What is the cost of fuel and electric vehicle charging in the UK?

11 October 20248 mins

AllCosts is here, filled with incredible insights into the real-life costs of charging and fuelling business vehicles.

We’ve used data from millions of fuel transactions, and hundreds of thousands of electric charging sessions at home and in public to bring you some incredibly compelling data (which you can read by downloading AllCosts here)

Our report has been designed to support businesses of all sizes as they navigate the world of running internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric vehicles (EVs). Keep reading to get the latest insights of how much it costs to fuel up or charge a vehicle in the UK in 2024.

Some helpful terms before we start

Before we get into the details, the Allstar Electric Vehicle Dictionary is at hand to guide you through some key terminology any time you need it.

We’ve picked out some EV terms that will be discussed throughout this piece below:

kWh

Kilowatt Hour (kWh) is the measure of battery capacity in an electric vehicle

The speed of charging an electric vehicle is measured in kilowatts

P per kWh

Pence per Kilowatt Hour (kWh) is the cost for every 1 kWh.

PPM

As per pence-per-mile (ppm) in traditional fuel vehicles, ppm is the calculation of the pence per kWh divided by mi/kWh to show how much each mile costs.

The cost of charging an electric vehicle in the UK

With energy prices starting to settle at the beginning of 2024, so did some costs associated with charging an electric vehicle. Although with the Ofgem price cap set to rise in October 2024, businesses will need to consider these potential extra costs when planning their outgoings for the end of this year.

Businesses may need to give their drivers more information on the cost difference between public and home charging despite the price cap increase. Ensuring that they have a solution at home that doesn’t leave them waiting for reimbursement is key to driver take-up on electric vehicle home charging.

The cost of charging an electric vehicle at home in the UK

Of course there is always a cheaper way to charge an EV, and that remains to be home charging. Our data shows that home charging usage for business drivers more than doubled through 2023 into the beginning of this year despite the turbulent energy market.

And the drivers who chose to plug in at home took advantage of the cheapest way to charge an EV, with the lowest recorded cost being 4p per kWh. Some smart tariffs even allowed drivers to charge at 1p per kWh for half hour periods.

Of course, those low costs of charging at home means that any business choosing to only reimburse their drivers using the AER of 7ppm[SJR1] could be leaving their employees way out of pocket. Allstar Homecharge can help with that.

To find out the average and highest costs associated with charging an EV at home, download our latest AllCosts report here.

The cost of charging an electric vehicle in public in the UK

The data that we analysed at the beginning of the year showed that many business EV drivers were choosing to prioritise charging speed over keeping costs down.

The average costs of charging in public in our report are those you’d normally associate with rapid or ultra-rapid chargers. This means that drivers are likely choosing to get back on the road quicker rather than spend time at slower kW chargers.

What we did see in the report was that there was a leap in the lowest cost recorded between the end of 2023 and Q1 this year. The lowest price recorded in Q4 last year was 17p kWh for charging in public, whereas the lowest price recorded in 2024 was more than tripled at 54p.

Get deeper into the data by downloading the full AllCosts report here and see where your business could save money as it makes the transition to electric vehicles.

How long does it take to charge an electric vehicle?

It all depends on when and where you charge. In public, some ultra-rapid chargers can have your vehicle battery back at 80% in around 30 minutes (depending on the type of battery in your vehicle), whereas some slower chargers can take a few hours to reach the same battery level.

At home, charging speeds can vary depending on the type of charger you have. Home chargers can vary between slower Type 1 chargers and their faster Type 2 equivalents. Type 2 chargers give drivers the ability to use smart charging, which allows them to choose when a vehicle charges after they plug in.

Smart charging allows drivers to take advantage of cheaper overnight tariffs, while also giving them the ability to choose the time where their battery reaches 80-100% capacity.

To learn more about charging at home or in public, check out our introduction on the different ways to charge an EV.

The cost of fuel in the UK in 2024

The average pence per litre of both petrol and diesel fell in the first quarter of 2024. Petrol prices were at their lowest we’ve seen for nearly three years at the beginning of this year, while diesel prices dropped to their lowest since summer 2023. Despite these drops in price, there was still a huge disparity between the cheapest and most expensive pence per litre costs for fuel. Some of these could simply be down to the area of the UK that businesses were filling up, with places like Dumfriesshire on the English/Scottish border being more expensive.

To search fuel in your area, businesses can take advantage of our Fuel Price tool which allows you to search 20 times in a 7-day period for the cheapest fuel sites near you. Or to see how your business can save by simply having an Allstar fuel card, use our Cost Saving Calculator.

Our AllCosts report found that diesel drivers could see a £15 difference between the highest and lowest cost for filling up a full 70l tank. Download our report here to get more fuel insights.

EVs or petrol and diesel vehicles: What’s cheaper to run?

For this edition of AllCosts, Allstar has worked with our sister company epyx to bring businesses a cost comparison of electric and petrol cars in terms of expected mileage, servicing and repair, not including body, damage or tyres.

We’ve used figures from the epyx database that covers the average costs for vehicles that have been on the road for more than three years. Both sets of vehicles average similar mileage over the period, but even with the lower mileage, our data found that there was a 40% difference between EVs and petrol cars in terms of the average cost of SMR, which is huge when you consider downtime and its associated cost being crucial when running a fleet.

To find out which vehicle was lower, you’ll have to download the report here...

What else can I learn about in AllCosts?

This edition of AllCosts is our biggest yet, and businesses can find features that can help inform them on how to make the transition to EVs smoother, or if they even need to make the switch yet in some cases.

AllChange uses the real-world data in the report that shows the potential costs for multiple scenarios. Each scenario shows how crucial it is for businesses of all sizes to be monitoring the potential costs associated with having employees on the road.

And with petrol, diesel and energy prices continuing to vary quarter on quarter, our report goes deep on the efficiency of electric and ICE cars and vans. You can find the average efficiency of running the smallest superminis to the largest vans as electric or traditional fuelled vehicles. Get reading the data here.

Get started with Allstar

We’ve got your fuel, EV and vehicle servicing needs covered, so you have the freedom to focus on what matters – your business. Request a callback from our team here, or if you want to see how much you could save on fuel with an Allstar card, click here to see our Cost Calculator.