Electric cars…how much do they really cost in electricity?

From the trip computer in our car, we have used 4386 kWh of electricity to drive 18262 miles. This equates to a little over 4 miles per kilo Watt hour (kWh) with 1 kWh being a unit of electricity that we buy from our energy providers. The price of electricity varies between energy provider and tariffs. Generally it is cheaper (and greener) to charge off peak at night, so let’s look at that in detail with 3 popular off peak tariffs.

The Octopus GO tariff is 5p per unit off peak.

Bulb Vari-Fair economy 7 tariff is 13.7p per unit off peak.

EON economy 7 tariff is 20.5p per unit off peak.

For Octopus 4386 x 0.05 = £220

For Bulb 4386 x 0.137 = £600

For EON 4386 x 0.205 = £900

So depending on the provider used and at todays prices, running a typical electric car for approximately 18000 miles costs between £220 and £900, including VAT.

If you did not have an off peak tariff and were paying for electricity at the national maximum price cap which is currently 35p per unit this would rise to £1535.