Delta-EE: Two-fifths of EV owners are missing out on getting the best charging rates for their vehicles

  Posted by: electime      28th June 2022

• 42 per cent of EV owners run risk of missing out on best charging tariffs due to lack of dedicated home charging point
• EVs offer significantly cheaper running costs versus petrol and diesel cars as cost of filling average family car goes over £100
• Delta-EE calls for VAT rate for public charging to level with home charging

New research from Delta-EE reveals that over two-fifths (42 per cent) of electric vehicle (EV) drivers are missing out on the best charging tariffs for their vehicles, thanks to not using a dedicated home charging point to charge their car.

The survey of 1,169 EV owners undertaken by Delta-EE across eight European markets (UK, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and Poland) also revealed that less than 50 per cent of people have a time-of-use tariff, enabling them to take advantage of cheaper overnight electricity prices. Additionally, just three in ten EV owners had a specific EV tariff with their energy provider.

Commenting on the research findings, William van der Byl, EV Charging Service Manager at Delta-EE, said: “At a time where the cost of fueling an average family car in the UK has soared to over £100, EV’s deliver huge running cost savings for EV drivers, despite their higher upfront cost. At an average cost of 190p per litre, a family could spend £104.50 to fill up the car and provide just 484 miles of range at 40 miles per gallon. However, for an equivalent EV and average battery size it would cost just £28 to fully charge the car. Scaling this up to £104.50 means that an EV car would be able to travel 1,079 miles for the same cost.

“Despite the incredible savings that can be made in running an EV versus an ICE car, many EV owners are still missing out on easy wins to get the cost of charging their cars even lower. For those with off street parking, installing a dedicated home charging point means that they can get better access to smart charging and cheaper overnight rates. It’s expected the push for managed charging will grow even more over the coming years as more vehicle-to-grid cars come onto the market.”

For those without a dedicated home charging point, almost a quarter (24 per cent) indicated that they were planning to get one installed soon while 14 per cent believe that there is no need as a regular electric socket is sufficient. The same number of people (14 per cent) also stated that a dedicated charger was too expensive.

Despite supply chain issues, inflation and the cost of living, the sale of EVs across the EU jumped by over 53 per cent during the first quarter of this year, while sales for diesel and petrol cars both saw continued declines.

Van der Byl added: “While dedicated EV chargers in homes will need to be rapidly scaled up in the coming years, for those that are reliant on public charging the cheapest tariffs may well be out of reach. The industry needs to ensure that those who cannot install a home charger are disadvantaged as little as possible. This means providing access to convenient and low-cost charging at places of work as well as cheap, overnight on-street charging. One quick win to make public charging more price competitive is to lower the electricity VAT rate to be in line with that of home electricity (i.e. reduce it from 20 per cent to 5 per cent). Another industry change to make public charging more convenient is to ensure interoperability amongst public chargepoints so an EV driver can access all public chargepoints in the UK with only one subscription/app/RFID card as is commonplace in Europe.”