By Matt Robinson
You’ve made the decision to leave internal combustion-powered motoring behind forever, switching to an electric vehicle (EV) for the good of the planet. But when it comes to charging said EV at home, how much will it cost to get a charging point installed? Well, we’re here to answer all your questions on the subject.
How Much Is An EV Charger For Home Use?
Having a home charging point for an EV – called a ‘wallbox’ – installed can vary in price, depending on which model you go for and which installer you use, but the typical range of values is around £800-£1000, with some more advanced wallboxes commanding up to £1500.
Installation costs are inevitable because home wallboxes are heavy-duty electrical items that need to be professionally (and safely) wired in by trained electricians. However, installing one is relatively straightforward, although the maximum charging speed of your wallbox will depend on your domestic electricity supply. Most homes in the UK employ single-phase electrics, which means the maximum power of your home wallbox will be capped to 7.4kW; however, if you have more advance triple-phase (or 3-phase) electrics, then it is possible to get a faster 11- or 22kW item fitted. Check out our dedicated guide to home charging for more information on using a wallbox.
Are There Any Grants To Help With The Cost Of Wallbox Installation?
Yes, the EV Chargepoint Grant came into effect on April 1, 2022, and provides a grant of up to 75% of the cost of installing a wallbox at UK properties, up to a cap of £350 including VAT. Run by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV), it is only available to flat owner-occupiers and people in rented accommodation, and to qualify there must also be a dedicated, off-street parking space at the property. There is a full list of parameters for qualification for the grant available on the link above, but if you do qualify for the scheme then it can significantly reduce the cost of having a home wallbox installed.
Bear in mind that 3.7- and 7.4kW units are going to be much cheaper to have installed than 11- or 22kW units, and also smartchargers – devices which can vary the EV’s charging drain on the UK electricity grid according to times of high power demand, or even to take advantage of lower-price electricity rates by charging the vehicle overnight.
How Much Does It Cost To Charge An EV On A Wallbox?
It depends on your electricity rate, but whatever that is, then it’s very easy to work out the cost. Basically, take the capacity of your EV’s battery (noted in kWh) and then multiple it by your domestic electricity unit cost (per kW). So, assuming an average unit price of 14p per kW, these are 3 guide calculations, all based on a 0-100% charge through a home wallbox:
• Honda E: 35.5kWh battery pack, full charge = £4.97; real-world range c.100 miles, cost of home charge per mile = 5p
• Renault Zoe: 52kWh battery pack, full charge = £7.28; real-world range c.175 miles, cost of home charge per mile = 4.2p
• Hyundai Ioniq 5: 73kWh battery pack, full charge = £10.22; real world range c.230 miles, cost of home charge per mile = 4.4p
What’s The Advantage To Having A Wallbox Over Using A 3-Pin Domestic Socket?
A ‘granny charger’ or a ‘trickle charger’ is officially known as a Type 2 Mode 2 cable. It is offered, usually as standard equipment but sometimes at an extra cost (normally a few hundred pounds, at most), by automotive manufacturers as part of an EV’s equipment list at ordering time. It consists of a length of electrical cable, with a 7-pin Type 2 connecting socket at one end and a 3-pin domestic plug the other, with a control box in the centre of the cable. It’s normally about 4.5-5m long, so you need to be parked pretty close to a weatherproof (indoor) domestic socket to get the car to charge.
The issue is that the Type 2 Mode 2 cable only charges an electric car at 2.3kW maximum, and it pushes a domestic electrical circuit close to its maximum rating of 3kW. It’s also incredibly slow, because a Hyundai Ioniq 5 with the 73kWh battery mentioned above would take almost 32 hours to go from 0-100% charge via a 3-pin plug and Mode 2 cable. Even a Honda E, a car with one of the smallest lithium-ion battery packs on the market, would require around 15-and-a-half hours for a full charge.
On a wallbox, however, things speed up considerably. A full charge on a short-range EV like the Honda E reduces to less than 10 hours – or, basically, overnight if you plug it in when you get home from work one day and then unplug it the next morning to go to your office – on even the slowest 3.7kW unit, while a Hyundai Ioniq 5 73kWh would take 19 hours; still a long time, but that’s for a complete charge – you could easily get 50% of battery power into it overnight on a wallbox.
However, most go for a 7.4kW unit, which has a drastic effect on charging times. The Honda E would now require just 4 hours 48 minutes for a full charge on such a wallbox, while the Hyundai Ioniq 5 73kWh would be fully topped up in less than 10 hours. Even the cars with the biggest batteries on sale right now, the BMW iX xDrive50 (111.5kWh) and the Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+ (108kWh), would only take 15 hours and 14 hours 36 minutes respectively.
If you can install an 11kW unit on 3-phase electrics, the gains are bigger still – that BMW would take 10 hours to fully charge, while the Merc would be done in about 9-and-3-quarter hours.
Final note here: wallboxes come in 2 main types, which are tethered and untethered (sometimes also known as ‘socketed’). For tethered units, it means there is an extendable cable with a Type 2 connecting plug built into the wallbox itself, while untethered/socketed units do not have this feature – meaning you need to connect the EV to the wallbox with a Type 2 Mode 3 cable (another 4.5-5m long cable, this time without the control box of the Mode 2 and with 7-pin Type 2 plugs at both ends of the cabling). The good news is that a Type 2 Mode 3 cable is widely offered as standard equipment with EVs these days, allowing you to not only hook up your car to a wallbox at home, but also to take advantage of faster AC public charging points rated up to 22kW.
Does Leasing Through Vanarama Help With Home Charging Installation Costs?
We’ll say – Vanarama offers a free home wallbox installation with every EV we lease. So not only do you get lower monthly costs for the term of the lease deal on an EV, you also get around £1000-worth of home-charging equipment fitted for nothing!
Find out everything you need to know about electric cars including how to charge them, how much charging costs and much more in our handy guides.
