Electric Car Running Costs UK: The Real Numbers (2026)

The short answer

A typical UK EV costs somewhere in the region of £1,300 to £1,800 a year to run, which tends to be roughly £700 to £1,200 less than an equivalent petrol car. Some analyses put the total saving higher, at £2,000+, though those usually assume ideal home charging and generous mileage.

The spread matters more than the average, though, because two EV owners can have wildly different bills.

Charging: where the saving lives or dies

This is the single biggest variable in EV ownership, and it's why "EV running costs" figures vary so much between sources.

Home charging on a dedicated EV tariff can run as low as around 7p/kWh, working out at roughly 2p per mile. Against about 16p per mile for a 45mpg petrol car, that's the saving nearly everyone quotes.

Home charging on a standard tariff (around 27p/kWh) lands closer to 7p or 8p per mile. Still cheaper than petrol, but the gap narrows considerably.

Public rapid charging is the expensive end, and drivers who rely on it heavily can find their per-mile cost approaching petrol territory.

The practical consequence: if you can't charge at home, an EV's running-cost advantage shrinks substantially. Any guide that doesn't tell you this is selling something. It doesn't make an EV a bad choice. There are other reasons to want one, but the economics change.

Servicing and maintenance

EVs are meaningfully cheaper to service. Typical annual servicing sits around £165, against roughly £205 to £300 for an equivalent petrol car, and there's no oil, spark plugs, cambelt or exhaust to worry about.

Brakes last dramatically longer thanks to regenerative braking, many owners report 60,000 to 80,000 miles before pad replacement, against 30,000 to 40,000 on a petrol car.

Full detail in our EV servicing and maintenance costs guide.

Insurance: the cost that goes the other way

Insurance is the one running cost where EVs are typically worse. Premiums run around 10 to 15% above equivalent petrol models in 2026, down from a peak of roughly 25% in 2024 as the repair sector matures.

Model variance is enormous, some smaller EVs now insure at or below petrol equivalents, while performance models remain considerably more. Our EV insurance guide explains why.

Tax

EVs are no longer exempt from VED. Since April 2025 they pay the standard rate, and cars with a list price above £40,000 also attract the Expensive Car Supplement for years two to six, a significant cost that catches out buyers of higher-spec models.

Company car drivers still do very well: Benefit-in-Kind on fully electric cars sits at 4% for 2026/27, rising gradually through the decade, against up to 37% for high-emission petrol cars.

Tyres: the cost most guides skip

EVs are heavier and deliver instant torque, and both chew through tyres faster than an equivalent petrol car. Expect to replace them more often, at £80 to £150 per tyre for common sizes. Over several years this meaningfully offsets some of the servicing saving, and it's rarely mentioned.

Our guide to EV tyre wear covers what to expect and how to slow it.

Depreciation: the biggest cost of all

Here's what almost every running-cost article ignores. For most owners, depreciation dwarfs every other cost combined. Used EV values fell around 10% year-on-year into 2026, and average three-year depreciation runs at roughly 38 to 42%.

A car that costs £400 a year less to charge but £3,000 more to depreciate isn't cheaper to own. This is the number that actually decides your total cost, and it's why buying used, after the steepest first-owner depreciation has already been absorbed, is where the real value sits.

See our guides on EV depreciation and how battery health affects resale value.

Rough annual picture

Indicative only, for a compact EV covering around 8,000 to 10,000 miles a year. Your figures will differ.