Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the increase in the cost of charging electric vehicles via the public charging network on drivers of those vehicles.

Industry statistics show that new UK electric vehicle sales overtook diesel sales in 2022, with over 1 in every 5 cars sold having a plug. It is clear that the public continue to realise the benefits of switching to electric vehicles.

The vast majority of drivers of electric vehicles continue to benefit from significant savings on the cost of fuel. It is still cheaper to charge a vehicle on slow and fast public charge points than to fill up a petrol or diesel car, according to average industry statistics from November 2022.

Charging at rapid and ultra-rapid public charge points is on average around the same or slightly more expensive than the cost of filling up a petrol car. However, relatively few drivers solely rely on these chargers for a large part of their charging demand.

Charging a medium-sized electric car at home at rates equivalent to the electricity price cap from 1 October 2022 equates to around half the cost of filling up an equivalent petrol vehicle. Some suppliers continue to offer tariffs enabling drivers to run their electric vehicle at under 3p per mile, while charging overnight.