Let’s run the numbers, shall we? According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the average Irish household uses 4,200kWh of electricity a year, or about 11kWh per day. On Electric Ireland’s basic plan, each kWh costs 25c and so that adds up to a bill of €1,050 per year.
The bestselling electric car in Ireland in 2024 is the Volkswagen ID.4, which in its most popular form comes with a 77kWh battery. So, to fully charge that car, from flat would mean pumping 77kWh through your meter, which means a charge of €19.25 each time. Do that every day and you’re looking at adding €7,026 to your annual bill. A bit more than double, then.
However, that’s not how this works. With that 77kWh battery, the ID.4 has a claimed range of 570km. According to the CSO, each vehicle in Ireland travels an average of 16,352km per year. Now, this figure is an average and it includes long-haul trucks, delivery vans, taxis and so on, but let’s treat it as the average annual mileage of an average Irish car owner.
To cover that 16,352km, assuming that the ID.4 can hit its claimed maximum range each time, it will need to be fully charged 28 times, which comes to a total annual cost of €552. Of course, it’s not very likely that the ID.4 will hit its claimed range each and every time it’s charged. In our experience, an ID.4 driven on a mixture of roads, including some long motorway runs, will generally return 450km for each charge. So that means you’d need to charge it up 36 times, which equates to an annual bill of €699. So you’re increasing your annual electricity bill by about two-thirds. Not doubling, but still not what you’d call chump-change.
There’s another factor we need to take into account, of course. If you’re not adding to your electricity bill to charge up your EV, how are you getting around? Well, you’re probably using a petrol or diesel-engine car to do so, and that comes with a significant fuel cost.
The equivalent vehicle in the VW range to an ID.4 is a Tiguan 2.0 TDI diesel. Now, that’s a pretty frugal car – according to the official WLTP fuel economy figures, it can average 5.3-litres per 100km. So, to cover that 16,352km you’ll need 866-litres of diesel. Assuming a cost of €1.71 per litre of diesel (that’s the current average national price at time of writing) that’s going to cost you €1,480.
But again, it’s not that simple. In our experience, in real-world driving, the VW Tiguan 2.0 TDI doesn’t average 5.3-litres per 100km, it averages more like 6.5-litres per 100km. Putting that number into our calculations spits out an annual fuel cost of €1,817 per year. So, assuming all other things being equal, to run the most popular EV in Ireland will mean adding about €699 to your annual electricity bill, but by not driving an equivalent diesel-engine vehicle, you’ll have saved €1,817, therefore giving you a net saving of €1,118. Or enough to run your house for a year at its pre-EV cost.
Again, it’s not that simple. That 25c per kWh tariff is the basic electricity rate. Electric Ireland (other energy providers are available) also offer another deal which bumps your day rate up to 35c per kWh, but drops the night rate to 17c per kWh.
In theory, most EV charging will be done at night. You can come home from work, plug in at 5pm or 6pm, but then instruct your car or your home charging port (or both – these are clever things, and some of them, such as those provided by Ohme, can even tell when electricity is at its cheapest and start charging then) to wait until the night rate kicks in at 11pm, which runs until 8am. That’s nine hours of charging, which at 7.4kWh is more than enough to top up the battery of the ID.4, assuming you didn’t plug it in on absolutely zero charge. At 17c per kWh, that’s going to cost you €13 for a full top-up, which means your average annual mileage – assuming 450km per charge – will now cost you €471.
Of course, this can be further reduced if you fit some solar panels to your house, and instruct your smart charger to top the car up using solar, while many car makers now have deals with energy suppliers to give you even lower night rate charging, or “free days” where you have one day a week where your energy supply is for free, allowing you to charge up as you please on that day.
So, no – charging up an EV at home won’t double your electricity bill. It will increase it by in and around half again, working from the national averages, but this will be more than offset by the savings you’ll make in not having to buy diesel.