charging at homes.

Allstar’s AllCosts report takes proprietary data from fuel and charging events throughout the Allstar network, as well as at-home charges.

The data found the average cost to charge an EV at home from October to December, compared to July to September, dropped by 3p per kWh in that time.

Typically, a 70kWh battery could cost £19.60 to fully charge at the average cost of 28p. Public charging set drivers back an average of 70p per kWh.

Pricing varies significantly for charging at home – the highest price recorded was 50p in the summer of 2023, which means that same vehicle would cost £35 to charge, while at the cheapest rate, 4p, it would come to less than £3.

The AllCosts report shows that there are even bigger variances in public tariffs than there are for home charging. In the same time period, the highest costs were recorded at £1.20, while the lowest was 17p.

There are other factors to take into account, such as how long a driver can use an ultra-low tariff at home and if they would need to charge at peak rates in order to complete a full charge. Drivers and fleet managers must also consider how fast the most expensive public chargers are and if paying more to get back on the road much quicker is of greater benefit to the business than the energy cost.

The cost of petrol is on average 150.6p per litre, a 2.5p increase from the summer months, while diesel is coming in at an average 158.5p per litre, up 5.9p. While it isn’t a significant jump, prices have been on something of a rollercoaster, rising quickly in September, October, and November before dipping again in December. This can be attributed to factors such as governments reducing oil production and the wars in Ukraine and Palestine, meaning prices are in constant, wide-ranging flux.

Analysis of average public charging costs using data held by Allstar of 69 regions throughout the UK found that driving an EV in rural areas is often either more expensive than urban ones, or the cheapest in the country. Among the 10 cheapest areas for charging were Norfolk, Cornwall, Belfast, Orkney and the Isle of Wight.

Of the top ten of most expensive areas to charge, Bristol was the only urban centre, with Scottish areas heavily represented too. Greater London is the busiest area for plugging in, with more than four times as much public charging than the next highest, Greater Manchester.

Ashley Tate, MD, Allstar Chargepass UK, commented: “As an industry, we are collectively migrating to alternative power for vehicles which is a huge moment in the history of mobility. With that comes plenty of questions around the various running costs, so we’ve harnessed our proprietary data to provide clear insights and help drivers get a better understanding of real-life costs of electric vehicle charging, petrol and diesel.”

“For those that are opting for EVs, our inaugural edition has shown the clear cost benefits of charging at home. While we understand that this isn’t an option available for everyone, where possible drivers could make significant savings by charging at home compared to those using public charge points.”

“We’ve provided the pence-per-mile figures of cars and vans in the report based on our real-life electric and fuel costs so that businesses and fleets can see our estimated indicative costs of various cars and vans models, however they choose to power them. We’ll keep a close eye on these figures and keep reporting on the latest trends.”