Electric cars

What would an electric car really cost you?

This compares what your petrol or diesel car costs to fuel with what a full electric car or a plug-in hybrid would cost to charge — including charging losses, cheap overnight tariffs, workplace charging, public charging and the value of the solar you could otherwise export.

No account needed. No quote form. No sales call. Just your numbers.

What are you comparing?

Annual driving

That's about

154 miles a week

8,000 miles is our starting assumption, not a national average.

Your current fuel car

Fuel used
1,039 litres
Annual fuel cost
£1,507
Monthly
£126
Pence per mile
18.83p

Every 10p/litre change in the pump price changes your annual fuel cost by about £104.

The electric car

Energy into the battery
2,500 kWh
Electricity from chargers
2,778 kWh
Lost while charging
278 kWh

Where will you charge?

Set the shares you control. Whatever is left is charged at home on your normal rate.

The mix used in this calculation

  • Home normal 100%

Home — normal rate: 100% — the remaining share you requested. The shares you control add up to 0%.

Solar charging is switched off because there's no solar estimate with surplus export yet. Build a solar estimate and it will appear here.

Charging prices

Charging from solar may reduce the export income you would otherwise receive. We use your export rate as its financial cost. Solar availability is an annual planning estimate and assumes the car is plugged in when the surplus happens.

Charging breakdown

SourceShareElectricityPriceAnnual cost
Home — normal rate100%2,778 kWh26.11p£725

No solar charging is selected, so every unit above is electricity you buy.

Effect on your home

Is this vehicle's home charging already included in your My Energy annual figure?

Your home currently uses 3,400 kWh a year. This vehicle would add about 2,778 kWh of charging at home, taking the combined figure to about 6,178 kWh a year.

Charged at home
2,778 kWh
Bought from the grid at home
2,778 kWh
Solar redirected from export
0 kWh

Workplace and public charging are never added to your household electricity. We don't change your My Energy or Battery figures from this page.

What if?

Move one assumption at a time and see what changes. Your saved baseline remains unchanged. Each slider changes only this page.

Your EV estimate

£725per year

Scenario

£725per year

Difference

£0per year

This is the same as your current figure.

Annual mileage

8,000 miles

mi
0mi30000mi

This is the same as your current figure.

Fuel price

£1.45 a litre

£/l
0.8£/l2.5£/l

This is the same as your current figure.

EV efficiency

3.2 mi/kWh

mi/kWh
1.5mi/kWh6mi/kWh

This is the same as your current figure.

Your details stay with you

Everything on this page is saved in your own browser. No account, no database, no email address, no phone number.

This clears only the vehicle and charging assumptions saved in this browser. My Energy, Solar, Battery, Heating and Tariffs are untouched.

Running-energy comparison

Current fuel car

Annual fuel cost
£1,507
Monthly
£126
Pence per mile
18.83p
Fuel used
1,039 litres

Full electric car

Annual running cost
£725
Monthly
£60
Pence per mile
9.07p
Charger electricity
2,778 kWh

The EV is approximately £781 a year cheaper to power.

Your weighted average charging price is 26.11p per kWh.

Every 1p/kWh change in that average changes your annual EV cost by about £28.

At your fuel economy and fuel price, the EV matches the fuel cost of your current car at an average charging price of about 54.2p per kWh — you're currently 28.1p below it.

About 278 kWh a year is lost while charging — you pay for it, but it never reaches the battery.

Charging everything on your normal rate versus everything on the cheap rate is a difference of about £531 a year.

Explore another question

Your saved figures will come with you.