How much can I save by driving an EV?
For electric vehicles to be affordable for everyone, charging your EV should to be cheaper than fossil fuels – whether you have home charging or not.
We've put some figures together showing the cost savings of various fictional charging habits so that you can match your life to theirs – see where you fit and what you could save by ditching the pumps: let’s jump into the numbers.
For comparison, we’ve chosen a petrol and an electric version of the same affordable city car – the VW up!
Alfie
Alfie’s got a characterful little petrol VW up! – it’s great on fuel and a perfect little town car, but burning petrol comes at a financial and environmental cost. His fuel cost of £1,394 is based on him achieving 47.5 miles per gallon year-round, at a petrol cost of 144.3 pence per litre – cheap by fossil fuel standards, but he can do better…
(Nerdy bits: assumes he drives 10,000 miles per year like many UK motorists, at 47.5mpg and 144.3p/litre – this gives him a pence-per-mile of 13.94p, pretty good by fossil fuel standards.)
Beryl
Beryl doesn’t have home charging and leads a busy life, but she jumped into a VW e-up! after spotting a great deal and loving the idea of a quiet, clean and nippy electric city car. Charging completely on the public network with Be.EV, partly during the day on a 7kW fast charger near her work, and the rest of of the time at ultra-rapid charging hubs when she needs a short top-up out on the road.
Her yearly total charging cost is £1,250, saving her £144 a year compared to Alfie. Even without home charging and a need for rapid top-ups for a quarter of her journeys, she’s driving a zero-emission EV for cheaper than Alfie is for his petrol run-around.
(Nerdy bits: assumes she drives 10,000 miles per year, at 4.4 miles/kWh – charging 75% of the time at 50p/kWh at Be.EV fast chargers and 25% of the time at 70p/kWh at Be.EV ultra-rapid charging hubs through her Be.EV app – this gives her a pence-per-mile of 12.5p, not bad for no home charging.)
Zoe
Like Beryl, Zoe doesn’t have home charging but fancied a VW e-up! to cut her carbon footprint for her short journeys to work and back. She has a Be.EV fast charger in the car park near her home, so she charges Off-Peak overnight with her Be.EV app all the time – waking up to a full battery when she needs it.
Her total yearly charging cost is £1,023 – that’s £371 less than Alfie’s petrol car, and for her short journeys in and around the city, she’s never waiting around to charge, simply plugging in and heading home.
(Nerdy bits: assumes she drives 10,000 miles per year, at 4.4 miles/kWh – charging 100% of the time between 9pm and 7am at 45p/kWh at an Off-Peak enrolled Be.EV fast charger through her Be.EV RFID card – this gives her a pence-per-mile of 10.23p.)
Reshma
Since getting a 7kW home charger, Reshma does half of her charging at home overnight on a cheap intelligent home tariff, getting her a unit rate of just 7.5p/kWh. But, Reshma shares the charger with her partner so doesn’t always get a full charge, so often needs to top-up on the network when she’s travelling for work.
Near her office is a Be.EV fast charger, so she drops the car there when she’s there for meetings to charge up, and also sometimes pops the car on the rapid charger when she’s at the park with her daughter at the weekends. All in all, with a mixed life of home, fast and rapid charging, Reshma spends £711 a year on charging, saving £683 compared to Alfie’s petrol car.
(Nerdy bits: assumes she drives 10,000 miles per year, at 4.4 miles/kWh – charging 50% of the time at home overnight with a Zappi home charger and Octopus Go Intelligent tariff (7.5p/kWh), 25% of the time at Be.EV fast chargers through her Be.EV app (50p/kWh) and 25% of the time at Be.EV rapid chargers through her Be.EV app (60p/kWh) – this gives her a pence-per-mile of 7.11p.)
Megan
Last but not least, we have cost-savvy Megan who loves tech and was the first of her neighbours to get a 7kW home charger, and does the majority of her charging super-cheap overnight. But, Megan loves a road trip with her friends, so when she’s exploring the best beauty spots of the UK, she charges up at ultra-rapid charging hubs with her Be.EV RFID card.
This mix of at-home and super quick en-route charging gives her a fuel cost of just £455 a year – a whopping £939 less than Alfie – that’s enough to treat her mates to plenty of snacks on their travels!
(Nerdy bits: assumes she drives 10,000 miles per year, at 4.4 miles/kWh – charging 75% of the time at home overnight with an Ohme Pro home charger and Octopus Go Intelligent tariff (7.5p/kWh) and 25% of the time at Be.EV ultra-rapid chargers through her Be.EV app (70p/kWh) – this gives her a pence-per-mile of 4.55p.)
So – even if you can’t charge at home or need to charge on the network for your busy lifestyle, we’ve built a pricing structure that supports electric motoring for less than dinosaur juice. Lean more about Be.EV's pricing here.
