Electric cars are often sold as “cheaper to run”, and plenty of owners will tell you that’s true. But the honest answer in the UK is more specific:
EVs usually save you money if you can charge at home most of the time.
If you rely heavily on public rapid charging, the savings can shrink fast, and sometimes disappear.
Let’s walk through it using real UK pricing and a few realistic driving scenarios.
The fastest way to compare: cost per mile
1) Home charging (where EVs usually win)
Ofgem’s energy price cap for 1 January to 31 March 2026 gives an average electricity unit rate of 27.69p per kWh (standard variable tariff, paid by Direct Debit).
Now we need an efficiency assumption. A lot of mainstream EVs land around 3 to 4 miles per kWh in mixed driving, depending on weather, tyres, speed, and the car’s shape. I’ll use 3.5 miles per kWh as a middle-of-the-road estimate (and I’ll include charging losses).
Home charging rough cost per mile (example):
- Electricity: 27.69p/kWh
- Efficiency: 3.5 miles/kWh
- Add 10% charging losses
- Result: about 8.8p per mile
That’s the headline reason EV owners often feel the savings immediately. If you do lots of miles, this gap compounds quickly.
2) Public charging (where it gets complicated)
Zapmap’s Price Index (December 2025) shows average PAYG prices of:
- 54p/kWh for slow/fast public chargers
- 77p/kWh for rapid/ultra-rapid chargers
Using the same efficiency (3.5 miles/kWh) and 10% losses, that works out to roughly:
- ~17p per mile on slow/fast public charging
- ~24p per mile on rapid charging
That’s why GOV.UK notes that public charging can be roughly equivalent to fuelling an equivalent petrol car, while home charging is typically much cheaper.
There’s also the VAT angle: electricity at home is typically taxed at 5% VAT, while public charging is generally 20% VAT, which makes public charging feel even more expensive.
3) Petrol cost per mile (a grounded comparison)
For petrol pricing, one reliable reference point is the UK Government’s “Quarterly Energy Prices” publication, which reported petrol at around 131.5p/litre (mid-month June 2025).
Other reporting (quoting RAC) has petrol around 131.91p/litre more recently.
To translate “price per litre” into “price per mile”, we need fuel economy. Here’s a realistic example:
- Petrol price: ~131.9p/litre
- Petrol car economy: 45 mpg (UK) (fairly typical for a modern-ish hatchback driven normally)
That gives a fuel cost of roughly 13.3p per mile for petrol (and it can be higher if your car does 35 mpg, you do mostly short trips, or you sit in traffic).
So the pattern is clear:
- EV home charging: ~9p/mile
- Petrol: ~13p/mile (example)
- Public charging: ~17p to ~24p/mile depending on charger speed and tariff
Real-world yearly scenarios (so it doesn’t stay abstract)
The National Travel Survey says people in England travelled an average of 6,082 miles in 2024 (all travel, all modes).
Many drivers will be above or below that, so here are two simple mileages: 6,000 and 10,000 miles per year.
Scenario A: 6,000 miles per year
- EV at home (~8.8p/mile): ~£528/year
- Petrol (~13.3p/mile): ~£798/year
- Difference: ~£270/year in energy savings
Scenario B: 10,000 miles per year
- EV at home: ~£880/year
- Petrol: ~£1,330/year
- Difference: ~£450/year in energy savings
Now the big twist:
If you charge mostly on public rapid chargers (~24p/mile), you could spend ~£2,400/year at 10,000 miles, which is clearly not “cheap to run”.
So the question becomes less “EV vs petrol” and more “home charging vs public charging”.
What about maintenance and servicing?
This is another area where EVs often do well.
The RAC notes that EVs have fewer moving parts than petrol or diesel cars and can be cheaper to maintain, with long battery warranties commonly around eight years.
The Car Expert’s analysis (servicing costs) has also concluded EVs were around 30% cheaper to service over the first five years in their dataset.
This won’t mean “no costs”. Tyres, suspension, brakes (though often less wear thanks to regenerative braking), and general repairs still exist. But you usually remove a long list of petrol-only items (oil changes, spark plugs, exhaust issues, and so on).
Road tax changed in April 2025, and it matters
EVs are no longer universally road-tax-free.
GOV.UK guidance explains how Vehicle Excise Duty applies to electric and low-emission vehicles, and how rules changed from 1 April 2025.
There’s also an official DVLA rates document (V149) that shows the rates applying from April 2025, including the £10 first-year rate for zero-emission cars and the standard-rate structure beyond that.
One big “gotcha” is the expensive car supplement (often called the “luxury car tax”). For EVs registered on or after 1 April 2025 with a list price above the threshold, you may pay the standard rate plus the supplement for the first years of the standard-rate period. GOV.UK covers this directly.
This doesn’t erase EV savings on energy, but it reduces them, especially for higher-priced models.
The costs people forget to include
If you want a fair comparison, you also need to account for:
Home charger installation
If you need a charger installed at home, that is an upfront cost. For some households it’s essential; for others a 3-pin plug works fine for low mileage (slowly).
Depreciation
This can dominate total cost of ownership. It varies wildly by model, incentives, used market demand, and battery reputation. You can “save” on fuel and still lose money overall if depreciation is heavy.
Insurance
Sometimes higher on EVs, sometimes not. It depends on driver profile, repair costs, and model availability for parts.
So… do EVs really save you money?
Usually, yes, if:
- You can charge at home most of the time (or on a cheap overnight tariff)
- You do a moderate amount of mileage
- You avoid relying on rapid public charging for your regular routine
Not always, if:
- You mostly use public rapid chargers (often similar to petrol or worse)
- You buy a high list-price EV and get hit with the expensive car supplement
- You do very low mileage, where fuel savings take longer to “show up”
