Public EV Charging Costs Are Rising — Here's What UK Drivers Need to Know

The economics of charging away from home are shifting fast. If you rely on public chargepoints, this affects you directly.

There is a moment that many EV drivers dread: you are somewhere unfamiliar, battery at 12%, and the nearest chargepoint is a rapid unit at a motorway services. You plug in, tap your card, and watch the pence-per-kilowatt-hour figure climb higher than you remembered. It is not your imagination. Public charging in the UK is getting more expensive — and the forces driving those costs upward are structural, not temporary.

Autocar has sounded the alarm on a growing affordability gap between drivers who can charge at home and those who depend entirely on public infrastructure. But the full picture is more complicated, and more consequential, than the headline suggests. Understanding why costs are rising, what legal protections exist (or do not), and how to protect your wallet requires a deeper look.

What Is Actually Happening to Public Charging Prices?

The UK's public charging network has expanded rapidly over the past three years. As of early 2026, there are more than 70,000 public charge points across the country — a figure that sounds impressive until you consider that millions of EV drivers either cannot charge at home or regularly need top-ups away from their driveway.

The problem is not a shortage of hardware. It is the economics underpinning the network. Charging network operators — companies like Pod Point, Osprey, Gridserve, BP Pulse, and others — are under intense financial pressure. The early years of rapid expansion were partly subsidised by government grants and investor capital chasing market share. That era is ending.

Several converging pressures are now pushing prices up:

• Energy costs remain elevated compared to pre-2022 levels, and commercial electricity tariffs — the rates networks pay — are significantly higher than domestic rates
• Business rates and property costs for chargepoint locations have increased
• Maintenance and operational costs are rising as older hardware requires replacement or repair
• Return on investment pressure from shareholders and lenders is intensifying as the "growth at all costs" phase of the market matures

The result is that many networks have quietly but consistently increased their per-kWh rates. Rapid charging, which once hovered around 50–60p per kWh, now regularly exceeds 79–85p per kWh at motorway locations. For a typical 60kWh battery needing a substantial top-up, that can mean a £40–50 charge session — territory that genuinely competes with petrol costs, particularly for smaller, more efficient vehicles.

Why This Matters: The Two-Tier EV Economy

The core injustice here is one of access and privilege. Drivers with off-street parking and a home charger pay domestic electricity rates — currently around 24–25p per kWh on a standard tariff, and as low as 7–10p per kWh on smart overnight EV tariffs. Their cost per mile can be a fraction of what petrol drivers pay.

But an estimated 40% of UK households have no access to off-street parking. This figure is even higher in urban areas — in London, it can exceed 60% in some boroughs. These drivers, many of whom are in lower-income households in denser urban environments, are structurally dependent on public charging. They are the people most exposed to rising public charging costs, and they are also the people least able to absorb them.

This creates what campaigners have called a "two-tier EV economy" — where the economic benefits of electric driving are concentrated among homeowners with driveways, while renters, flat-dwellers, and urban residents pay a premium for the same technology. The promise that EVs would deliver cheaper motoring is, for this group, increasingly hollow.

The Legal and Regulatory Landscape

This is where things get particularly interesting — and where drivers may be surprised to discover how little formal protection currently exists.

The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023

The UK government introduced the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023, which came into force in November 2023. These regulations set minimum standards for public rapid chargepoints (50kW and above), including:

• 24/7 availability requirements
• Contactless payment as a mandatory option (no app-only charging)
• Reliability standards — networks must achieve at least 99% uptime
• Clear, transparent pricing displayed before a session begins

The pricing transparency rules are significant. Networks are legally required to show the cost per kWh before a driver commits to a session. This is a meaningful consumer protection — but it does not cap what networks can charge. There is no equivalent of a price ceiling in the regulations.

VAT Disparity: The Unresolved Inequality

One of the most significant and enduring legal grievances in the public charging debate is the VAT disparity. Domestic electricity is subject to 5% VAT. Public charging is subject to the standard 20% VAT rate.

This is not a minor accounting detail. It adds approximately 10–12p per kWh to the cost of public charging compared to home charging on a like-for-like basis. HMRC has historically resisted calls to equalise the rates, arguing that public charging is a commercial service rather than a domestic supply.

Campaigners, including the RAC and various EV advocacy groups, have repeatedly argued that this disparity is discriminatory against those who cannot charge at home — effectively penalising people for living in flats or renting. The government has acknowledged the issue but has not committed to a fix. This remains one of the most actionable areas for regulatory reform.

Consumer Rights Act 2015

Where pricing is concerned, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides some background protection. Services must be provided at a reasonable price, and terms must be fair and transparent. If a network displays a price before a session begins and then charges a different amount, that is a potential consumer law violation. Drivers who experience discrepancies between advertised and charged prices should document the evidence and escalate to the network operator, and if unresolved, to Citizens Advice or Trading Standards.

What Drivers Should Know: Practical Steps to Manage Rising Costs

Despite the structural pressures, there are concrete steps EV drivers can take to reduce exposure to rising public charging costs.

1. Use network apps and membership schemes Most major networks offer subscription or membership pricing that can reduce per-kWh costs by 20–30%. Pod Point, Osprey, and Gridserve all offer variants of this. If you regularly use the same network, the maths often favour a monthly subscription.

2. Compare before you commit Apps like Zap-Map, Octopus Electroverse, and the AA's EV charging tracker allow you to compare nearby chargepoint prices in real time before you arrive. Prices can vary dramatically — sometimes by 20–30p per kWh — between competing chargepoints within half a mile of each other.

3. Avoid motorway services where possible Motorway rapid chargers are consistently the most expensive locations on the network. If your journey allows a brief detour to a retail park, supermarket, or destination charger, costs can be significantly lower.

4. Know your rights on reliability Under the 2023 Regulations, if a chargepoint fails mid-session or is persistently unavailable, you have grounds to report the operator. Persistent failures should be reported to Ofgem, which has oversight responsibilities under the regulations.

5. Keep receipts and records If you are charged more than the displayed rate, or experience a failed session where payment was taken, document everything with screenshots and timestamps. Your first recourse is the network operator's complaints process; if unresolved within eight weeks, you can escalate to the Ombudsman Services energy scheme.

Looking Ahead: Where Does This Go?

The trajectory of public charging costs in the UK will be shaped by several factors over the next two to three years.

The government's EV Infrastructure Strategy commits to ensuring that public charging is accessible and affordable, but the mechanisms for enforcing affordability remain vague. There is growing pressure — from the Competition and Markets Authority, from consumer groups, and from the EV industry itself — for more robust price regulation, particularly at motorway locations where drivers have little choice.

The VAT equalisation question will not go away. As EV adoption grows and more drivers without driveways enter the market, the political pressure to address the 5% versus 20% disparity will intensify. It is a reform that would cost the Treasury relatively little in revenue terms but would deliver meaningful relief to the drivers who need it most.

Meanwhile, the rollout of Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) funding — £381 million allocated to expand on-street and destination charging — offers some hope that drivers without driveways will eventually have better access to lower-cost charging options closer to home. But "eventually" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. The rollout is slower than many had hoped.

For now, the honest message to EV drivers who rely on public charging is this: costs are rising, the legal protections are real but limited, and navigating the network requires more active management than it should. The two-tier EV economy is not inevitable — but fixing it will require both regulatory will and political courage that, so far, has been in short supply.

Source: Autocar, "Cost rise warning to EV drivers reliant on public charging." Original analysis and legal context added.