EV charging cost per kWh in the UK (2026): home, public and rapid chargers compared

In late 2026, a kWh for an electric car costs about 6.5p to 10p at home on an EV tariff overnight, 26.32p on the Ofgem price cap (October to December 2026), 54p on public slow and fast chargers and 79p on rapid and ultra-rapid chargers. The most expensive kWh is more than ten times the cheapest.

For a driver, the place of charging matters far more than the choice of supplier. For a fleet manager, it decides what a fair reimbursement rate is.

This guide gives one sourced table of prices per kWh and per mile, explains what sits inside the home price, why public charging costs more, how VAT differs, what charging losses add, and which price to use when you repay a company car driver.

The essentials in 30 seconds

• Home, price cap: 26.32p/kWh plus a standing charge of 54.83p a day (GB average, direct debit, 1 October to 31 December 2026, no VAT).
• Home, EV tariff: about 6.5p to 10p/kWh in the off-peak window.
• Public: 54p/kWh on slow and fast chargers, 79p/kWh on rapid and ultra-rapid (Zapmap, September 2026).
• VAT: 0 % on domestic electricity in Great Britain until 31 March 2027, then 5 %; 20 % on public charging.
• Per mile: from under 2p at home off-peak to about 22p at a rapid charger, against roughly 17p for a petrol car.

Price per kWh by charging place: the 2026 table

The cost per mile uses 3.59 miles per kWh, the figure HMRC uses for company electric cars. Sources: Ofgem, price cap, Zapmap charging price index, gov.uk, advisory fuel rates.

At home: the price cap unit rate

The Ofgem price cap sets the maximum a supplier can charge per kWh and per day on a standard variable tariff. For 1 October to 31 December 2026, the GB average for electricity paid by direct debit is:

• 26.32p per kWh (unit rate);
• 54.83p per day (standing charge).

Both figures are without VAT, because domestic electricity is zero-rated in Great Britain over that period. The cap is reviewed every three months, and the exact figures vary by region and payment method.

Which part of the bill counts for charging?

Only the unit rate. The standing charge is paid whether or not you own an electric car, so it is not part of the cost of charging. The real price of a kWh going into the car is the marginal price: unit rate, at the time of charging, with its VAT.

Dividing your total bill by your total kWh gives a higher, average figure that mixes in the standing charge. It overstates the cost of charging, especially for households with modest consumption.

Regional differences

Both the unit rate and the standing charge differ between the 14 regions of Great Britain, mainly because network costs differ. The GB average is a good reference for national comparisons. For an individual driver's cost, use the rate on their own bill. Ofgem publishes the regional figures on its website.

What is inside the unit rate

The price cap is built by Ofgem from the costs a supplier faces, and the same building blocks sit inside any tariff:

• Wholesale energy: the cost of buying electricity on the market, the largest and most volatile part.
• Network costs: transmission and distribution, which differ by region and explain most of the regional gap.
• Policy costs: levies that fund government schemes, partly on the unit rate and partly on the standing charge.
• Operating costs and margin: billing, metering, customer service and an allowed profit.
• VAT: 0 % on domestic electricity in Great Britain until 31 March 2027.

EV tariffs are cheaper overnight because wholesale prices and network use are lowest at night. A supplier can sell you that hour cheaply and still make money on the day rate.

At home: EV and time-of-use tariffs

EV tariffs give a low unit rate for a few hours, usually overnight, and a higher rate the rest of the day.

Octopus Energy advertises Intelligent Octopus Go at 6.5p/kWh for up to six hours of smart charging a day. Source: Octopus Energy.

Three points before switching:

• You need a smart meter that records half-hourly consumption.
• The day rate is higher than the price cap on most EV tariffs. If you cannot shift other household use, compare the whole bill.
• The window limits the energy. Six hours at 7 kW is about 42 kWh; at 2.3 kW on a 3-pin plug it is about 14 kWh.

For how to make the most of cheap-rate hours, see our guide to off-peak EV charging.

VAT: 0 % at home, 20 % in public

• Domestic electricity in Great Britain: zero-rated from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027; back to 5 % from 1 April 2027. Northern Ireland stays at 5 % throughout. Source: gov.uk, temporary zero rate of VAT for domestic electricity.
• Public charging: standard-rated at 20 %.

The VAT gap explains part of the price difference between home and public charging. On the price cap, returning to 5 % in April 2027 would add about 1.3p per kWh, all else equal.

Public chargers: slow, fast, rapid and ultra-rapid

Zapmap's price index for September 2026 gives the average pay-as-you-go prices:

• 54p/kWh on slow and fast chargers (3 to 49 kW), the destination chargers found in car parks, supermarkets and on streets;
• 79p/kWh on rapid and ultra-rapid chargers (50 kW and above), on motorways, at hubs and at service stations.

Among the leading rapid networks, published pay-as-you-go prices ranged from 59p to 92p per kWh. The index excludes off-peak windows, time-limited deals and partner offers, so a driver who uses them can pay less. Source: Zapmap charging price index.

