I spent three months with the electric Volvo EX30 – this is what it actually cost me

I really like driving electric cars. Around town their effortless power delivery makes stop-start traffic a breeze compared to lurchy automatic gearboxes or leg-busting manuals, and the silence is pretty relaxing as well.

The thing is, like many people I live in a flat with no access to home charging – which makes reaping the financial rewards of EV ownership quite tricky because I can’t make use of cheap energy tariffs. I do have a good network of public chargers around me, but I was always curious to know if charging this way was financially viable.

Back in 2025, I spent three months with the electric Volvo EX30 – relying solely on public chargers to keep me going. I’m also now around two months into life with my petrol-powered Skoda Fabia, so I’ve been running the numbers to see which is cheapest to run.

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Three months with a Volvo EX30: how much did it cost me?

During my three months with the Volvo EX30, I covered 2,130 miles at an average of 3.3 miles per kWh. That means I used 645kWh worth of electricity in total.

Looking back through my charging history, I managed to do about 70% of this at an 11kW AC charging station down the road from my flat, which at the time cost 52 pence per kWh. It’s gone up to 64 pence per kWh now – something for me to keep in mind when I next run an EV.

So I added a total of 452kWh at that station, which at the lower rate works out to £235.

The other 30% of my charging was split between various fast charging stations out on the road, which average out at 74 pence per kWh according to ZapMap. That means my total rapid charging bill was around £194, bringing my total cost of charging to £430, or 20 pence per mile.

How does petrol compare?

Since having the Volvo, I’ve now spent almost three months with my Skoda Fabia 130. It has a 1.5-litre petrol engine, and over the last 2,000 miles it’s averaged 51mpg.

That means I’ve used 177 litres of fuel, which at the current average petrol price of 151 pence per litre works out to £267 – which is 13 pence per mile. That’s close to half what I spent on public charging in the Volvo, which makes you wonder if electric cars are worth it with no home charging.

Does it make sense to run an EV with no home charging?

In some circumstances, yes it does. If you’re a company car driver, the lower Benefit-in-Kind rates on electric cars counteracts the added fuel cost.

My old Volvo EX30 will cost 20% tax payers £318 per year in BIK if you do 20,000 miles per year, or £26.53 per month. The Fabia comes in at £1,770 a year or £147.50 per month.

So let’s say I did 20,000 miles in my Volvo at 20 pence per mile. That’s around £4,000 a year in charging, and a total of £4,318 a year once you add the BIK.

The Skoda would cost me £2,600 in fuel, and then the BIK bill brings it to a total of £4,370. So for company car drivers, an EV still makes sense even if you have nowhere to charge it at home.

However, you may also be better off with a plug-in hybrid car. Take the Volkswagen Golf eHybrid as an example. Because it has a claimed EV range of up to 88 miles, it falls into a low BIK bracket which sees you paying £508 per year.

The thing is, you don’t have to plug it in at all. It’ll behave like a normal hybrid with a flat battery, and you’ll still get around 40mpg from it. The fuel cost at that rate is roughly £3,430, bringing your total yearly bill to £3,940. That’s less than the Volvo, and you don’t have to faff around with public chargers.

Where does this leave us?

To get the most value out of your electric car, you really need to have a charger at home. Tariffs can cost as little as seven pence per kWh at off-peak times, which I worked out would have saved me around £200 during my time with the Volvo EX30 and brought my total cost per mile down to around 11 pence.

Company car drivers can still enjoy the benefits of EV life though, and if you’ve got your heart set on an electric car, but have nowhere to charge at home, just know that it’s still doable – it’s just not quite as cheap as you might think.

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