Cost to Charge an Electric Car in Europe: Home vs Public Prices

How to calculate the cost of charging

The formula is simple:

Cost per 100 km = consumption (kWh/100 km) × price per kWh

Two details make the difference between a good estimate and a bad one.

• Use consumption from the wall, not the dashboard. When you charge with AC at home, roughly 10% of the energy is lost in the charger and battery. If the trip computer shows 16–17 kWh/100 km, your electricity meter will see about 18. That is why we use 18 kWh/100 km as the example throughout this guide.
• Use your real price per kWh. At home that is your tariff including taxes and network charges. On the road it is the price on the charger or in the app, plus any session, blocking or monthly fees.

The size of the battery does not change the cost per kilometre, but it does change the cost of each charge. You can look up battery capacities in our catalog of electric cars and read how battery capacity relates to electric range in our glossary.

Home charging: electricity prices across Europe

Household electricity prices vary by a factor of almost four across the EU. These are Eurostat figures for the second half of 2025, including taxes:

Your own tariff may be lower. Many suppliers offer time-of-use or dynamic tariffs with cheap night or midday hours. Owners with solar panels can charge part of the year almost for free. A wallbox lets you schedule charging into those hours, while the granny cable from a household socket is slower and more likely to run into peak periods.

Public charging: AC, DC and ad-hoc prices

Public charging prices are not regulated, but they are more transparent than they used to be. The EU's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) has been in force since 13 April 2024. Under it, new public chargers must accept ad-hoc payment and show the price clearly. In Germany the ad-hoc price must be displayed before charging starts.

What the market looks like in 2026:

• Public AC (street and car park chargers). In Germany, the ADAC found in July 2026 that public charging rarely costs less than about €0.50 per kWh. Long sessions can add blocking fees once a time limit is passed.
• Fast DC charging with a contract. Ionity's prices from 1 July 2026 in Germany start at €0.41 per kWh with the Power subscription (€11.99 a month) and €0.49 with Motion (€5.99 a month).
• Fast DC charging ad hoc. Ionity Direct in Germany costs from €0.69 up to €0.76 per kWh from July 2026. The ADAC's 2026 example of a motorway site shows €0.84 per kWh ad hoc against €0.52 with a contract, a difference of up to 62%.
• Tesla Superchargers. Prices vary by site and time of day, and a membership costing €9.99 a month in 2026 lowers them.

Home vs public charging: the cost per 100 km

At 18 kWh per 100 km, here is what 100 km costs in 2026 depending on where you charge:

For comparison, a petrol car using 6.5 l/100 km at an example 2026 price of €1.75 per litre costs €11.38 per 100 km. Check that against your own pump price. Put your own figures into our fuel cost calculator to compare like for like. The conclusion is clear. An electric car is much cheaper to run if you can charge mostly at home or at work. If you depend on ad-hoc fast charging, it costs roughly the same as a petrol car. Home charging is best suited to drivers with a driveway, a garage or a charger at work.

What a full charge costs: examples from our catalog

Most drivers charge from about 10% to 80%, because charging slows down above 80% on a fast charger. The table uses battery capacities from our catalog. It shows what a 10–80% charge costs in 2026 at the EU average home price, with 10% charging losses added, and at Ionity's ad-hoc German price.

The figures for the public charger use the metered energy only; any session or parking fee comes on top.

How to cut your charging costs

1. Charge at home or at work whenever possible. It is the single biggest saving.
2. Use a time-of-use or dynamic tariff and schedule charging for the cheapest hours.
3. Pick one or two contract tariffs that cover your regular routes. With Ionity Power at 2026 prices, the €0.28 per kWh saving against the €0.69 ad-hoc price covers the €11.99 monthly fee after about 43 kWh, roughly one decent fast charge a month.
4. Avoid ad-hoc payment on motorways unless you have no choice; it is the most expensive way to charge.
5. Watch the blocking fees at AC chargers and move the car when it is done.
6. Drive efficiently in winter. Precondition the cabin while plugged in, use seat and steering wheel heating, and keep motorway speeds moderate. In the ADAC's winter test in January 2026, family EVs used between 22 and 35 kWh per 100 km at 0 °C on the motorway, so efficiency differences between models are large.

If you are still deciding which car to buy, the total cost matters more than the energy price alone. Our cost of ownership calculator adds depreciation, insurance, tax and maintenance to the running costs.