EV Charging Cost Calculator
See what it actually costs to charge your EV for a trip.
About This Tool
Before you set off, it helps to know roughly what an electric car trip will actually cost to charge — and how that compares to driving a petrol or diesel car covering the same distance. This calculator keeps it simple: enter the distance you’re planning to travel, your car’s average energy consumption per 100km in kilowatt-hours, and the average price per kWh you expect to pay at the charging point. Multiply those together and you get an honest total, not a manufacturer’s best-case estimate. It’s a quick way to weigh an EV against other ways of making the same trip before you commit to one.
The Cost of Charging an EV
How much an electric car actually costs to run comes down largely to how it’s charged, not just how far it’s driven. Charging from mains electricity — a home socket or a wallbox — costs less per kWh because you’re paying your regular household tariff, and that cost drops even further if you’re charging from your own solar panels or a home battery. Public chargers are noticeably more expensive, though usually faster, and for longer journeys they’re unavoidable at some point. The practical takeaway: cover as much of a route as possible on the cheaper home rate before leaning on the public network.
Home Charging Cheapest
Charging from a home socket or wallbox costs whatever your household electricity tariff is — usually the cheapest way to charge by a wide margin. Charging from your own solar panels, or from a home battery topped up overnight on a cheap tariff, pushes the cost down even further. If most of your driving is local, home charging alone can cover the bulk of your trip.
Public Charging More expensive
Public chargers — especially fast and rapid chargers along motorways — cost noticeably more per kWh than home electricity, since you’re paying for speed and convenience rather than a household tariff. For longer road trips, public charging is unavoidable at some point, so it’s worth covering as much of your route as possible on a cheaper home charge before you rely on the public network.
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