Electric vehicle owners who cannot plug in their cars at home – often because they do not have a driveway – spend around £1,500 a year more charging than those who can.

Campaign group Fair Charge said that the average cost of charging on the public network is £1,838 a year.

By contrast, those who have their own charging point can pay as little as £323 a year – a saving of £1,515. 

Pavement tax: Electric car owners who are able to charge at home can pay as little as £323 a year for electricity, while the average cost of charging on the public network is £1,838 a year

Pavement tax: Electric car owners who are able to charge at home can pay as little as £323 a year for electricity, while the average cost of charging on the public network is £1,838 a year

Pavement tax: Electric car owners who are able to charge at home can pay as little as £323 a year for electricity, while the average cost of charging on the public network is £1,838 a year

This is partly due to the ‘pavement tax’, which sees those who charge their cars at home pay VAT of 5 per cent – well below the 20 per cent everyone else pays. 

Blasting ‘a shocking difference in charging costs’, Fair Charge founder Quentin Willson said: ‘The Treasury is sabotaging the EV revolution.’

RAC spokesman Simon Williams added: ‘No one should be penalised just because they don’t have private parking.’ 

Industry figures also warned that the unfair spread of public charging points across the country was preventing many people going green.

Andrew Brem, the boss of Uber in the UK, said the concentration of charging points in the country’s wealthiest areas was a ‘social embarrassment’ that hits poorer drivers.

Official figures show nearly a third of the country’s charging points are in London, with Westminster alone having more than Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham combined.

Brem said the apparent focus on the richest areas in the capital was a ‘disgrace’.

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