Does getting a home charger for an electric car make financial sense?

The Great Green Challenge on Tour: Episode 1 — EV charging

For many UK homes, it can make financial sense, particularly if you drive regularly and can charge at home.

If you’re able to make the most of smart charging at home, the savings become more noticeable over time. There is an upfront cost to install a charger¹, but for some drivers, that’s balanced out by what they save on fuel.

Starting with a simple question: is a home EV  charger worth it?

One stat really stood out to me before setting off on this journey.

Almost 40%²of people say no level of savings would convince them to install a home charger.

That tells us something important: this isn’t just about technology or even upfront cost. It’s often about confidence. People aren’t always sure the numbers will work for them.

So for the first stop on the Great Green Challenge on Tour, I headed to the outskirts of Edinburgh to find out what the decision to install a home charger means for a real home, with real bills.

Meeting Carlo and Anggi

Just outside Edinburgh, in Winchburgh, I met Carlo and Anggi.

They’re exactly the kind of household I wanted to speak to, because they didn’t go into their EV home charging journey fully convinced. They had questions, just like most people do.

These are the questions that mattered most to them:

What does it actually cost to charge at home?

And is the upfront cost going to be worth it?

What does it cost to charge an electric car at home?

One of the biggest barriers here isn’t price — it’s understanding.

According to our research¹:

But when you break it down, it comes back to a few key things:

And importantly — when you charge.

Charging during off-peak times when demand on the grid is lower can make a difference to the cost. But what really matters is how it compares to what you would be spending on fuel in a petrol or diesel vehicle.

Comparing EV charging to petrol and diesel

This is where it became clearer for Carlo.

Before installing a charger, Carlo told me he worked out roughly what he was spending on petrol over the year. Then he looked at:

For him, the sums were quite straightforward. The upfront cost of installing the charger was effectively balanced out within the first year based on what he was saving on fuel.

After that, charging at home came out cheaper.

Now, that won’t always be the case for everyone, as the upfront cost of installing a home charger may increase if your installer identifies that additional works are required. But it shows how the calculation works.

How a home charger changes everyday costs

There’s another factor that’s easy to overlook — and that’s how charging fits into daily life.

With a home EV charger, most people don’t wait until the battery is empty. Instead, they charge little and often.

Carlo’s routine is simple: he plugs in when he gets home and lets EV Optimise decide when it’s cheapest and greenest³to charge. Then he wakes up with a charged car.

By using the smart charging product EV Optimise, charging can be scheduled automatically outside the peak hours of 4-8pm. So rather than Carlo checking prices or planning around them, charging just automatically happens in the background.

That way, the cost becomes more consistent, more predictable, and easier to manage alongside the rest of the household bills.

Does charging at home always save money?

The honest answer is: not always.

Whether it works financially depends on a few things:

If you’re driving regularly and doing most of your charging at home, the savings are more likely to show.

If you’re driving less, or relying more on public charging, it may take longer for it to add up.

And that’s important to say, because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer here.

What stood out in real life

Spending time with Carlo and Anggi, what struck me wasn’t just the numbers.

It was how quickly things felt normal once they got into a routine.

The uncertainty they had at the start — around cost, around how it works — dropped away once they were actually using it day to day.

Charging became:

And that’s when it starts to make sense — not just financially, but practically as well.

Home, work and on the road EV charging

One thing that’s different with electric cars is that you’ve got more than one way to “fill up”.

For Carlo, home charging gives him that consistency. The car is ready when he needs it, without needing to plan his activities around his EV charging.

It just fits into how their home already runs.

So, does a home EV charger make financial sense?

For many households in the UK, it can, particularly if you:

It won’t replace every type of charging. You may  still need to rely on public chargers for longer journeys, but it’s easy to find a charger on your route with Zapmap or ScottishPower’s Recharge app.

But for everyday driving, it can bring the cost down and make things simpler.

What I’ve learned so far

After this first stop, what’s clear to me is that this decision isn’t just about cars.

It’s about habits, how you use your car, what you spend already, and how it fits into your everyday life.

Home charging won’t do everything. But it can take away a lot of the day-to-day thinking.

And over time, that consistency — both in cost and routine — starts to make a difference.

What’s next on the Great Green Challenge on tour

As I left Winchburgh, it was obvious that a lot of what we believe about these low-carbon technologies comes down to assumptions.

So next, I’m heading to Bolton to meet a family who’ve installed solar panels on their home.

You hear it all the time, that solar only really works in bright, direct sunlight.

But does it actually hold up in a place like the UK?

That’s what I’ll be putting to the test next.