The Government’s independent review of EV charging costs has reported, concluding that there are two connected problems in rising costs of public charging and an inequality that drivers without home charging face a disadvantage.

Given that around one-third of UK drivers do not have access to a driveway or home charger, and that home charging is substantially cheaper than public charging, it is not surprising that most current EV owners (around 90 per cent) can charge at home. If EV adoption is to be more widespread then the cycle whereby there is a negative feedback loop (higher prices equal slower EV adoption causing lower charger utilisation creating higher prices) must be broken.

Cost comparison of typical running costs highlighted in the review:
Mostly home charging 8–12p
Public AC charging only 12–16p
Mixed public charging 17–20p
Rapid public charging only 24p
Petrol vehicle (2026) 22p

The report concludes that prices of public charging are rising for a mix of reasons: Infrastructure investment has outpaced EV uptake in many areas, thus charge point operators built networks ahead of demand and many chargers are operating at low utilisation rates, with fixed costs such as grid connection and electricity network charges needing to be recovered from relatively few charging sessions.

The report has five main recommendations:
1. Local tariff "porting" to allow residents without home chargers to use nearby public chargers while paying their domestic electricity tariff, effectively extending the benefits of home charging into local public charging.
2. Targeted financial support to provide temporary, focused financial assistance to reduce charging costs for drivers most affected by dependence on public charging.
3. Reform of electricity charging costs that may be increasing public EV charging costs and conflicting with wider EV adoption goals.
4. Renewable electricity certificate-trading mechanism linked to renewable electricity used for EV charging.
5. Support battery storage deployment

The report's central message is that the UK's EV transition risks becoming unfair if it primarily benefits people who can charge at home. The preferred solution is not broad subsidies, but targeted measures that reduce costs for drivers without driveways, improve charger utilisation, and align energy-market rules with EV adoption goals.

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