Why public charging costs so much more

• Equipment and grid connection: a 150 kW charger and its high-voltage connection cost far more than a home wallbox.
• Demand charges and low utilisation: operators pay for peak capacity whether or not cars plug in.
• VAT at 20 % instead of 0 % or 5 % at home.
• Location and service: motorway sites, maintenance, payment and customer support.

Subscriptions and charge cards

Several networks offer memberships that lower the price per kWh in return for a monthly fee, and roaming charge cards give access to many networks on one account. They pay off only for drivers who charge in public regularly. For a company car driver who mainly charges at home, a company charge card for occasional public charging avoids personal expense claims altogether.

At work: a kWh paid by the employer

Workplace charging is usually free to the driver. For tax purposes it is not a benefit: charging a company car at work creates no taxable benefit, and charging an employee's own car at work has been exempt since 6 April 2018. Source: HMRC, EIM23900.

For the employer, the cost is its own business electricity price, plus the cost of the chargepoints.

Charging losses: the kWh you pay is not the kWh you store

Some energy is lost as heat between the socket and the battery: in the charger, the cable and the car's on-board charger. Losses are typically around 10 % on a 7 kW wallbox, more on a slow 3-pin charge and in cold weather.

In practice, a car that needs 50 kWh in its battery draws about 55 kWh from your home supply. That is why a household bill always shows a little more than the car's own display. On rapid DC chargers, you pay for the energy delivered by the charger, and conversion happens inside the station.

From price per kWh to cost per mile

Divide the price per kWh by the car's efficiency in miles per kWh.

Cost per mile = price per kWh ÷ miles per kWh

HMRC's reference for company electric cars is 3.59 miles per kWh. A compact EV in summer can do 4 or more; a large SUV in winter, under 3.

At a rapid charger, a large EV in winter can cost more per mile than a frugal petrol car. At home off-peak, the same car costs about a tenth of it.

The cost of a full charge for popular models is in our guide to what it costs to charge an electric car at home, and the charging time at each power level in our guide to EV charging times.

How the HMRC rates compare: 7p and 15p per mile

For company electric cars, HMRC publishes Advisory Electricity Rates per business mile: 7p for home charging and 15p for public charging, since 1 September 2026. HMRC derives them from 24.47p/kWh at home and 54p/kWh in public, at 3.59 miles per kWh.

The public rate is set on slow and fast prices, so it under-pays rapid charging. A driver relying on motorway chargers loses about 7p every mile on the AER. HMRC allows a higher rate only where the employer can show the actual cost per mile is higher.

Seven ways to pay less per kWh

1. Switch to an EV or time-of-use tariff if you charge at home more than once a week, after checking the day rate against your household's daytime use.
2. Schedule every charge in the car or charger app so it starts inside the cheap window, never at plug-in time.
3. Charge to 80 % on weekdays. It is kinder to the battery and leaves the cheap window for the next night.
4. Use workplace charging when it is free or subsidised.
5. Plan long trips around cheaper rapid networks, or use a membership if you rapid-charge every week.
6. Pre-condition the car while plugged in in winter, so heating draws from the grid at home, not from the battery on the road.
7. Avoid topping up at rapid chargers out of habit. A 30 kWh top-up at 79p costs about £24, the price of more than 360 kWh charged at home at 6.5p.

For a fleet: the place of charging matters more than the supplier

Take a company car covering 15,000 miles a year at 3.59 miles per kWh, about 4,180 kWh a year.

The same car costs between about £575 and £3,300 a year in energy, depending on where it charges. Moving a driver from public to home charging saves far more than negotiating a better supplier contract. That is why fleets invest in home charging and repay it properly.

Which price per kWh to use when repaying a driver

For a company car, HMRC lets the employer repay the electricity used at home, private use included, tax and NIC free, as long as the payment covers only the car. The fairest price is the driver's own unit rate at the time of each charge: 6.5p for a charge in the smart window, the day rate for a charge at 6pm, the cap rate for a driver on a standard tariff.

Three common shortcuts each have a flaw:

• A single "average" price for everyone overpays drivers on EV tariffs and underpays those on standard tariffs.
• The price cap for everyone ignores that many company car drivers already pay much less overnight.
• The AER per mile is simple, but rests on a national average and pays business miles only.

Voltaback values each measured charge at the driver's own tariff, including time-of-use and half-hourly prices, or applies the AER per business mile with the charging place measured. On measurement, Voltaback relies on the home's MID-certified meter, not on a standalone cable meter. To estimate your fleet's home charging budget, try the home charging cost simulator, and see how home charging reimbursement works. The wider UK rules are in our home charging reimbursement guide.

Charge at home, repay at the real price

The cheapest kWh is the one charged at home in the off-peak window, and the most expensive is bought at a rapid charger in a hurry. For a fleet, the best saving is to make home charging easy and repay it at what each driver actually pays.

Talk to Voltaback to see what your drivers' home charging really costs, kWh by kWh, and how to reimburse it automatically.