How much does it cost to charge an electric car?

Not much! Electricity is nearly always much cheaper per mile than petrol or diesel.

For anyone who can charge at home, the difference in cost is huge. At home, a standard electricity rate is in the region of around 20p per kW (rates have increased significantly since summer 2021 however). So, a car with a 40kWh battery will cost around £8 to fully charge at home. It's then down to the efficiency of the vehicle to see how far that juice will get you. This can vary a bit but you would easily expect to get around 3miles for every kWh. So a 40kWh battery should easily do 120 miles, which would have cost you about 6p per mile.
However, this home-charging cost can be almost halved for people with an economy 7 meter, charging at night on cheaper or even negative rates (!). What's more, if you have your own solar panels at home, you can charge from the sun - for free.

Of course, not everyone can charge at home and for those people, they will have to rely on charging at work or on the public charge networks. There are a large number of public charge networks around the UK, providing a range of different prices and affordability. The prices vary from being more expensive than petrol to being cheaper than charging at home - so it's worth shopping around to get the right deal. Due to the different pricing structures between the network operators, it can be quite difficult to understand which offers the best value, which is why we periodically compare prices in our comparison report:

• Leccy.net: Public EV Networks Cost Comparison
• UK Public EV Charging Networks Price Comparison: January 2021
  
• UK EV Charging Network Prices: January 2020
• UK EV Charging Network Prices: Summer 2018
  

In summary

Wherever an electric car is being charged, without much effort it's possible to achieve very competitive rates. With a bit more consideration around how and where you charge, it can be under 2p per mile.