Calculate your exact EV charging costs and annual petrol savings in just a few clicks.
⚡EV Charging Cost Calculator
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If you've just gone electric, or you're still weighing it up, the first question is always the same: how much does it actually cost to charge an electric car in the UK? The honest answer is "it depends" - but not in a vague way. It depends on three things you can control (your tariff, your battery size, and how much charge you actually need) and one thing you can't (the weather). Above, this EV charging cost calculator (or, if you prefer the longer name, electric car charging cost calculator) does the maths for you in seconds. Below, we'll walk through how to use it properly, what the numbers mean, and what the real cost to charge electric car models in the UK looks like in 2026.
On this page
How to use this EV charging cost calculator
You don't need your electricity bill in front of you or a calculator app open in another tab - everything's built in. Here's the quickest way to get an accurate number for your own car and tariff:
- Pick your vehicle. Choose your car from the list and its battery size fills in automatically. Can't see your model, or want to enter a battery size manually? Select "Custom vehicle" and type it in yourself.
- Choose your charging speed. This is the power of the charger - a 7.4kW home wallbox, a 50kW rapid unit, and so on. This affects how long the session takes, not what it costs.
- Select where you're charging. Home off-peak, home standard rate, public slow/fast, or public rapid - each has a very different price per kWh, and this is what drives your final cost more than anything else.
- Set your battery range. Drag the slider to match a typical top-up, for example 20% to 80%, rather than always assuming a full 0-100% charge.
- Check the season. Cold weather genuinely reduces range because the battery has to work harder, so toggle Winter if you're planning for the colder months.
- Add your usage. Weekly charging sessions and yearly mileage let the calculator work out your running costs over a week, a month and a full year - not just a single charge.
- Press Calculate. Your results - cost, energy added, charging time, cost per mile, and a full annual breakdown - appear instantly on the Results tab.
Quick tip: if you only take one thing from this calculator, make it this - charging at home on an off-peak EV tariff instead of a standard rate is, by far, the single biggest saving available to any UK electric car driver. It's usually worth more than switching cars, chargers, or driving style combined.
What each part of the calculator does
A lot of EV charging calculators only ask for a battery size and a price per kWh. This one goes a bit further, because a handful of extra details make a real difference to accuracy - and it works equally well as a home EV charging cost calculator for overnight tariffs or a public EV charging cost calculator for rapid-network road trips:
Vehicle and battery size
Every EV has a different battery capacity, from a 24kWh Fiat 500e right up to a 107.8kWh Mercedes EQS. That number is the single biggest factor in your charging cost, so getting it right matters more than anything else on this page.
Charging speed
This one trips a lot of people up: charging speed changes how long a session takes, not how much it costs. A 50kWh top-up costs the same whether it comes from a slow 3.6kW home charger over many hours or a 150kW rapid unit in twenty minutes - assuming the price per kWh is the same. Where speed really matters is convenience and, on the public network, the fact that faster chargers usually charge a higher price per kWh too.
Where you're charging
This is the one field that changes your bill more than any other. The calculator includes four real UK rate presets, updated for 2026, or you can enter your own tariff if it's different.
Battery level and season
Most people don't charge from empty to full - they top up. The battery slider reflects that. The season toggle exists because cold weather genuinely reduces how many miles you get from each kWh, so a winter estimate and a summer estimate for the same charge can look noticeably different.
Usage, and the annual cost breakdown
A single charging session is useful, but most people actually want to know what charging their car costs them over a year. Add your weekly sessions and yearly mileage and the calculator projects your cost by week, month and year, plus what you'd save compared with running a petrol car doing the same mileage.
EV charging costs in the UK - the 2026 numbers
Prices move every few months as the Ofgem price cap changes and public network operators adjust their rates, so here's where things stand right now. All of these are the same figures built into the calculator above, which doubles as an EV cost per mile calculator once you add your car's efficiency.
Bars scaled relative to the most expensive rate (public rapid/ultra-rapid). Home off-peak works out roughly ten times cheaper per kWh than rapid public charging.
| Where you charge | Typical rate | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Home, off-peak EV tariff | ~8p/kWh | Overnight charging, the cheapest option by far |
| Home, standard variable tariff | ~26.11p/kWh | Anyone without a smart meter or EV tariff yet |
| Public, slow/fast (3–49kW) | ~54p/kWh | Topping up while shopping or at work |
| Public, rapid/ultra-rapid (50kW+) | ~80p/kWh | Long journeys where speed matters more than price |
The gap between the cheapest and most expensive option here is roughly tenfold. That's not a rounding error - it's the reason so many EV owners switch to a dedicated overnight tariff within their first year of ownership.
