Electric car drivers who want to charge their vehicles en-route are forced to pay 58 per cent more than they were in May, a new market review has revealed.
The average cost to use a ‘rapid’ device across the different public charging operators in the UK at the start of January has risen to 70.32p per kilowatt hour, up from 44.55p eight months ago, according to new analysis by the RAC.
It says the owner of an electric family car with a 64kW battery will pay £36 to add around 188 miles of range, which works out at almost 20p per mile. In contrast, a driver of an equivalent petrol car will pay only around 17p-a-mile.
As a point of comparison, the RAC says the average cost to charge a family EV to 80 pent cent using a wallbox installed at home costs around £17.87 today – despite record high domestic energy prices.
Public charging prices up 58% since May 2022: Analysis by the RAC has found that the average price for using rapid public devices has risen from 45p per kWh to 70p in just eight months
The RAC’s report follows similar analysis conducted by the Daily Mail on Monday, which pointed to petrol cars being less expensive to run over longer journeys than electric vehicles, which have commonly been sold to customers under the premise that they are far cheaper to run.
Driving their rising cost is the high wholesale price of electricity, which public charging operators are passing onto consumers via ad-hoc price rises.
This has extended the running cost gap between plugging in an electric car at home and more expensive public devices – and in some cases it’s more than twice the price.
For instance, pay-as-you-go users of the popular Shell Recharge network need to fork out 85p per kWh to charge via a rapid 50kW device, while BP Pulse wants 69p per kWh to access plug-in points with this charging speed.
This means the price per mile for an electric vehicle charged at home is less than 11p, which is far cheaper than petrol and proof that those with the capacity to plug-in at the properties will see the biggest cost benefits.
Using the fastest public ‘ultra-rapid’ charging devices – those with speeds in excess of 100kW – is even more expensive.
While these charging points can boost an electric car’s battery to 80 per cent in a matter of minutes, it comes at a far steeper average cost of 74.79p per kWh.
That’s up from an average of 50.97p in May 2022 – an increase of 47 per cent.
Charging an average 64kWh battery electric family car to 80 per cent using one of these devices will cost a staggering £38.29 on average – or 21p per mile – the report said. That’s £20.42 more than it costs drivers who can plug in at home.
It also means it is more cost effective to drive a petrol car over longer journeys, based on current UK average pump prices.
A petrol model returning 40 miles to the gallon will cost around just 17-a-mile, the RAC calculated, while diesels are on par with rapid charging costs at around 20p per mile due to higher prices at the pumps. That figure is also based on a return of 40mpg, but many diesel cars are more fuel efficient than petrol and so the real-world petrol to diesel comparison may prove more favourable.
Charging an electric car at home is still by far the cheapest option, working out at around 11p per mile. That’s 9p less than using public chargers – and some 6p cheaper than petrol
The RAC says it is growing increasingly concerned that the high cost of longer journeys in EVs will temper drivers’ appetite to switch to greener cars.
It said the sky-high cost of using the public network – on top of relatively high battery vehicle prices – ‘risks dissuading drivers from opting for them over keeping their existing petrol and diesel vehicles’.
Simon Williams, the RAC’s spokesperson, said: ‘For drivers to switch to electric cars en masse, it’s vital that the numbers stack up.
‘In time, the list price of new electric models will come down but charging quickly has also got to be as affordable as possible.’
He went on: ‘It continues to be the case that those who can charge at home or at work and who don’t use the public rapid charging network very often get fantastic value – even given the relatively high domestic energy prices right now.
‘Sadly, the same can’t be said for people who either can’t charge at home or at work, or who regularly make longer journeys beyond the range of their cars.
‘There’s no question they have to pay far more, and in some cases more than petrol or diesel drivers do to fill up on a mile-for-mile basis.’
Figures published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders last week showed that battery electric new cars took a market share of 16.6 per cent in 2022, making it the second most-bought fuel type behind petrol.
In comparison, diesels accounted for just 9.6 per cent of all new cars purchased in 2022, as demand for the fuel type continues to shrink following the Dieselgate emission cheating scandal of 2015.
Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will be banned from 2030.