Home charging is the single biggest lever in whether an EV saves you money in Britain. Not the badge on the boot — where the electrons come from overnight. Get that wrong and you can end up paying nearly as much per mile as an efficient petrol car while owning all the hassle of charging.
We will say the quiet part out loud: if you cannot charge at home reliably, an EV is often a lifestyle choice first and a money-saver second. Public networks have improved, but peak-rate DC charging on a 70 kWh battery is not a recipe for smug spreadsheet victories.
It is not really about the box on the wall. It is about access to cheap, slow electricity while you sleep. A 7 kW wallbox adds maybe 25–30 miles of range per hour — irrelevant if you plug in at 6 pm and leave at 7 am, because the battery is full either way. What matters is the pence per kWh on your tariff when the car is drawing power.
On a typical EV tariff, off-peak might be 7–9p/kWh overnight. On a standard variable rate in 2026, you might pay 24p+ for the same energy. Same car, same miles, wildly different pence-per-mile. That gap is where most “switch now” reports come from.
A smart charger with an app and solar integration is nice. A basic 7 kW box on a timer plus a good EV tariff is often where the real savings come from. It is easy to pay extra for connectivity features that never get used.
Most EV-specific tariffs with cheap overnight rates do. Your supplier can confirm before you switch.
For emergencies, yes, slowly. For daily use, no — it is hard on the socket, slow, and often means charging during expensive daytime rates.