How to spend less charging your electric company car

News

4 mins read

6 October 2025

Saving money on fuel has always been a selling point for electric cars, but the margin is tighter than it used to be.

Charging costs have surged since 2021, due to rising electricity prices, and HMRC’s approved mileage rates for company car drivers don’t always cover those costs.

But whether you’re travelling for work or for pleasure, small changes can add up to big savings. Here’s how.

1. Smooth and steady driving

There’s a lot to love about EVs’ straight-line pace, but they’re much more sensitive to driving style than petrol or diesel cars.

Using Eco mode to blunt that performance and being gentler with the pedals won’t just reduce the amount of energy you’re drawing from the battery but also put more back in.

Although EVs have a traditional friction braking system, they tend to only use them when they need to stop quickly. The rest of the time, they’re using magnetic resistance within the motor to slow down, and this regenerative braking (or regen) produces electricity that can be fed back into the battery.

Look further ahead and back off a bit earlier for junctions and you will wring a few extra miles out every charge.

2. Plug in at home

If you’re lucky enough to have somewhere to plug in at home, it’s almost always the most convenient and cheapest place to charge.

For example, the Tesla Model Y – the UK’s best-selling EV – officially travels 4.4 miles per kWh of electricity in Long Range trim. That’s 6p per mile if you’re on an Ofgem-capped home energy tariff, or around half the cost of the slowest public chargers, according to Zap-Map’s latest price data.

Ordering one is easy. Most leasing companies have options to add a home charger while speccing a company car. Your employer can pay for it without any tax implications. If you’re doing a lot of business mileage, they will quickly recover that cost by avoiding paying for expensive public chargers.

3. Charge overnight

Wholesale electricity costs change constantly, as they’re set by the most expensive source of that energy.

Utility companies pay more during the day, when demand is greater and there’s a larger share coming from fossil-fuelled power plants, and less at night, when cheaper renewables are doing most of the work. Some of them also offer tariffs that pass those cheaper costs onto customers.

5. Be smarter with public chargers

It has never been easier to access a public charger. Most new AC and all DC rapid chargers are required by law to offer contactless payments without having to sign up as a member. That’s a positive step, but it’s often the most expensive way to use them.

Several charging networks have paid-for membership schemes with reduced rates. Ionity, for example, offers a 45% discount for £10.50 per month.

Services such as Bonnet offer similar but without restricting drivers to a single provider. Its Turbo Boost membership costs £8 per month and cuts charging costs by 15%. A Tesla Model Y driver would recover that fee in less than 300 miles. That’s worth considering if you’re a high-mileage user.

6. Top up at work

Workplace charging is more common for van fleets, but it can also help company car drivers to go electric.

Work is a convenient place to plug in if you can’t do it at home, while also avoiding relying on expensive public chargers. That’s a win-win for most employers, and there’s plenty of support available.

Fleets can claim up to £350 per socket for up to 40 workplace chargers and provide free charging without drivers being taxed for it, even if it isn’t used for business trips. That includes plugging in at your passenger’s workplace if you’re carpooling, but check with their boss before you do so.

7. Hot tips

All cars lose a bit of range when temperatures drop off, but it’s more obvious with an EV. Cold conditions slow the chemical reactions in the battery, which hurts efficiency, and there’s no petrol or diesel engine for the car to scavenge heat from to warm the cabin. The result is reduced efficiency and higher costs.

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