Cheaper UK Charging Compared

There is one concern about electric cars in the UK that isn’t a myth. When you aren’t charging at home or a Tesla Supercharger you will pay through the nose to charge on public charging networks. So can you take the edge off and cut the cost of public charging?

Charging Apps Comparison

During my 1 month 1,500 mile test of the fabulous Renault 5 I decided to use the opportunity of driving a non Tesla to see if I could save money by using Wattsup, an app that specialises in finding DC chargers usually 50kW upwards that it displays on a map. The paid version allows you to specify different filters including price. Essentially then my peak district trip was a test of a Renault which turned into a test of cheaper chargers and which turned into a test of the accuracy of Wattsup! compared to the more well known Zap Map.

WattsUp! rated

• The good news is paid version (£14.99 per yr) of the map lets you apply filters to find the fast DC chargers you want. For example in most areas I would want between 3 and 5 chargers at a location (you can set a minimum between 1 and 20). The Renault 5 had a maximum charge speed of 100kW so I also filtered out any chargers slower than that. Finally for price I originally filtered out any chargers costing over 70p per kWh. The app displays the logo of every network on the map which makes it clear and easy to find your preferred charging option.
• The bad news? Well while the info about the number and power of chargers was generally correct the price info wasn’t. Out of 6 networks (Instavolt, E.on, Zest, Be.EV, EV Point and Applegreen) WattsUp! only listed 1 price correctly. This is shockingly poor especially when you consider than most of these prices had not changed recently. As at 16th August about 2 months later they remain wrong.WattsUp very occasionally add to the errors on a charging network price with errors at and individual location.
  The only saving grace is the WattsUp did almost certainly find me the cheapest chargers but all the incorrect ones were more expensive than listed.

Zapmap rated

It’s worth noting ZapMap is trying to do something different by listing every UK charger from a lowly lamp post to a fast DC than will quickly boost your batteries. As a result instead of showing chargers by brand it simply colours them by speed. Personally I prefer seeing the networks as there are some I avoid and some I prefer. You can declutter the map with a free charging speed filter leaving you with blobs indicating either 50-149kW chargers or 150k and over. If you don’t filter then the archaically named “fast chargers” get listed despite nothing like fast at 8-49kW.

Many other filters including price are available in a premium version which includes other benefits like a payment card with potential discounts for £34.99 annual or 4.99 a month.

• ZapMap is much more comprehensive but as a result of the decision not to display networks it is slower to find what you want. For example just identifying the E.on charger in Nottingham is not easy via the zapmap. That said the app seems more stable than WattUp! and the community chat lets you report issues and let’s other users share info about what is good and bad with an individual charger.
• ZapMap was much more accurate than WattsUp on pricing with 4 out of 6 listed correctly. One further one (EV point Derby)has been corrected although oddly the EV point in Uttoxeter lists no price at all). Be.EV Chesterfield remains wrong.

Cheaper Charger comparison

As a comparison we will base our savings on what you would have paid charging at Instavolt. Instavolt costs 87p per kWh which is correctly shown on Zapmap but listed as 85p on Wattsup.

The figures we will show are the cost per 100 miles based on 4 miles per kWh efficiency.
For Instavolt this comes out at £21.75 per 100 miles or 21.75p per mile. If your EV delivers less than 4 miles per kWh your costs will be higher while a more efficient EV will be less.

E.on

Nottingham 6x 300kW hub

• Price shown on Wattsup? 63p per kWh Incorrect
• Price shown on Zapmap 67p per kWh Correct
• Actual price 67p per kWh and this is clearly displayed on screen before you charge

• London to Nottingham using the M1 used 69% of the battery at 3.9 miles per kWh
• The Google system in the Renault was able to find a charger by simply saying “navigate to the E.on charger in Nottingham”
• Charge from 31% to 60% in 11 minutes cost £10.14
• Renault reckoned it received 15.75kWh/ charger reckoned it sent 15.137kWh!
• according the charger average speed was 82.83kW. Impressive.

Did it feel cheap?

