Centrica: The electric car charging postcode lottery: drivers in 21 council areas can plug in for free

New research released today reveals there is a postcode lottery when it comes to electric vehicle charging costs. There are 21 councils across England and Wales, including Leeds, Bridgend and Woking, where it is completely free to charge your electric vehicle using council owned public chargers. These councils are leading the way by supporting the transition to electric vehicles in their areas, making charging more accessible to local drivers.

However, there are drivers in other areas who are charged up to £4.00 for every kilowatt hour. In councils where public charging is this expensive, the number of people switching to electric may start to fall behind other areas as the driving population moves from early to mass adoption. To charge from empty to full at the country’s most expensive chargers would cost EV drivers £240, based on average battery capacities.(2) The same car would cost just £3.90 to charge at home, using a dedicated off-peak electric vehicle tariff.(3) This driveway discrimination is likely to leave many drivers without access to home charging behind in the race to switch to EVs in time for the 2030 ban.

The research commissioned by British Gas under a Freedom of Information request to over 400 councils shows that drivers in the South are being charged over a quarter (28%) more than those in the North to top-up their electric cars using the cheapest council owned chargers. It costs drivers in the South (East Anglia, London, the South East and South West of England) 32p per kWh to recharge compared with just 25p per kWh for people in the North (Wales, the Midlands, the North East and North West of England and Yorkshire & The Humber), based on the average price of the cheapest council owned chargers in each area.(4)

“Currently, we have 21 progressive councils that have decided to support local EV adoption, so we would expect a greater uptake of EVs to come through in these areas than in councils where it is expensive to charge.”

Lucy Simpson, Head of EV Enablement at British Gas

Although drivers in the South may have access to 1,468 more on-street charging points than their Northern counterparts, it seems they are having to pay more to use them.(6) This location discrimination leaves drivers unfairly out of pocket and makes the transition to EVs less accessible ahead of the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.

Despite this, drivers remain keen to switch to greener models, as the research reveals that half (49%) would consider purchasing an electric vehicle as their next car. However, almost one in three (29%) named expensive public charging costs as one of the biggest barriers to switching to an EV, alongside the outlay for the car and the fact that government incentives do not cover enough of the costs.

More than two in five (42%) drivers are put off switching as they are concerned about the time it takes to charge, so access to fast chargers needs to improve across the UK. The investigation shows that it will cost drivers in the South over 10% more to use the cheapest council owned fast chargers than those in the North (32p vs 29p per kWh respectively).(7)

The problem is worse for any drivers without a driveway. With no access to home charging they are reliant on public charging infrastructure, which makes the economics of switching to electric unfeasible. Out of drivers who do not have a driveway or off-street parking, just 7% already have an EV, less than a quarter (24%) are considering switching but over half (53%) are not considering purchasing an EV at all.

Drivers are confused about the information available on EVs, with three in five (60%) saying they feel there is a lack of information on both public and home charging costs. A huge number of motorists said that they didn’t know that charging costs vary depending on location (60%), between different speed chargers (56%), between different public charging operators (55%) and between public vs home charging (53%), with more than half (51%) saying that clearer information on charging costs would help more people to make the switch.

Out of all the regions in England and Wales, the West Midlands is leading the way by making public charging more financially accessible to all, costing 20p per kWh to charge on average using the cheapest council owned chargers available. The East Midlands is the next cheapest region to charge, at 22p per kWh, on average.

Two of the home nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland, go further and are home to government mandated, subsidised and maintained public EV charging infrastructure: the ChargePlace Scotland and ecarNI networks, offering free or heavily discounted charging.

This postcode lottery of charging prices is best demonstrated in the South West, where the cheapest charger will set you back 63p per kWh, on average. This is more than 57% higher than the second most expensive region, the East of England, where it costs 40p per kWh to charge.

However, prices do vary per council. The new data reveals the most expensive public chargers are within Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) council on the south coast and Cotswold council in the South West. Local EV owners running low have certainly not won the postcode lottery, with the cost of charging set at £4.00 per kWh if you choose the most expensive charger in either of these areas.

Many drivers may be shocked to learn of regional pricing disparities, as more than one in three (34%) expect charging costs to be the same in the North and the South. A huge 58% went on to say that they think that the government needs to invest money into public charging infrastructure in all regions of the UK equally to support the levelling up agenda.