Cost to charge popular UK electric cars
To put those rates into context, here's what a full charge costs for some of the UK's most common EVs, comparing a cheap overnight tariff against a standard variable rate.
| Model | Battery | Off-peak (8p/kWh) | Standard rate (26.11p/kWh) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nissan Leaf | 40 kWh | £3.20 | £10.44 |
| MG4 EV | 51 kWh | £4.08 | £13.32 |
| Tesla Model 3 RWD | 60 kWh | £4.80 | £15.67 |
| Kia Niro EV | 64.8 kWh | £5.18 | £16.92 |
| Hyundai IONIQ 5 / Kia EV6 | 77.4 kWh | £6.19 | £20.21 |
Use the calculator above with your own vehicle for an exact figure, especially if you're topping up rather than charging from empty - most day-to-day charging only adds 30-60% of the battery, not the full 100%.
What actually changes your charging cost
Your electricity tariff, more than anything else
Switching from a standard variable tariff to a dedicated overnight EV tariff is, on paper, the equivalent of finding a 70% discount on every charge. If you drive a typical UK mileage of around 8,000-10,000 miles a year, that difference alone can be worth several hundred pounds annually.
How efficient your car is
Miles per kWh varies by model, driving style, and conditions - smaller, lighter EVs often manage over 4 miles per kWh, while larger SUVs can sit closer to 2.5-3. Two people with identical tariffs and identical battery sizes can still have noticeably different running costs simply because of the car they drive.
Season and temperature
Lithium-ion batteries are less efficient when cold, and cabin heating draws extra power that a petrol car gets almost for free from waste engine heat. It's normal to see winter range drop by around a fifth to a quarter compared with summer, even though the cost per kWh hasn't changed at all - you just need more kWh to cover the same distance.
How much you rely on public rapid charging
Rapid and ultra-rapid chargers are brilliant for motorway trips, but they're roughly ten times the price of an off-peak home tariff. Drivers who can charge at home most of the time and save public rapid charging for longer journeys consistently see the lowest overall running costs.
Most EV drivers do the bulk of their charging at home overnight and only use the public rapid network occasionally - which is exactly why the gap between "typical" and "worst case" charging costs is so wide.
Frequently asked questions
It depends heavily on where you charge. On a home off-peak tariff, a full charge for a typical family EV costs somewhere between £3 and £7. On a standard home tariff, the same charge is closer to £10-£20. On public rapid chargers, it can rise to £30-£50 for the same battery. Use the calculator above with your own battery size and tariff for an exact figure.
For most popular UK EVs (40-80kWh batteries), a full 0-100% charge costs roughly £3-£6 on a cheap overnight tariff, £10-£20 on a standard home tariff, and considerably more on public rapid chargers. The "Full charge" figure in the calculator above shows this for your specific vehicle.
Yes, for the vast majority of UK drivers - often by a wide margin. Home charging on an off-peak tariff typically works out at only a few pence per mile, compared with well over ten pence per mile for a petrol car at current pump prices. Even charging exclusively on the public network is usually still cheaper than petrol, just by a smaller margin.
Public rapid and ultra-rapid chargers (50kW and above) average around 80p per kWh in 2026, though individual networks vary. That makes rapid charging the most expensive way to charge an EV - useful for topping up quickly on a long journey, but not something to rely on day-to-day if you can charge at home instead.
A home wallbox on a dedicated off-peak EV tariff, charging overnight. It's consistently the cheapest option available, well ahead of a standard home tariff and dramatically cheaper than any public charger.
On a cheap overnight tariff, most EVs cost somewhere around 2-3p per mile to run. On a standard home tariff, that rises to roughly 6-8p per mile. On public rapid chargers, it can reach 20p or more per mile - still usually cheaper than petrol, but the gap narrows considerably.
Charging costs will keep shifting as tariffs and public network pricing change, so it's worth bookmarking this page and running your own numbers again whenever your circumstances change - a new car, a new tariff, or simply driving more miles than you used to. The calculator above is kept updated with current UK rates, so you'll always be working from real, current figures rather than a rough guess.
Figures on this page are UK-wide averages for 2026 and are provided for general guidance only. Actual costs depend on your specific tariff, charger, vehicle efficiency, and driving conditions - use the calculator above with your own details for the most accurate estimate.
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