Is it cheaper to drive an EV or a petrol car?
More and more people are considering swapping their combustion engine car for an electric car, but aren’t sure if the maths adds up. In this article, we look into whether it is cheaper to drive an EV or a petrol car, using data from the January 2025 energy price cap.
How do EVs and petrol cars compare?
We’ve worked out whether the cost of driving an EV that is charged at home at 24.86p/KWh (January 2025 price cap) is more or less expensive than driving a petrol car at £1.34/litre (December 2024 UK average).
We’ve compared the Nissan Leaf with the popular Ford Fiesta (2008-2017) using online calculators from Fleetnews and Zap-Map. In this article, we’ve focused just on the costs of fuelling the car, and not on other costs that come with car ownership such as servicing, tax and initial cost.
Here’s what we found out:
It currently costs around £18.32 to drive 150 miles at 50MPG in a petrol-powered Ford Fiesta.
And it costs £9.94 to drive the same distance in a Nissan Leaf if you’re on a single-rate price capped tariff (24.86p/kWh). But that same journey would only cost £2.70 on our Smart EV tariff.
What difference does using public EV chargers make?
Not all of us have the luxury of being able to install our own electric vehicle charging point at home and even those who do still use public networks to charge on the go — Zap-Map’s survey of over 4,300 EV drivers showed 90% do. So how much does it cost to charge an EV using public electric vehicle charging points?
This cost can really vary from being free of charge at some supermarkets, car parks and workplaces; to an average of 40p/KWh for slow/fast charging on street and in car parks; up to 85p/KWh for the most expensive ‘rapid charge’ points at motorway services. If you are regularly charging on the go, there are various subscriptions available to give you preferential rates, including Zap-Map Premium which comes as standard with our Smart EV Tariff.
Find up to date charge point locations and costs on Zap-Map.
What impact will buying an EV have on my home energy bills?
It’s conclusive, the cost of charging an EV at home is significantly cheaper than filling up a car with petrol. The difference is that we are used to spending £60+ to fill up at the pump, and we’re not used to seeing it on our energy bills.
If you are driving 8,000 miles a year in your Nissan Leaf, you can expect to add an additional £530 to your annual electricity bill if you’re on a single-rate tariff, or an extra £44 per month (if you do all your charging at home).
Switch to our dual-rate EV tariff and those 8,000 miles could be achieved in as little as £144 if you did all of your charging on our off-peak rate.
That same mileage would cost you £977 a year in the (relatively efficient) petrol-powered Ford Fiesta (based on petrol prices remaining static).
Find out more about getting an EV
There are lots of other good things about electric cars too. If you’re thinking that this might be the year you buy an EV, why not read some of our other articles:
- What are the best electric cars on the market?
- What are the advantages of electric vehicles?
- Questions to ask before getting an EV home charger
- Why are EVs better for the environment than petrol and diesel cars?
