What is the cost of charging an electric car?

How much does it cost to charge an electric car? – Running costs explained

Charging an electric car is surprisingly cheap. While the cost of a charging varies dramatically, depending on who your electricity supplier is and where you choose to charge – one thing is for sure: the cost overall will be considerably less than the cost of refuelling a car with a petrol or diesel engine. Let’s take a closer look …

The cost of charging an EV at home

To calculate the cost of charging a High Voltage battery on any electric vehicle (PHEV or EV) using a home charger, you simply multiply the battery capacity by the cost of the electricity.

For example: The Niro PHEV has a 8.9kWh battery (kWh = kilowatt Hour). The cost per kWh of electricity is €0.17 (sample cost, depending on home supplier), so the cost to charge the Niro PHEV battery from 0% to 100% is 8.9kWh X €0.17 = €1.51

The range of a Niro PHEV in full electric mode is 55km. So 100km of electric only driving will cost approx. €2.74 (€1.51 X2 / 110km * 100). That’s a saving of €5.50 against a petrol vehicle running at 6l/100km (Average petrol cost in April 2019= €1.42 – Source AA Ireland). And a saving of approx. €3.37 per 100km when compared to a well known hybrid vehicle with an average fuel consumption of €4.5l/100km.

Assuming the cost of electricity to be €0.17 per kWh, here's what it would cost to charge the batteries that are used in both the e-Niro and e-Soul, and also the cost per 100km driving for the e-Niro, fitted with these batteries, based on the WLTP average range figures.

The 64 kWh battery has an average range 455km, and the 39.2 kWh battery has an average range 289km

On the long range battery: 64kWh (64 X €0.17) = €10.88 to fully charge: €2.39 per 100km (€10.80 /455km *100km). For the mid range battery of: 39.2kWh (39.2 X €0.17) = €6.66 to fully charge: €2.30 per 100km (€6.66 / 289km *100km)

The cost of charging an EV at public charging stations

At the moment, charging at a public station is free. The ESB have said that they will announce a new pricing model shortly.

Government incentives for buying an EV

SEAI Grants There are currently SEAI grants of up to €5,000 available to those who purchase an electric car, be it full EV or of the Plug-In variety. Visit seai.ie/grants for more.
VRT Relief Electric vehicles also benefit from VRT relief. For example, a Plug-In Hybrid is eligible for €2,500, while a full EV is eligible for €5,000.
Home Chargers and Tolls There are government grants of up to €600 for home chargers, while there is also a reduced tolls incentive for EVs
Benefit-in-kind BIK on cars generally works by calculating 30 per cent of the cash value of the car and applying tax to this, with a reduction for business travel over 24,000km. So, for example, a car worth €30,000 will cost an employee €2,000 a year in tax for lower rate payers, and €5,200 for those on the higher rate. But the good news for those who opt for an EV under €50,000, employees won’t pay a thing!