Charging EV at home in Germany costs half of refuelling petrol car – report

Charging an electric vehicle at home costs German drivers just half the price of refuelling a conventional car with petrol, according to an analysis by price comparison website Verivox. “The average fuel costs for electric cars are 48 per cent lower than for petrol cars, and 40 per cent lower than for diesel vehicles,” verivox said, referring to prices during the first half of this year. "If you can charge at a wallbox at home, the fuel costs for an electric car are significantly lower than for a combustion engine," said Thorsten Storck, energy expert at Verivox. "However, electric car drivers who frequently rely on public charging points have a significantly lower price advantage."

While the home charging costs for driving an EV 12,000 kilometres added up to an average 863 euros, using petrol for that distance would have cost 1,652 euros in an average combustion engine car,Verivox said. But exclusively using public charging points would have cost 1,302 euros, and using rapid chargers 1,547 euros. This is because the average household power price was 35,96 cents per kilowatt-hour (cents/kWh), while electric car drivers had to pay 54,25 cents/kWh on average at normal public charging points, and even 64,44 cents/kWh for a direct current fast charger. Using a diesel car would have been 8 percent cheaper than using a fast charger, Verivox said.

Following the sudden end of subsidies for the purchase of electric cars at the end of last year, their uptake has slowed significantly. Charging costs are a hurdle in cities, where many residents of appartment buildings can't install their own charging points, and thus rely on public charging points.