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Electric car drivers without off-street parking may find it’s cheaper to run a diesel, AA says

Electric vehicle parking signage - John Walton/PA
Electric vehicle parking signage - John Walton/PA

Motorists who don’t have off-street parking may find that it’s still cheaper to run a diesel car than an electric vehicle, new research from the AA has found.

New analysis by the organisation found that rapid and ultra-rapid public chargers, which can fill a car battery to nearly full in around 30 minutes or less, were more expensive to rely on than using diesel.

Slow and “fast” chargers beat combustion engines for cost, but these require the driver to park up for several hours at a time, often overnight in the case of slow chargers.

This may not be practical for those who do not have such facilities nearby to their homes and who might therefore be forced to drive to more expensive rapid chargers. Relying on rapid charging can also be detrimental to the life of a car battery.

Cheapest option

Charging a car at home remains the cheapest option in most circumstances and is only likely to become more so as discounted tariffs for off-peak electricity usage spread as well as smart tariffs, which allow consumers to sell electricity back onto the grid at peak times.

The AA found that on average it was half the price of using an ultra-rapid charger.

The cost of purchasing electric cars continues to fall, but drivers will soon be hit by tax rises. Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, announced last month that the exemption from Vehicle Excise Duty for electric cars would end in April 2025.

To combat the disparity in charging costs, the AA is calling for a wider rollout of publicly available chargers and a cut in VAT to 5 per cent. Currently, domestic electricity is only charged 5 per cent VAT, but public chargers come under the rate for businesses, which is 20 per cent.

New monthly reports on charging prices

The research was part of the launch of the AA’s new monthly reports on electric charging prices. The motoring association already has a long-running monthly fuel price report.

Using pay-as-you-go fares, the cost of using ultra-rapid chargers worked out at 16.22p per mile, while it was 14.11p per mile for rapid chargers. The average cost for diesel last month was only 13.25p per mile.

Fast and slow chargers were both cheaper than diesel, while home charging, despite soaring energy costs, remained significantly cheaper at just 7.99p per mile or around £21 to reach an 80 per cent full battery.

The AA did point out that drivers would be able to push down costs significantly by signing up to a subscription service, although this would usually mean being limited to a single provider.

'Pence per mile cost'

“Most people will opt for pay-as-you-go rates when away from home, especially if they top their EV up at rapid and ultra-rapid chargers. While the cost of recharging will always be cheaper than refuelling, EVs can lose out to diesel cars when looking at the pence per mile cost,” said Jack Cousens, the AA’s spokesman for recharging.

Mr Cousens said that the issue was not limited to urban areas, where much of the funding towards public charges was focused but was also an issue in rural areas where many homes do not have off-street parking.

The Government has a target to increase the number of public chargers tenfold to 300,000 by 2030, but it is not on target to meet it, according to industry bodies.

A report in October by Novuna Vehicle Solutions found that the ratio of EVs to charging points had tripled from 5:1 to 15:1 in the last three years.