The increase – caused by the soaring costs of wholesale gas and electricity – means that it now costs drivers on average £32.41 to rapid charge a typical family-sized electric car with a 64kWh battery to 80%, which is up nearly £10 (£9.60) since May and £13.59 compared to a year ago.2/3
Drivers using the fastest, so-called ‘ultra-rapid’ chargers that have a power output of more than 100kW have seen average charging costs increase by a quarter (25%), or 12.97p, since May with the current average price of charging sitting a little over the ‘rapid’ cost at 63.94p per kilowatt hour.
This puts the cost of an 80% charge at £32.74, up from £26.10 in May (25% increase) and from £17.51 in September 2021 (87% increase).
The RAC’s figures show that a driver exclusively using a rapid or ultra-rapid charger on the public network will now pay around 18p per mile for electricity, up from an average of 13p per litre in May.
This compares to 19p per mile for a petrol car and 21p per mile for a diesel one, based on someone driving at an average of 40 miles to the gallon.4
In reality, many current electric car drivers will predominantly charge at home where electricity is cheaper – under the Energy Price Guarantee that takes effect next weekend, the cost per mile for an average-sized EV driven reasonably efficiently is around 9p and the cost to charge a car to 80% at home will be £17.87.
But the huge price gap between home and public charging highlights the extent to which drivers who depend on the charging network, including those who don’t have driveways and can’t charge at home, pay a hefty premium to run electric cars.
