Cost of Public Rapid EV Charging

Firstly, public charging costs should always be placed in the context that around 65% of drivers will be able to charge their vehicle at home or work. The overall cost of refuelling an EV is therefore made up of the very low cost of charging at home (majority of re-charging for most people) – as low as 5p per kWh – and the higher cost of charging on the public network.

There are three basic differences behind the cost of charging at home versus charging on the public networks:

1. Consumers only pay 5% VAT on electricity at home, but currently pay quadruple this on the public networks, at 20%.

2. Domestic electricity prices are capped by Government but commercial electricity does not enjoy this same protection.

3. Public charging, especially the large electrical infrastructure of ultra-rapid charging, requires capital investment to build and maintain, so the cost includes a contribution towards this.

Despite these, consumers are asking why the costs of public charging have risen over the last two years, whilst the wholesale cost of electricity has dropped from the peak at the start of the Ukraine crisis.

The reason stems from fundamental changes to how charge point networks are now charged for connecting their infrastructure into the UK grid network. 

The changes to standing and capacity charges.

Historically, high upfront connection costs were a barrier to delivering grid connections, especially for new renewable energy projects. Changes to the grid rules  – “Access SCR”  – was introduced to address this in 2022. Access SCR removed the upfront grid upgrade cost for the individual business wanting to connect, so that the project went ahead, but instead spread the cost of upgrades across all customers of the grid, via increased standing and capacity charges.

In addition, in 2022 and 2023 the Targeted Charging Review (TCR) changed how energy companies calculate charges for distribution, transmission, and balancing. 

In addition to significantly increasing standing charges for businesses, an unintended consequence of Access SCR and the TCR changes is that projects that require large grid connections but that do not use the large connection capacity still have to pay the equivalent costs. This hits those projects built today ahead of demand for a future use scenario, specifically EV charging projects. For example, if a developer builds a 3 MW solar farm, when the site goes live it instantly uses the full grid capacity when the sun shines. But a 3MW Ev charging hub is scaled for the future demand of mass EV adoption, whilst today less than 4% of cars on the road are EVs, and over 80% can currently charge at home.

What does it mean for charge point operators (CPOs)?

Charging networks, or CPOs, are investing ahead of demand in the large charging hubs that consumers want, and need to see to convince them that enough EV infrastructure exists.

Over the last two years, charging networks have seen the standing charges that they pay every day for the live grid connection, increase by as much as 1000% - 10x the previous levels.

These charges for a typical ultra-rapid EV charging hub in the Midlands, for example, have jumped from £99 a year in 2022 to £8600 a year in 2024. That’s 87x higher, and just one hub.

Whilst standing charges are dropping slightly in April 2025, this decrease is dwarfed by the capacity charges which increase by around 100% in April 2025.  

Finally, on many of their sites, charging networks have already paid reinforcement costs contributing to the upgrade of the grid network to connect, and now those same projects are being charged higher capacity and standing charges to cover nationwide upgrade. Charging networks are effectively paying twice for upgrades.   

What does this mean for consumers?

Consumers may be surprised that so much of the electricity they’re paying for is not wholesale electricity but in fact these grid charges, which can be over half of the energy cost to the charging operator. On average it’s almost half of the electricity cost (46%).

As a result, and though they do vary regionally, from April 25 standing and capacity charges will account for as much as a third of the total price consumers pay "at pump", once VAT and infrastructure costs are factored in.

As fixed charges the network has little control over, this situation therefore makes it very difficult for the charging network to lower its price to consumers, especially when the public charging rate of 20% VAT is added on top.

Furthermore, there are big discrepancies in standing charges by region across the country, hence high charges threaten to create a geographical divide in charging infrastructure.  The more expensive the standing and capacity charges combined, the less likely charging networks are going to invest in the region.

What can be done?

Temporarily lowering standing and capacity charges whilst the throughput of EV charging sites grows will be an effective measure that the government can take to ensure charge point operators are able to continue rolling out high-power public charging infrastructure – particularly the large hubs consumers prefer – whilst keeping public charging as affordable as possible for drivers.

The unintended consequences of Access SCR and the TCR changes need to be reviewed on a national level, and given the geographical nature of DNOs and therefore differences to standing and capacity charges, on a regional level too. 

Charge point operators are in consultation with government bodies including Ofgem and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, about how grid system costs are covered and charged to businesses installing and operating the vital charge point infrastructure underpinning the EV transition.

Temporary relief from, or discount on, these charges would unlock more of the high-power public charging projects the UK needs, whilst improving affordability for consumers.