How much does it cost to charge a family electric car?

Work out what it costs to charge an electric car at home — per top-up, per year and per 100 miles or kilometres, including the energy lost on the way into the battery.

Showing German rates

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Using the German average of 38.69c/kWh — Eurostat, the second half of 2025.

The most common size on the road: mid-size hatchbacks and small SUVs. A 20–80% top-up is roughly a week of average driving.

Your car

Usable battery size

kWh

The usable figure, not the gross one — manufacturers quote both, and a few kWh are always held back to protect the pack.

Energy use

kWh/100 km

Real-world consumption, which is usually worse than the official figure and noticeably worse in winter. Leave at 0 if you would rather skip the distance figures.

The charge

Charging from

Charging to

80% is the usual stopping point: charging slows sharply above it, and sitting at 100% is harder on the battery.

Charges per week

Your tariff

Your electricity rate

c/kWh

If you charge overnight on an EV or off-peak tariff, use that rate — it is often a fraction of the standard one, and it is the single biggest lever on this answer.

Charging losses

Energy that never reaches the battery. Home AC charging typically loses 8–12% to the onboard charger, the cable and keeping the pack at temperature.

This top-up costs €15.48

Charging cost per year €2,414

Cost per 100 km €7.74

Range added (km) 200

A full charge would cost €25.79

Drawn from the wall 40 kWh

What drives the cost

Around 60 kWh usable and roughly 18 kWh per 100 km is the middle of the market, and a useful reference point: a 20–80% top-up puts in about 36 kWh, which is a bit over 200 km of real-world range and, for most people, about a week of driving.

At this size the tariff is the whole story. The same car doing the same mileage can differ by a factor of two or three in annual cost depending purely on whether it charges on a standard rate or a dedicated overnight one. No efficiency change available to a driver comes close to that.

How this is worked out

Charging cost is the energy you put in multiplied by your electricity rate — but the energy you put in is not the same as the energy that reaches the battery. Some is lost in the car's onboard charger, the cable and keeping the pack at temperature, and your meter counts all of it. So a 60 kWh battery taken from 20% to 80% needs 36 kWh at the battery, but around 40 kWh from the wall at a typical 10% loss.

What this assumes

Charging losses of around 10%, which is typical for home AC charging. A slow 3-pin plug is worse, a wall box on a warm day is better, and cold weather is worse again.
One flat electricity rate. If you charge on an off-peak or EV tariff, the rate you enter matters far more than anything else on this page — overnight rates are often a third of the standard one.
Real-world energy use, not the official test figure. Winter, motorway speeds and a full car all push consumption up, often by 20–30%.
Home charging only. Public rapid charging typically costs several times as much per kWh.
The rate filled in for you is an average that spreads fixed charges across a year's usage, so it sits above what one extra unit really costs. Entering the unit rate from your own bill gives a closer answer.

Questions

How often will I actually need to charge?

For average mileage, roughly two to three 20–80% top-ups a week. Most owners plug in more often than that and charge less each time, which costs the same overall and keeps the battery in its comfortable middle range.

Why is the wall figure higher than the battery figure?

Because charging is not perfectly efficient. The car's onboard charger converts AC from your house into DC for the battery, and that conversion, the cable and the battery's own thermal management all take a share. Your meter bills what left the wall, so that is what this calculates.

Why does it charge to 80% rather than 100%?

Because that is what most people do with a nickel-based battery. Charging slows sharply in the last 20%, and an NMC or NCA pack left sitting at 100% degrades faster. LFP packs are the exception and are meant to be filled — if your car has one, its own page here says so. Set both fields to whatever you actually do; there is a full-charge preset if you want the other number.

Should I use my normal rate or my EV tariff?

Your EV or off-peak rate, if you have one and you charge overnight. It is by far the biggest lever here: the same car on the same mileage can cost two or three times more on a standard rate than on a dedicated overnight one.

Does this cover public charging?

No. This is home charging. Public rapid chargers are priced per kWh at a much higher rate, and often add a connection fee, so the cost per mile can be several times what you see here.

Related tools

How much does it cost to run an appliance? Work out what any appliance costs to run per use, per month and per year on your own electricity rate — including what it draws on standby.

Sources

U.S. Department of Energy — charging at home — checked 2026-08-21
EV Database — useable capacity and real-world consumption — checked 2026-08-21

Rates from Eurostat for the second half of 2025. Last reviewed 14 October 2026.