• The charger has 2 foibles. It likes you to pay before you plug in and won’t accept Revolut even via Applepay. It’s worth noting Instavolt also generally declines Revolut.
• Get those out of the way and it’s a fast 300 kW charger at a great price. No issues with cable length
• It’s hard to argue any high price network offers more. E.on offers the fastest charging here offered at a good price

• £16.25 per 100 miles or 16.25p per mile
• That’s a saving of 26% or £55 for every 1,000 miles of driving compared to Instavolt.

Zest

Alfreton 6x 120kW hub

• Price shown on Wattsup? 65p per kWh
• Price shown on Zapmap 65p per kWh
• Actual price 65p per kWh

• Nottingham to Alfreton used 6% battery
• The Google system in the Renault was able to find a charger by simply saying “navigate to the Zest charger in Alfreton”
• Charge from 54% to 74% in 10 minutes cost £10.14
• Renault reckoned it received 11.4 kWh/ charger reckoned it sent 11.89 kWh!

Did it feel cheap?

• No foibles although from memory I did pay before plugging in and the correct plug was lit up.
• No issues with cable length. Easy to use
• There was no queue and more than half the bays were available
• good price

• £16.75 per 100 miles or 16.75p per mile
• That’s a saving of 23% or £50 for every 1,000 miles of driving compared to Instavolt.

BE.EV

Chesterfield 8x157kW

• Price shown on Wattsup? Incorrect 65p per kWh
• Price shown on Zapmap Incorrect 65p per kWh
• Actual price 75p per kWh

• Alfreton to Chesterfield used 7% battery
• The contactless charge from 67% to 71% took 2 minutes cost £1.45 while the charge via the app cost £5.24 for a 71-86% charge that took 10 mins. Renault reckoned the App charge added 7.75 kWh whereas the charger reckoned 8.06.

Did it feel cheap?

• No foibles although from memory I did pay before plugging in and the correct plug was lit up.
• Google misdirects you past the chargers (the red X) into the gates of a pay and display carpark next door which you need to ignore as the chargers are directly accessible from the street and not in the car park at all
• No issues with cable length
• Price was higher than expected but I did like the really clear pricing signage which also showed how to save money. Contactless or web was 75p, app was 70p and app at night was 65p (9pm-7pm)
• App offered guest membership but it doesn’t work
• App asked for unnecessary info like home address but allows you to skip and still works
• Apple pay option saves time entering card info
• Billing came through as Fuuse energy so I assume this other network is connected to BE.EV
• There was no queue and more than half the bays were available

• £18.75 per 100 miles or 18.75p per mile
• That’s a saving of 14% or £30 for every 1,000 miles of driving compared to Instavolt
• I did a brief contactless charge then switched to the BE.EV app which worked out at £17.50 per 100 miles or 17.5p per mile
• The App price of 70p per kWh is 20% off the Instavolt price which would save you £42.50 for every thousand miles.

It’s worth noting I would only have needed one charge stop that day and the first E.on stop was at 29% charge so I could easily have left it till Chesterfield. After Be.EV I went to the beautiful Dovedale valley for a 4 hour walk before heading to Bakewell.

The Pilsley Arms

2 AC chargers one working.

This pub is in Pilsley on the Chatsworth estate. That’s worth remembering because it seems there are 2 Pilsley’s in Derbyshire (the other one is half an hour away near the M1) and at the time of writing Apple maps still lists the pub under its previous name the Devonshire arms at Pilsley.

So why is it the cheaper charging guide? Well simply this. There are 2 AC chargers, one wasn’t working but the staff were very knowledgeable and directed me straight to the working one. It started as soon as I plugged in and carried on till I had finished a delicious lunch and had a brief wander round the village.

And the charging was free. Lunch cost £33.50 and the 5.9 kWh I popped in the battery while I enjoyed some local Chatsworth lamb would have cost £5.13 from Instavolt. On that pricing it saved 15% on the lunch. It’s nice to see somewhere still encouraging EV visits with a good charging option although you do have to be lucky at busier times of year to get that plug!

