How expensive will EV charging become?

It's more than just the wholesale price of electricity.

One of the good things about being an EV owner is knowing that for most of my charge sessions I’m not going to be paying the outlandish prices fossil fuel car drivers pay to fill up. In addition being someone with off-street parking (i.e. a driveway of my own)¹ I can take advantage of home charging at cheap domestic rates. For EV owners with solar panels on their house the prospect of ‘free’ fuel is a regular occurrence and nothing to be remarked upon.

But once you leave the comfort of your own home - or you’re one of the percentage of the car-driving population who can’t charge at home - then you fall into the realm of public charging.

At the moment this is a little like the wild, wild, West. There are numerous charge point operators out there providing numerous charging options at numerous charging tariffs². We’ve already discussed several times on the podcast how companies such as bp Pulse have 3 different tariffs for a single kWh of electricity depending on the speed of the charger, whether you have a subscription or not, and the method of payment.

However, regardless of the supplier you use the price you pay will usually be less than the equivalent fossil fuel price. The exception to this is if you’re using one of the more expensive CPOs in an inefficient car where your miles / kWh value is quite low. That’s the equivalent of only filling up with petrol or diesel at the motorway service areas and nobody does that, do they?