It’s a basic question but its answer puzzled many. Including me so I decided to find it out once and for all. Real cost of charging electric car, really depends if you charge at home or away. For some people if charging at home is not possible, they have to think where they can charge? And how much would it cost?
To find a justification to all EV users, here is my effort and research how much does it really cost to run a electric car with comparison to equivalent gas powered car. To no surprise, its isnt expensive than refueling a regular fossil fuel ICE car.
Charging cost calculated with Maths …ooh
kWh i.e Kilowatt-hour is a common unit of measuring electricity. Here in UK where I live we have two average rates depending on time. Hence apologies the prices are in GBP. But if you are from other country just google “cost of electricity per kwh <countryname>” Like in USA its $13 and in India its 5.43 rupees etc.
- Night time rate is 8p per kWh
- Day time rate is 16p per kWh
- Public charging point can cost 30p per kWh
As Electric car come with predefined battery capacity, so its then easy to calculate how much it will cost to charge it to full or recommended 80% with below formula. [1] for e.g. Tesla Model S (75kWh)
Charge cost (currency) = Battery capacity (kWh) x Battery percentage(%) x Electricity cost (p/kWh)
75kWh x 80% x 8p per kWh = £4.80 at Night time rate
75kWh x 80% x 16p per kWh = £9.60 at Day time rate
75kWh x 80% x 30p per kWh = £18 at Rapid charger (roughly)
You can also calculate cost per mile (p/mile) using below formula.
Cost per mile (p/mile) = Charge cost ÷ Miles ran
£4.80 ÷ 225 miles = 2 pence per mile or 4 pence if charged solely at day rate
Aint that great? In comparison average good mileage ICE car like BMW 318 gets 14p per mile. However it should be taken with pinch of salt, as miles can depend on many factors like efficiency of selected car, weather, elevation and driving style.
Running costs of electric car vs a petrol car
Example running cost between EV and ICE cars are presented below. [2]
Charging cost summary
- If you can charge at home the cost of charging is about 10% of your usual fuel bill you spent earlier on fossil fuel car.
- And even if you charge mostly on public charge points costs about 65% still less compared to ICE cars.
- Charging a small electric car to full will cost as little as £2 and for a large electric car £5.
- Charging a small electric car at the ‘Rapid’ charging stations like those found at motorway service stations will cost £5 to £15 to fill up (depending on the network’s pricing).
- Rapid charging a large electric car will cost £15 to £30.
Cost to charge away from home and options
If charing at home is not possible it will be slightly more inconvenient but there are other options. As charging infrastructure is setup at an astonishing speed, before you know it there would be several places to charge your car away from home:
Rapid charging
Rapid charge points, which charge your car around 10 times faster than a home charge point, and are located in spanning countries. All you need to do is download a popular app called Zap-Map. The pricing to charge varies from one network to the next. Zap-Map provides a guide to the price of each network.
At work
The cost to charge at work completely depends on whether or not your company decides to pass through the cost or offer charging for free. If you are lucky you might get free charging from your employer.
At other destinations
Charge points are found at shopping centres, hotels, multi-storey car parks and many other destinations. These can often charge at the same speed as your home charge point – a lot slower than the Rapid chargers but still worth plugging into while you do your shopping, have a meal or stay somewhere overnight. The pricing for these is highly variable.
Revolution Electrified’s Take
Comparing to petrol or diesel bill charging an electric car at home will be 80% to 90% cheaper. The full 90% saving is achieved by switching to an EV tariff at home and using a smart charge point to schedule your charge for the cheap overnight period.
TIP: Access these savings on home energy tariff designed specifically for electric car drivers. Some forward thinking energy companies like Octopus Energy offers such but expect rest to follow. And you can use a smart charge point to schedule your home charging for the cheap overnight period.
Also rapid charging as the name suggest is coming considerably down to 10 to 20 mins to charge to 80%. Its just a matter of mindset change. You dont charge your mobile phone outside you charge it at home. Same goes for electric cars. And even if you can’t charge at home and use public charging networks you can still reduce your annual fuel bill by around 35%.
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