Millions of Electric Car Drivers Now Pay 77p a Unit for Public Charging, More Than Petrol

• Zapmap’s price index shows the average cost of rapid and ultra-rapid public charging has reached 77p per kWh, with individual networks charging as much as 92p.
• For an electric car without home access to a plug, filling up on the public network now works out more expensive per mile than running a comparable petrol car.
• The gap comes down to a tax rule: home electricity carries 5 percent VAT, while public charging is taxed at the full 20 percent rate, a difference the government has repeatedly declined to close.

The Electric Car Bill That Is Quietly Overtaking Petrol

Electric cars were sold on the promise of cheap running costs, and for anyone charging at home overnight, that promise still holds. But for the growing number of drivers who rely entirely on public chargers, usually because they park on a street with no driveway, the maths has quietly turned against them. Zapmap’s monthly price index puts the average cost of standard and standard-plus public charging at 54p per kWh and rapid or ultra-rapid charging at 77p per kWh as of August 2026, with the top ten rapid networks ranging from 59p to as high as 92p per kWh depending on location and provider.

At 77p per kWh, a family electric car that manages around 3.5 miles per kWh costs roughly 22p a mile to run on a rapid charger. A comparable petrol car averaging 45 miles to the gallon, with fuel at current UK pump prices, costs somewhere between 14p and 16p a mile. The car that was meant to be the cheaper option to run is now the more expensive one, but only for the driver who has nowhere to plug in overnight.

Why Home Charging and Public Charging Are Taxed So Differently

The root of the gap is VAT, not the cost of the electricity itself. Household energy, including power used to charge a car overnight on a driveway, is taxed at the reduced 5 percent VAT rate. Electricity sold through a public charge point is taxed at the standard 20 percent rate, the same as most retail goods. That 15 percentage point difference is added on top of a wholesale electricity price that is already higher for public networks, which pay commercial energy rates and have to cover the cost of installing and maintaining hardware in car parks, service stations and on-street bays.

Campaign groups including the Electric Vehicle Association England and the RAC Foundation have pushed government to equalise the VAT rate for years, arguing that the current system penalises exactly the drivers least able to avoid it: those in flats, terraced housing and streets without off-road parking, who are disproportionately lower income and disproportionately reliant on public infrastructure. So far, the Treasury has declined to close the gap, citing the cost to the public purse of cutting VAT on a fast-growing category of spending.

Who Actually Pays the Higher Rate

Roughly a third of UK households have no off-street parking, and that share is far higher in cities. For those drivers, a home wallbox is not an option regardless of how much they might want one, which leaves lamppost chargers, supermarket bays and forecourt rapids as the only choice. Rapid chargers are convenient because they refill a battery in 20 to 40 minutes, but that speed comes at the highest price point on the index. Drivers who can charge slowly overnight on a standard public charger pay less, around 54p per kWh, but still nothing close to the roughly 25p to 28p per kWh most households pay at home including standing charges.

The gap is not static either. Zapmap’s index has tracked rapid charging prices rising through 2026 as networks pass on higher wholesale electricity costs and continue to expand, and there is no indication the trend is reversing. For a driver doing 8,000 miles a year entirely on rapid public chargers, the difference between home and public rates can add several hundred pounds a year to running costs compared with a driver on the same model who has a driveway.

How to Cut the Cost If You Cannot Charge at Home

Compare providers before you plug in rather than defaulting to the nearest charger. Zapmap’s own app and website list live per kWh pricing across networks, and the difference between the cheapest and most expensive rapid charger in the same town can be 20p per kWh or more. Where possible, use standard or standard-plus chargers instead of rapids for routine top-ups, since the slower speed comes with a meaningfully lower price per unit. Check whether your council or workplace offers subsidised or free charging, since a growing number of local authorities have installed lamppost chargers priced closer to domestic rates specifically to help residents without a driveway. Finally, if you are close to getting off-street parking, even a single dropped kerb and a basic home charger can cut your per mile cost by more than half, and several energy suppliers offer EV tariffs with cheap overnight rates well below the standard domestic price.

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Sources:

• https://www.zapmap.com/ev-stats/charging-price-index
• https://www.zapmap.com/ev-stats/rapid-charging-prices
• https://www.chargescheme.com/blog/cost-to-charge-ev-public-charger-uk-2026