Plug in at home overnight and electricity costs you maybe 7p per kWh. Pull up at a motorway rapid charger and the screen says 79p, sometimes 85p. Same electricity, eleven times the price — and suddenly your "cheap to run" EV costs more per mile than a diesel. People understandably assume someone's having a laugh. The truth is less satisfying: most of that price difference is real cost, and the way to beat it is strategy, not outrage.
Where your 79p actually goes
A rapid charging network pays commercial electricity rates, which include daytime wholesale prices and hefty grid connection charges — a 350 kW hub needs the kind of grid connection a small factory would. Then there's the hardware: a single rapid unit costs tens of thousands of pounds, needs maintenance, vandalism repairs and a payment system, and sits unused much of the day. And unlike your house, public charging carries 20% VAT instead of 5% — a quirk of tax law that EV groups have lobbied against for years, so far without success. Add a margin (the networks are mostly still loss-making or barely profitable) and 75–85p is what it genuinely costs to sell you a fast kWh on a motorway.
The price ladder
"Public charging" isn't one price — it's a ladder, and most people only see the expensive top rung:
| Type | Typical price (June 2026) | Per mile at 3.5 mi/kWh |
|---|---|---|
| Home EV tariff (overnight) | 5.5p–7p | ~2p |
| Lamppost / on-street AC | 30p–50p | 9p–14p |
| Destination AC (supermarkets, car parks) | Free–55p | 0p–16p |
| Rapid DC (50–150 kW) | 65p–79p | 19p–23p |
| Ultra-rapid DC (150 kW+, motorway) | 75p–89p | 21p–25p |
For comparison, a 40 mpg petrol car at £1.40 a litre costs about 16p per mile. Yes — motorway rapid charging is dearer than petrol. That single fact explains most "I tried an EV and it cost a fortune" stories.
Six ways to pay less
- Only buy what you need. The biggest beginner mistake is filling to 100% at a rapid charger. If home electricity is a quarter of the price, buy enough kWh to get home plus a margin, and finish the job overnight.
- Use subscriptions if you rapid-charge weekly. Several networks offer membership pricing — typically a monthly fee in exchange for 15–25% off the per-kWh rate. They pay for themselves at roughly one big charge a week; below that, skip them.
- Roaming services simplify and sometimes save. Octopus Electroverse gives one card/app across dozens of networks, with occasional discounted rates (and a small extra discount for Octopus energy customers).
- Charge where you were going anyway. Supermarkets, gyms and shopping centres still offer free or cheap AC charging as a perk. An hour's shop at 11 kW is 30-odd free miles.
- Check the overnight rapid discount. Some networks price off-peak rapid charging (typically 9pm–7am) 10–20p below the daytime rate.
- No driveway? Look up. Council lamppost chargers at 30–40p per kWh are spreading fast in cities, and some councils will install one near you on request. It's not 7p, but it's a third of motorway pricing for a car that sleeps on the street anyway.