- A rise in energy prices could be felt in the public electric vehicle charging network
- Recharging companies warn of price increases
- Network charges have increased dramatically in the last three years
Several providers of public EV charging networks have warned that rising energy costs could be passed on to EV owners, as the price per kilowatt hour for charging on the public grid could rise as companies look to stem losses.
According to a Sky News report, there are warnings that charging companies may have no choice but to pass costs on to drivers, with ChargeUK noting that companies are facing massive network charges that have increased by an average of 462% in the last three years.
Speaking to the media outlet, an Osprey Charging site in Wolverhampton said it had reported a 38,570% increase in its annual fixed charges since 2021, from £87 to £33,651 this year.
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“Our ultra-fast charging centers require very large network connections for the peak demand we will see in the future, but today we have to pay in full for those large network connections,” Ian Johnston, chief executive of Osprey Charging, told Sky News.
According to ChargeUK’s 2025 white paper, the public charging network has seen a strong average price increase of 38% since 2021.
The increase in costs is mainly attributed to energy expenses, which now account for two-thirds of charging point operator (CPO) costs, according to EV Infrastructure News.
On top of this, the public grid is made even more expensive by UK government taxes, which add around 6p per kWh in an attempt to balance the decline in revenue from fuel taxes.
Public cargo is also currently taxed at 20% VAT, while domestic cargo is taxed at 5%.
Analysis: a dead-end situation
Many major public charging network operators have invested millions of pounds in infrastructure “at a scale years ahead of demand”, according to Osprey’s Ian Johnston.
This means that most of it depends on the fact that the number of electric vehicles on the roads will continue to increase apace over the next decade, when a return on investment may begin to occur.
But it seems many are already getting nervous, as the UK government continues to move targets on electric vehicle sales quotas, pushing back its 100% zero emissions target until 2035. Only 5% of all cars on the road today are electric vehicles.
This, coupled with the fact that fixed tariffs and energy prices are rising, means that costs are now, unsurprisingly, being passed on to the consumer.
Tom Hurst, UK national director of Fastned, which owns a site at the Palace Grounds retail park in South Lanarkshire, said the company now faces ongoing charges of £41,000 a year, almost four times the site’s rent, according to Sky News.
“Although the station runs on 100% renewable energy, these fixed costs, combined with higher VAT on public charging and rising wholesale energy prices, ultimately impact drivers.
“We absorb as much of these costs as possible to keep prices low for drivers, but policy action is needed,” he told Sky News.
The whole situation is a painful impasse, requiring more EV owners to allow these big companies to make profits and promote competition (and hopefully lower the cost of public charging), but potential buyers are put off by the lack of affordable, fast charging infrastructure.
After all, the exorbitant price of fast public charging disproportionately affects the one-third of UK households without off-street parking.
Despite the national and local electric vehicle charging initiatives the UK government has announced for April this year, it needs to rein in the public charging network – reducing VAT, tackling political levies and reducing standing charges – if it has any chance of convincing more buyers to go electric.
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