The coronavirus pandemic has boosted the popularity of electric vehicles (EVs).

The improvement in air quality brought about by

the dramatic reduction in traffic levels during the

UK’s lockdown has made almost half of people (

45%) realise the benefits of zero-emissions

motoring and consider going electric, according

to a recent survey by Venson Automotive Solutions.

​

         Of those asked, 19% said their next car will be

electric and 26% said they’ll be switching to an EV in

the next five years. When the survey was conducted

a year earlier, 31% said they would buy an EV, but

not for 10 to 15 years. 

​

        However, EV buyers could end up paying far too much to charge the batteries in their new cars if they don’t do their research up front. A recent What Car? investigation revealed that using the UK’s fastest public EV chargers can cost around seven times more than charging up at home.

​

      We paid £40.66 for a 10-80% 150kW charge for a BMW iX3 at a Source London 7.4kW charger on its London Flexi tariff ; in comparison, charging up at home on a night-time tariff of 14 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh) would cost £7.25. So getting the best home charging setup is key to keeping EV running costs down.