How much does it cost to charge a Volkswagen ID.4?
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.
Using the German average of 38.69c/kWh — Eurostat, the second half of 2025.
Figures are for the ID.4 Pro (MY24–25), with 77 kWh useable. Other trims and model years differ, so adjust the battery and consumption figures if yours is not this one.
Common cases
- Anything
- Tesla Model 3
- Tesla Model Y
- MG4
- Fiat 500e
- Cupra Born
- Renault 5 E-Tech
- Kia EV3
- BMW iX
- Volkswagen ID.3
- Volkswagen ID.4
- Škoda Enyaq
- Hyundai IONIQ 5
- Hyundai Kona Electric
- Kia EV6
- Kia Niro EV
- Nissan Leaf
- Volvo EX30
- Citroën ë-C3
- Peugeot e-208
- Polestar 2
- Volkswagen ID.7
- Renault Mégane
- Hyundai IONIQ 6
- BYD ATTO 3
- Toyota bZ4X
- Dacia Spring
- Small EV, ~40 kWh
- Family EV, ~60 kWh
- Large EV SUV, ~80 kWh
- Empty to full
- Overnight top-up
- Plug-in hybrid
What drives the cost
The ID.4 Pro is the ID.3's running gear in a taller body, and both numbers move the wrong way: 77 kWh useable instead of 59, at about 17.3 kWh per 100 km instead of 13.9. The bigger pack costs more to fill and the extra frontal area costs more per mile, so the two effects compound over a year rather than cancelling out.
77 kWh is also a lot of energy to push through a home charger. On a single-phase supply at 7.4 kW, a charge from near empty runs well past a typical cheap-rate window, so on an off-peak tariff it pays to top up more often in smaller amounts rather than running the battery down and refilling it in one go.
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
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
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.