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£100 million, a third of the network, and the chargers that cost most to use

Qurexa Editorial Team29 October 20267 min read 0 0
£100 million, a third of the network, and the chargers that cost most to use

What happened

On 28 October 2026, as part of Budget 2026, the government announced £100 million over two years to cut the price of charging an electric car at local, lower-powered public chargers across Britain. These are the chargers you find on residential streets, where a car charges slowly over several hours or overnight. They make up around a third of the current public network. Drivers who rely on them could save around £150 a year on average. The price cuts start in spring 2027 and run for two years. The government also said it will take forward a recommendation from an independent review and set up a "tariff porting" taskforce, led by industry experts. The idea is to explore whether drivers could use their cheaper home energy tariff at certain public chargers. The Department for Transport will set out details later. This matters most for people who cannot charge at home. The government says around a third of UK households have no driveway or off-street parking. If you can plug in at home, you pay domestic electricity rates. If you cannot, you pay public charging rates, which are substantially higher. The independent review behind this was announced at Budget 2025. It found that since 2021, real-terms average charging prices have risen 69% for lower-powered chargers and 94% for higher-powered ones.

Why this matters

Electric cars are cheaper to run than petrol or diesel ones, but only for some drivers. For the rest, the saving largely disappears. The government's own figures show the spread. An EV driver can save up to £1,750 a year compared with petrol or diesel. Charging at home through a cross-pavement charger can cost as little as 2p per mile. But those are the numbers for people who can plug in where they live. Independent figures from Zapmap, which tracks the UK charging network, show what public charging actually costs. Its price index for September 2026 gave a weighted average pay-as-you-go price of 54p per kWh on chargers from 3kW up to 49kW, and 79p per kWh on chargers of 50kW and above. So the policy has a clear logic. The people being helped are the ones for whom the electric car sums currently work worst: no driveway, no home charger, dependent on a slow street charger that costs several times the domestic rate. This also matters disproportionately outside cities. In rural counties such as Lincolnshire, the public network is thinner and the distances are longer, which makes the price of each charge count for more.

What the evidence actually says

The honest position is that the direction is clear and several of the details are not settled yet. The £100 million is a confirmed commitment over two years, starting in spring 2027. It is not available now, and the announcement does not spell out exactly how the discount will reach drivers at the pump, so to speak. The tariff porting taskforce is at an earlier stage still. It is being set up to "explore" whether home tariffs could be used at some public chargers. No start date was given, and no decision has been made. It is a good idea being investigated, not a scheme you will be able to use. Some related changes are already live. Planning permission is no longer required for cross-pavement chargers, which are the channels that let a cable run safely from a house across the footway, as of 21 October. Home and workplace charging grants were extended and increased earlier in 2026, covering flats, rented properties, on-street parking and businesses. Installing a cross-pavement charger could save up to £300 on installation, and the Electric Car Grant has taken up to £3,750 off a new EV. On the wider network: the government cites over 124,000 public charge points in the UK, up 7.4% year on year, attributing the figure to Zapmap. It is worth knowing that Zapmap changed how it counts, from devices to individual chargers, so older figures are not directly comparable with newer ones. The government has committed £600 million to the rollout, including £480 million through the Local EV Infrastructure fund to install over 100,000 more chargers in England, within £7.5 billion of support out to 2035. EV sales are up 36% on last year, and the Electric Car Grant has cost £2 billion. No minister is quoted in the announcement, and no named individual figures are attached to it.

Qurexa perspective

We run delivery vehicles across a large, rural county, so this one lands close to home. For any delivery operation thinking about electrifying, the arithmetic is not mainly about the vehicle. It is about where and when you can charge, and what each charge costs. Depot charging overnight is the cheap option. Topping up mid-round on a public charger is the expensive one, and in a county like Lincolnshire it is often the only one available on a long route. So the detail that interests us is not the £100 million headline. It is the tariff porting idea. If the gap between domestic and public electricity prices can be narrowed, the case for electric vans on rural rounds improves considerably. If it cannot, that gap remains the main obstacle, whatever the purchase price of the vehicle. We are watching what the taskforce concludes rather than making promises based on an announcement.

Practical advice

If you drive an EV, or are weighing one up, here is what is worth doing now. Work out your real charging mix before you buy. The honest question is not what an EV costs to run on average. It is what it will cost you, given where you park. If most charging would be on public street chargers, use the Zapmap price index figures rather than the best-case numbers. If you have a house but no driveway, look at cross-pavement charging. Planning permission is no longer needed as of 21 October, grants can cut up to £300 off installation, and home rates can bring running costs down to as little as 2p per mile. This is the single biggest lever available to most households. If you live in a flat or rented property, check the home and workplace charging grants, which were extended and increased earlier this year to cover exactly these situations. If you depend on slow street chargers, the price cut starts in spring 2027, not now. Budget on today's prices until then. Compare charger speeds as well as prices. The gap between standard and rapid charging in the Zapmap index is substantial. If your car will sit for hours anyway, the slower, cheaper option is usually the better one. Do not assume rapid is always better value. You are often paying a premium for speed you do not need.

What to know

The government will spend £100 million over two years from spring 2027 to cut charging prices at lower-powered public chargers, which are about a third of the network. Drivers who rely on them could save around £150 a year on average. A tariff porting taskforce will explore letting drivers use cheaper home energy tariffs at some public chargers. That is at the exploratory stage, with details to follow from the Department for Transport. The problem being addressed is real and measurable. Public charging prices have risen 69% in real terms for lower-powered chargers and 94% for higher-powered ones since 2021, and around a third of UK households have no off-street parking. Zapmap's September 2026 index put pay-as-you-go prices at 54p per kWh for standard and 79p per kWh for rapid and ultra-rapid charging. The measures already live are more useful today than the headline: no planning permission for cross-pavement chargers since 21 October, up to £300 off their installation, and extended home and workplace grants. Sources: HM Treasury, "Cutting electric vehicle charging costs", 28 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cutting-electric-vehicle-charging-costs; Zapmap, "EV charging price index", September 2026, https://www.zapmap.com/ev-stats/charging-price-index. This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional.

#electric vehicles#EV charging#energy costs#transport#Budget 2026#rural drivers

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