Cost of charging an electric car at home (UK, 2026)

Petrol averaged 172.01p a litre in the week of 21 September 2026 according to the government’s weekly survey, up from 161.61p at the end of August. Home electricity is capped at 26.32p per kWh from 1 October, with no VAT on it until March. For anyone with a driveway, the pence-per-mile sums for an electric car have rarely looked better. Here is how they work, and where they stop working.

Pence per mile: home, overnight, public and petrol

Take an ordinary family EV doing 3.5 miles per kWh, the figure most UK guides use, and a petrol car doing 45 mpg.

The public figures are Zapmap’s own pence-per-mile conversions; the rest are our arithmetic on the stated assumptions. Over a round 8,000 miles a year that is about £600 on capped electricity, £185 on an EV tariff and £1,390 on petrol. Charging losses and winter range loss narrow the gap a little, and a bigger car or a heavy right foot widens every number in proportion. The shape does not change: at home, even at the full capped rate, an EV costs well under half as much per mile as petrol, and on an overnight tariff around an eighth. On rapid chargers it costs more than petrol.

The mileage charge coming in 2028

The Budget 2025 announced eVED, a pay-per-mile charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars from April 2028. The government said an average EV driver would pay around £240 a year, about half the fuel duty an average petrol or diesel driver pays. On our 8,000-mile example that works out at about 3p a mile, which would take overnight home charging from 2.3p to roughly 5.3p a mile, still far below petrol. The Budget pointed to a separate consultation for how it will work in practice.

EV tariffs: how the cheap window works

Every large supplier now sells a tariff built for EVs: a low overnight rate for a fixed window, a day rate near the cap, and a smart meter recording half-hourly usage so the two can be billed separately. Octopus’s Intelligent Octopus Go advertises smart charging from 8p per kWh with up to six hours of off-peak electricity for the whole house between 11:30pm and 5:30am. The “intelligent” part means the supplier talks to the car or charger and decides when in the night to charge; you set when you need the car and how full.

Check three things before switching. The day rate, often a little above the cap, which you pay for everything else. The standing charge, which is not discounted. And compatibility: intelligent tariffs need a supported car or wallbox, and the lists change. Running the washing machine, dishwasher and a heat pump’s hot water in the same window multiplies the saving; our appliance calculator accepts two rates.

EV tariffs follow the normal switching rules: five working days, 14 days to cancel, and the same comparison route as any other deal. Not every comparison site lists them, so check suppliers’ own pages too.

The home charger and the grant

A 7 kW wallbox on a single-phase supply is the standard home charger and adds roughly 25 miles of range an hour at 3.5 miles per kWh. A qualified electrician installs it and notifies the network operator. Since 2022 new home chargers sold in Britain must be smart, which is what makes the intelligent tariffs possible. A 3-pin “granny” cable works in an emergency but at 2.3 kW it takes all night, and the socket must be in good condition.

The EV chargepoint grant pays 75% of the cost of buying and installing one socket, up to £500. GOV.UK sets three conditions: you rent, or own a flat; your home has its own private, off-street parking space; and you own or use an eligible vehicle (registered to you, leased for at least six months, a work vehicle for six months, or on order). Owner-occupiers of houses cannot claim it. Landlords have a separate route.

Buying: the Electric Car Grant and car tax

The Electric Car Grant takes up to £3,750 off a Band 1 car and up to £1,500 off a Band 2 car, and the dealer includes it in the price. GOV.UK’s Band 1 list includes the Nissan Leaf, Ford Puma Gen-E, Fiat 500e and the Renault 5 with the 52 kWh battery; the 40 kWh Renault 5 is Band 2. The Budget 2025 added £1.3 billion and extended the scheme to 2029-30, although it can close early if the money runs out.

Since April 2025 electric cars pay vehicle excise duty like any other car. The expensive car supplement for new electric cars now starts at £50,000, raised from £40,000 from 1 April 2026.

Public charging and the VAT gap

Zapmap’s price index for August 2026 puts pay-as-you-go at an average 54p per kWh on slow and fast chargers and 77p on rapid and ultra-rapid units. Slow and fast rose about 6% in a year, rapids about 1%.

Part of the gap is tax. Public charging carries 20% VAT; home electricity carried 5% and, from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, carries none in Great Britain. Zapmap estimated the VAT paid by a driver without home charging at £194 in 2025, against £48 for a driver with a charger. The government has not cut VAT on public charging, and the home electricity cut has, for now, widened the difference. For drivers without off-street parking this is the most important number in the whole decision.

When it does not add up

An EV charged mostly on public rapids costs more per mile than a small petrol car, and no grant changes that. A household whose electricity use is mostly daytime can lose the tariff saving on the higher day rate. And a long fixed electricity deal signed before the car arrives may carry an exit fee when you want to move to an EV tariff, so if a car is coming within a year, a short fix or the capped variable tariff keeps your options open. Our contract alert can remind you when a fix ends.

With a driveway and an overnight tariff, though, this is the cheapest motoring most British households have had, even once the 2028 mileage charge is counted.