5 tips to make driving an electric car cheaper

Electric cars are cheaper to run than petrol or diesel cars for most drivers, but "cheaper" covers a wide range depending on how you charge, when you charge, and how the cost is paid for. These five changes make the biggest difference without touching the car itself.

1. Get on a proper EV home tariff

If you can charge at home, a flat rate tariff is leaving money on the table. Dedicated EV tariffs offer cheap overnight rates, often 7 to 8p per kWh, against a typical standard rate several times higher. For a driver doing 10,000 miles a year, moving from a standard tariff to a cheap overnight EV tariff can save several hundred pounds annually on its own. Set your car to charge in the off-peak window, most EVs let you schedule this from the dashboard or app.

2. Use one app and card for public charging instead of several

Jumping between five different network apps wastes time and money, because you cannot easily compare pricing, and pay-as-you-go rates are usually the most expensive way to pay on any network. A roaming app and charge card, like the one built into The Charge Scheme via Plugsurfing, gives access to 76,000+ public chargers through a single login, with visible pricing before you plug in. See the mechanics in our guide to EV charging cards.

3. Match charger speed to what you actually need

Ultra-rapid chargers cost the most per kWh, and the price premium is rarely worth it for a routine top-up when you are not in a hurry. Save rapid and ultra-rapid charging for long journeys where speed genuinely matters, and use slower, cheaper destination or workplace chargers for everyday top-ups. This single habit change can meaningfully cut your average cost per mile without any planning overhead.

4. Charge at work if it is available

Workplace charging is often free or heavily subsidised, and it removes charging time from your evening or weekend entirely. If your employer does not yet offer it, it is worth raising, particularly as more organisations look at charging as part of a wider EV benefit alongside salary sacrifice car schemes. It is one of the simplest additions HR teams can make with limited infrastructure cost.

5. Charge through salary sacrifice, not take-home pay

This is the change with the biggest single impact for most employees, because it does not depend on tariffs, charger speed or driving pattern. If your employer offers EV charging salary sacrifice, the cost of every charging session, home, work or public, is deducted from gross pay before income tax and National Insurance are calculated. That cuts the real cost of charging by 20 to 50%, depending on your tax band:

Tax band	Saving on charging spend
Basic rate	28%
Higher rate	42%
Additional rate	47%

On an average annual charging spend of £700, that is a saving of roughly £200 to £330 a year, on top of anything saved through tariffs or smarter charging habits. It bolts on to any existing company car or EV salary sacrifice scheme, so there is nothing to change about your lease. Full detail is on the how it works page, and employees can check eligibility on the employees page.

Putting it together

None of these five changes are mutually exclusive, and most drivers benefit from combining them: a cheap home tariff for daily charging, a roaming app for the occasions you need public charging, workplace charging where it is available, and salary sacrifice running underneath all of it to reduce what everything costs once it is paid for. Try the numbers for your own mileage with our savings calculator.

Next steps

If your employer does not yet offer EV charging salary sacrifice, book a demo and we will happily talk your HR or finance team through what it takes to set up.