Britain to create group to test home electricity tariffs at charging points — Autocar

The UK government plans to test a mechanism that would allow electric vehicle drivers to use their home electricity tariffs at local low-power public charging stations. To this end, the Department for Transport will establish a working group, Autocar reports.

Pilot for slow chargers

The initiative was announced during the Autumn Budget. The working group is to test a solution for applying domestic energy tariffs at local low-power charging points, which account for around one-third of the UK's public charging network.

The solution is based on an independent report commissioned by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles at the Department for Transport. The report, published on October 28, described transferring home tariffs to slow chargers as the best long-term way to address inequality between drivers who do and do not have access to charging near their homes.

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£100 million for two years

The Treasury also confirmed an allocation of £100 million to bring the cost of public charging closer to home charging over two years, starting in spring 2027. It is projected that this could save drivers around £150 a year, based on annual mileage of 8,000 miles and average EV efficiency of 3.3 miles per kWh.

It has not yet been specified exactly how the funds will be transferred to drivers. The funding is planned to be used to reduce prices for slow AC chargers; fast DC chargers will not be included in the programme.

According to Zapmap, the average price of charging at public AC stations in Britain is 54p per kWh. This is slightly more than twice Ofgem's price cap of 26p and almost eight times higher than some suppliers' off-peak tariffs of 7p. According to the Department for Transport's calculation, a driver dependent on public charging may pay 16p per mile, while at home the cost is between 2p and 8p.