Electric cars are often marketed as cheaper to run than petrol cars – but is that actually true? As editor-in-chief of Electrifying.com I've driven almost every electric car on sale in the UK and spent years looking at what drivers really pay per mile.

When you factor in electricity prices, home charging, public chargers and real-world efficiency, the picture becomes much clearer – and in many cases electric cars can cost significantly less to run than petrol or diesel models.

Electric cars are usually cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars in the UK, and that continues to be the case in 2026, especially with fuel prices rising as a result of Donald Trump's conflict in the Middle East. 

For a very rough idea of fuel costs per mile, charging an EV at home on a typical off-peak electricity tariff in 2026 can cost around 2p to 5p per mile, while using a standard day rate on your home tariff will come in at more like 8 to 10p per mile. Charging exclusively at public rapid chargers can push prices up so that an EV will cost a similar fuel price-per-mile as a petrol or diesel car, which typically cost around 15p to 20p per mile depending on fuel prices and efficiency. With diesel prices hitting new highs of £2 per litre, even very efficient diesel cars are getting more expensive to fuel.

If you want to compare the numbers for yourself you can also try our EV fuel cost calculator, which shows how electricity costs compare with petrol or diesel depending on how and where you charge.

How much does an electric car cost to run in the UK?

If you’re on a fixed rate tariff in the UK, your maximum electricity costs are governed by the Ofgem price cap, which dictates the maximum amount you pay per kilowatt hour of electricity. The price cap changes every quarter, but we'll keep this article up to date with current prices. 

For an EV driver doing 8,500 miles per year, returning an average efficiency of 3.4 miles/kWh, and charging on the current Ofgem flat rate at home, you'll be paying around £658 per year. Or if you use one of the cheaper fixed overnight tariffs that are still available then that cost falls to around £225 per year. For some context, fuelling a VW Golf 1.5 TSI at current pump prices (even if it's doing over 60mpg) will cost £859. 

Ofgem is the UK energy regulator and every quarter it sets a maximum unit price for customers on a default price tariff. The cap for October to December 2026 has just gone up by some 4% (and the prices stated here reflect that rise), but it's expected to rise again in January 2027 as a result of higher wholesale energy prices thanks to the conflict in the Middle East. We'll keep you up to date on how that will affect the running costs of your EV.

If you use an off-peak tariff you can get cheaper overnight electricity – and you can see some of the energy tariffs currently available right here – and that could cut your costs by more than half. 

Are electric cars cheaper than petrol or diesel per mile in the UK?

In short, yes! Even if you don’t take advantage of off-peak tariffs, and are paying the Ofgem price cap, you’ll still be paying around 8p to 10p per mile. If you use the timed charging facility on your EV or your home charger to charge at an off-peak tariff, that can drop to as low as 2p per mile. 

Which are the cheapest used EVs to insure?

Based on current average fuel costs, a petrol car doing 45mpg will currently cost around 17p per mile while a diesel car doing 55mpg will cost around 15p per mile. Avoid filling up on the motorway, though. Just as with electric rapid chargers on the motorway, fuel prices in the motorway services are the most expensive way of filling up or charging your car. 

Obviously, it’s not just cheap electricity that affects how much an EV costs to run. Getting an efficient electric car that goes as far as possible per kilowatt hour of energy will also save you money. You need an EV with good miles/kWh, basically – which is the equivalent of mpg for electric cars. 

Check out our top five most efficient EVs, if you're keen to save money on your running costs. 

What are the best EV tariffs in the UK?

Now that’s a complicated question, but we’ve got you covered with our guide to the best electricity tariffs in the UK right now. Keep checking back for the latest updates.

Are electric cars still cheaper if you rely on public chargers?

Public charging is more expensive than charging at home, which Electrifying.com has always argued is unfair as the disparity is largely due to higher VAT costs on the electricity used in public chargers - and that is basically a tax on those EV drivers who can't charge at home! We're still campaigning for the government act more decisively, and more quickly to cut that tax and make it more affordable to run an EV if you can't charge at home. Only seems fair, doesn't it?

It’s very difficult to give an estimate for what public charging will cost as it varies so much between different providers – and even varies depending on what time you’re charging. According to the charge point mapping site Zapmap.com, EV drivers pay on average 54p/kWh for slower AC public chargers or 77p/kWh for DC rapid and ultra-rapid chargers. 

This works out at just under 16p per mile for an EV charged at a public AC charger, or 22p per mile for an EV charging at a DC rapid charger, assuming an efficiency of 3.4 miles/kWh.

Are electric cars cheaper to service and maintain than petrol cars?

Generally, yes. Many manufacturers offer longer servicing schedules and lower servicing costs than on petrol or diesel (ICE) cars. EVs don’t need regular oil changes like petrol cars, and an EV won’t need brake pads so often as they rely on regen braking (which doesn’t use the friction brakes). 

It’s difficult to be specific as it depends on your EV and usage as to how much servicing will cost. Tesla, for instance, doesn't have any fixed service schedule for its cars and relies on the car's sensors to warn when it needs maintenance, with many owners reporting that the cars don't need servicing at all for the first few years. As a rough average you can expect an electric car to cost around 30% less than a petrol car for servicing. 

Survey of 46.4m MOTs finds EVs far less likely to fail than petrol cars

Recent data from millions of vehicle MOTs shows that EVs are more reliable than petrol or diesel cars - even when they have high mileage of over 120,000 miles. Which only goes to show that EVs are durable as well as cost effective! If you are thinking about a used EV, do check out the thousands of second-hand electric cars on the Electrifying.com marketplace.

Fuel prices are rising, but you can still find a cheap electricity tariff in the UK