If you’re anything like most EV users, you’ll have been attracted to electric cars because of how wonderful it is to be able not to use petrol. Electricity isn’t tangible, it isn’t liquid or solid, so it’s easy to think that it costs nothing compared to petrol. Yes, charging your EV battery is cheaper than filling your old car’s fuel tank, but it’s not usually free. In this article, we’ll be finding out how much it costs to charge an electric car, and how to get free electricity for electric cars. Let’s dive right in! 😎
Good question. Yep, you’re not alone wondering that. The biggest selling point of EVs is how cheap they end up being to run. In fact, charging your EV at home costs slightly less than half what it costs to fill up a petrol or diesel tank. Crazy, right?
You might be thinking "how do you get free electricity for electric cars?", and yes there are some possibilities. For example your employer might off this at your place of work, subject to some restrictions. However, because of how popular electric cars are getting these days, charging your EV while out and about is more expensive than it used to be at first. For example, Tesla models before September 2018 still get unlimited free Supercharger usage. If you’ve bought a Tesla after then, you won’t have access to free charging.
But when you’re not at home, you sometimes don’t have much choice. If you want to avoid running out of juice at all costs, we totally get you. It sounds like the ultimate nightmare! So you might charge your car at a random public charging station now and then to keep your mind at rest.
Do be careful though: you’ll find that it can be as expensive as 30p per kWh, which is more than triple what you would pay for electricity at home. In comparison, most home charges are around £4, whereas it might cost you around £15 to charge your EV at a public station.
We’ve been there too: having to frantically type in “free electric car charging stations near me” on your phone’s browser, staring right at the decreasing battery level on the dashboard. Funnily enough, if you’re in Scotland, you’re in luck. Scotland has the biggest number of free EV charge points in the UK: just look for the ChargePlace Scotland network. You’ll find that some of these charging stations are not free, too, so do look beforehand.
There are also quite a few free charge points around London and in the Southeast of England in general. If you want to find all the free charging stations around you, just look up your area on Zap Map. You can use a handy filter that will show you charge points according to different factors like:
Though there isn’t a specific place where you can charge your EV for free per se, there are a few types of places you’ll likely find free charging points. These include:
Unfortunately, some of the free EV charging stations have restrictions you’ll need to bear in mind. Some chargers might be reserved for customers only, and others might require a RFID card or app to be able to start charging. You might even have to pay parking charges for other free charge points.
That’s why it’s a really good idea to plan your journeys when it comes to electric car charging. You don’t want to find yourself stuck in the very sticky situation of having no charge points in sight and running out of battery.
Along with planning your journey according to free or cheap charge stations along the way, charging your EV at home may be the key to keeping costs low. Charging your electric car at home will cost you an average of £15 for a completely full charge. A great strategy is to charge your car every night before you go to bed so that you can wake up with a full battery in the morning.
If you get an electricity tariff that caters to your EV, you’ll find that this is the cheapest possible way of charging your car. You might only have to pay 5p per kWh instead of 28p to charge your electric car (with a non-EV rate). If you’re looking for an EV-tariff deal, we would recommend going with companies such as:
If you want to knock off a few extra pounds on EV charging every month, you could also consider:
Yep, there’s lots to learn about being an EV owner. Driving an electric car is great, but it also comes with some crucial do’s and don’ts. The great news though is that we’re here to help! We’re Carmoola, and we know a thing or two about cars. You can browse through our blog to find out more about EVs, and download our app to get car finance in seconds. 🚗🔌