EV point

Utoxeter 8x 250kW hub

• Price shown on Wattsup? Incorrect 65p per kWh. Incorrect
• Price shown on Zapmap Incorrect 65p per kWh Incorrect
• Actual price 75p per kWh

• Charge from 56% to 75% in 9 minutes cost £7.66
• Renault reckoned it received 10.4 kWh/ charger reckoned it sent 10.218 kWh!

Did it feel cheap?

• Nope. EV point actually use Tesla V4 chargers with contactless payment.
• No issues with cable length
• Price was higher than expected but there was really clear signage that you can see as you drive in
• There was no queue and more than half the bays were available

• £18.75 per 100 miles or 18.75p per mile
• That’s a saving of 14% or £30 for every 1,000 miles of driving compared to Instavolt

EV point

Derby 4 x 175kW hub

• Price shown on Wattsup? Incorrect 65p per kWh
• Price shown on Zapmap Incorrect 65p per kWh
• Actual price 75p per kWh

• Charge from 66% to 90% in 16 minutes cost £7.66
• Our test Renault 5 jumped straight to it with 66kW speed at 66%
• Renault reckoned it received 12.7 kWh/ and charger agreed with 12.787 kWh!

Did it feel cheap?

• Nope. Bays were nicely spaced out and the chargers worked well.
• Not sure if more cable would have come out if I pulled harder but I had to repark offset (see below) because the left hand cable was an Chademo.
• Price was higher than expected but there was really clear signage that you can see as you drive in
• There was no queue and more than half the bays were available

• £18.75 per 100 miles or 18.75p per mile
• That’s a saving of 14% or £30 for every 1,000 miles of driving compared to Instavolt

Applegreen electric

Warwick South 16x 180kW hub

• Price shown on Wattsup? 77p per kWh Incorrect
• Price shown on Zapmap 79p per kWh Corrrect
• Actual price 79p per kWh but 74p if you pay using the Applegreen app

• Charge from 46% to 70% in 12 minutes cost £9.62
• Our test Renault 5 went straight to 94kWh despite starting at 47% . I stopped at 70% as I just needed a top up to safely reach home in London
• Renault reckoned it received 13.25 kWh/ and charger reckoned 13.004 kWh!

Did it feel cheap?

• Not at all. Applegreen chargers are generally easy to use (apart from one that had a menu defaulting to Spanish) and considering there are plenty of them and speed is decent the price is good value especially on the app.
• I liked that their marketing draws attention to how to get cheaper charging and makes it easy.

• £19.75 per 100 miles or 19.75p per mile
• That’s a saving of 10% or £20 for every 1,000 miles of driving compared to Instavolt

Other Networks that weren’t in the same test

Tesla

It is also worth remembering that many Tesla Superchargers are available to non Tesla’s (using the “charge your other EV” tab in the Tesla app )with much prices then other networks. At the moment non Tesla’s pay a peak rate of 52p (nearly a 40% saving compared to Instavolt and off peak even lower at 33p. New Tesla V4 chargers with optional contactless payment should be easy to use for all EV’s but older Tesla chargers may be tricky to plug into for some EV’s due to short cables not reaching charge sockets. Cars with charge sockets at the rear left shouldn’t find it easy including most Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall, Volvo and Polestar models. If you use Tesla superchargers often in a non Tesla then a monthly subscription gives you even lower Tesla owner prices. Eg the Amesbury Supercharger is 52p peak/ 34p off peak usually but the Tesla owner prices in September 2025 are 34p peak/ 24p off peak.

Sainsburys

Sainsburys the supermarket chain were very late to offering serious EV charging at store car parks but are now making amends with a big rollout of 150kW decent chargers price at 72p (often with nectar points offered)

Summary

Public charging in the UK is much too expensive and has been since prices doubled 3 about years ago. The network offerings we tried above mean that while 40p DC charging remains a distant memory, there are good savings to be had. We still want to see EV charging back to the 50-60p range but in the meantime these chargers offer worthwhile savings. The chargers and facilities and speeds where we tested are just as good as the expensive networks and with between 4 and 16 chargers at the hubs we tested the availability was good.

So go ahead, use the more accurate ZapMap or easier to use WattsUp with paid filters to find the best value chargers. At the moment paying 65-75p in many areas should be achievable.