24th May 2021
If you’re considering making the switch to a hybrid or fully electric vehicle, one of the most common questions we hear is ‘how much does it cost to charge an electric car?’.
With many of us being so used to petrol and diesel vehicles, we have a good understanding of the cost to fill up a vehicle of a certain engine size or use, and it’s easy to budget for that each month. However, with petrol prices continuing to rise, you’ll be surprised at how cheap electric car charging can be.
Home Charging
An average electric car has a battery of 60kWh (kilowatt hours) and a 200 mile range. To charge a battery of this size from completely flat to full at home would cost less than £10 and take around 8 hours. Depending on how much your domestic electricity costs, you could pay anywhere from £9 to £9.90 for a full charge. That’s a lot cheaper than a full tank of petrol!
Rapid Charging
Some cars, particularly Tesla and the latest electric vehicles, have an option for rapid charging or supercharging. These extra fast charging points are generally only found at motorway service stations. Charging with these starts from around £6.50, which will add an extra 100 miles to your range in just 30 minutes.
Rapid charging is becoming more popular, but as the technology is still very new, it is still the most expensive (albeit the fastest) way to charge your electric vehicle.
Work and Public Charging
The UK government have been running an electric charge point scheme to encourage employers to add these to staff parking arrangements, so you may be able to charge your car for free at work for a set number of hours.
Many supermarkets and retail parks also now offer electric car charging stations, often free for a designated time period. Multistorey or pay and display car parks tend to offer either free charging or charging via a free app, where hours are calculated and charged at a low rate.
It’s important to keep in mind that you’ll almost never be charging a car from a completely flat battery. Regular top-up charging is recommended by most electric vehicle suppliers as a way to never run out or find yourself stranded. If you have a hybrid vehicle, make sure you’re keeping the battery topped up and not relying on the petrol tank too much, as this can actually be less efficient than just running a pure petrol car.
The idea behind top up charging is that you can access free charging points regularly to keep your battery running at full power as often as possible. In the winter, this is especially important as the car battery will use more power to overcome cold temperatures.
Charging electric cars and vehicles, much like filling up with petrol, depends a lot on your use. Most fully electric vehicles have a charge range of 200-300 miles on a single charge, so they’re ideal for people who tend to take more local trips with the occasional longer journey. But that’s not to say you can’t have an electric car and be a frequent long-distance driver.
To ensure your electric car and battery are working at peak performance no matter what kind of journey you’re making, the experts at Merityre are here to help.
With a specially trained team of electric vehicle specialists, we can help with all kinds of repairs, servicing and maintenance for electric vehicles. Keep your journey going smoothly and rest assured that your electric vehicle is in top working order when you choose the experts at Merityre.