The trick to charge an EV for just £218 a year

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Electric car owners can slash the cost of charging an EV to far less than fuelling a petrol car with a smart charger and special electricity deal.

By using a system that allows them to charge at the cheapest possible time, drivers of a typical EV could end up paying just £18 to do 1,000 miles per month - far cheaper than the £128 cost of refuelling a petrol car.

Home charging already makes EVs substantially cheaper to fuel per mile than petrol cars, but adopting smart charging can boost the saving to more than £1,300 a year, a new study shows.

Charging point provider Andersen EV analysed the difference between how much it costs a typical petrol driver to refuel each year, and a typical EV driver who uses a smart charger at home.

By charging at home with a smart charger EV drivers can take advantage of off-peak rates. Smart chargers automatically stop and start charging in line with domestic tariff changes, like when rates drop overnight because less people are consuming energy

Rising petrol prices and a fall in off-peak EV tariff costs have widened the gap between the home EV charging and refuelling.

It can now be almost seven times more expensive to refuel a conventional petrol car than to charge an EV with a smart charger at home, the quarterly Andersen Index has found.

But the savings are diminished if people use standard home chargers and electric cars can be more expensive if they rely on public charging. 

By charging at home with a smart charger, EV drivers can take advantage of off-peak rates. Smart chargers automatically stop and start charging in line depending on how cheap electricity is, for example, taking advantage when rates drop overnight because less people are consuming energy.

Smart charging an EV vs petrol costs

The Andersen Index compared a 1.2-litre Vauxhall Corsa to a Vauxhall Corsa Electric over a monthly average of 1,000 miles.

Live pricing from six popular energy providers (including Ovo Energy, Octopus Energy, British Gas and e.on) gave an average smart charge rate of 7.9p/kWh. 

When multiplied by the 230kWh of battery energy required to power the Corsa E for 1,000 miles, an EV owner would pay just £18.17 a month, or £218.04 a year.

An equivalent petrol Corsa would need around 87 litres of unleaded petrol to drive 1,000 miles (at 52mpg, that's 11.42 miles a litre). Using the RAC average at the time the research was done of £1.48p a litre, a petrol driver would fork out £128.76 per month, or £1,545.12 a year.

That's a whopping difference of £1,327.92 that could be saved by driving an EV and smart charging at home.

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The fly in the ointment is the gap in purchase costs of the two cars. 

A 1.2 litre petrol Corsa starts from £18,505, while a battery electric Corsa starts from £26,895.

However, with many new car buyers using PCP finance deals, the cheaper monthly fuelling could be offset against the more expensive monthly payments for the EV to compare total ownership costs.

Standard home charging costs

While savings can still be made by charging at home without a smart charger, they are only around a third of smart charging savings.

People who don't use a smart charger, or don't take advantage of EV-specific tariffs, pay a monthly cost of £56.35, based on Ofgem's energy price cap average standard rate tariff of 24.5p/kWh. This puts yearly costs at £676.20.

It can now be almost seven times more expensive to refuel a conventional petrol car than to charge an EV with a smart charger at home, the Andersen Index has found 

Expensive charging on the move blows the savings 

There is a major gap in electric car running costs between those who can charge at home and those who have to rely on public charging. 

EV charging savings go out the window if drivers are using only public rapid charging, according to the Andersen analysis, which would cost an average of £180 a month, or £2,160 a year.

A separate recent report from the AA found that public 8kW charging costs were 52p/kWh on average - more than double the standard energy price cap rate.

Meanwhile, fast charging (8-49kW) cost 57p/kWh, rapid charging (50 - 149kW) cost 71p/kWh and ultra-rapid (150+kW) cost 78p/kWh.

In reality, most EV owners who did not have home charging would mainly use the cheaper but slower public charging points.

This comes as home charge provider Cord has found that 221,000 EV drivers don't have home charge points, with 77,000 of those relying on three-pin socket charging.

The government recently opened up the grant for EV home chargers to motorists without driveways, which is a welcome move to help them access cheaper charging.

David Martell, CEO of Andersen EV, said: '65 per cent of homes have driveways or other off-street parking which allows them to install a home charger and now, thanks to the Government EV grant introduced in March, those without a driveway can get £350 off the cost of an installation. 

'This expands the options for drivers, giving equal access to EVs regardless of where you live.'