Fleet car and van drivers reclaiming charging costs using the Government’s Advisory Electricity Rate (AER) are being left out of pocket on nine out of 10 charges.

Nine out of 10 charges carried out result in business car and van drivers being out of pocket if they reclaim costs using the Government’s Advisory Electric Rate

That’s according to new data from EV charging payment specialist, which gives businesses and fleets real-world data on how EVs are being used across the UK – and how much they really cost.

Its new ‘EV Report – Summer 22’ looks at the June-August 22 quarter, highlighting costs, trends and behaviours gathered from more than 32,500 charging events.

Key findings include an average pence per mile (ppm) cost for an electric van if charged at home of 10ppm – double that of the Government’s Advisory Electricity Rate (AER) of 5ppm, while cars charged at home cost 7ppm on average. As a result, many drivers are being short-changed on charging.

It also finds that the average cost of home charging over summer 22 was 26 pence per kilowatt hour (p per kWh) – more than 30% higher than the previous 12 months.

The average cost of public charging is 56p per kWh – a rise of 19% over the previous year.

But there’s a huge variation in public charging tariffs – from cheapest of 30p per kWh to the most expensive 277p per kWh.

And on average, drivers only spend around three-quarters of an hour charging in public, generally taking on around 90-100 miles of charge.

The firm believes it’s the first time it has been possible to see the real-life cost of thousands of electric cars and vans, and EV driver behaviour too.

Mina CEO Ashley Tate said: “There’s a lot of discussion about the real cost of charging EVs, but much of it is entirely theoretical, and based on lots of assumptions and ‘what-ifs’. At Mina, our technology monitors every single charge, and every piece of associated data from the moment a car or van is plugged in, so we know exactly what is going on in the real world, the second it happens.

“We know every tariff, at home and in public, we can see how green that electricity is, the carbon impact in real time of every kWh and how much it costs for every kWh. This is transformative, because from this you can build a picture of real-life costs, which is so important as the energy crisis unfolds, and also begin to understand behaviour and trends.”

He added: “As an example, I think many will be surprised at just how little time drivers who can charge at home actually spend charging in public. This will inform strategy in future, not just for businesses looking at costs and productivity, but for networks and authorities rolling out chargers and assessing demand.

“We believe this quarterly report will provide a benchmark for the entire EV sector, businesses and drivers.”

To download a copy of Mina’s EV Report – Summer 22, click here.