Say goodbye to petrol price anxiety – forever

There are three certainties in life – death, taxes, and the fact that fuel prices will go haywire during periods of global uncertainty. 

It’s a gloomy note to start a blog on, for sure, but hang in there – this gets better (we promise). Given that we’ve had our fair share of global uncertainty recently, is there anything you can do to avoid the petrol price anxiety spiral?

Short answer: if you keep driving a petrol car, no.

Switch to an EV, however, and savings on petrol start to really add up. If you’ve been thinking about making the jump to electric driving, now’s the time that it could really make a difference. 

Most EV drivers do the bulk of their charging at home, with a home wall-box charger. Get home, plug your car in, schedule a charge, and put your feet up. It’s that simple. 

If you’re driving 8,000 miles per year, "fuelling" (charging) can cost around £144 (if you charge at home all of the time) to £493 per year (a typical mix of home, public and workplace charging).

Compare that to an average £1,269 per year spent on petrol and the savings potential becomes pretty obvious. 

In a nutshell: electricity is cheaper than petrol. 

And, you can make it even cheaper by hopping onto a smart EV tariff that gives you cheaper overnight electricity. Schedule your EV charges while you sleep to really make the most of it.

But – this is the good bit – electricity was cheaper than petrol before this current surge, and it will be cheaper than petrol after current prices stabilise. You’ll be saving in the long term, as well as when prices spike suddenly. 

What does this look like, in everyday terms? 

Let’s break it down, using two broadly similar family hatchbacks – the VW Golf (petrol) and the MG4 (EV). 

To charge the MG4 at home costs under £5. 

Filling the VW Golf full of petrol costs around £78. 

To drive as far in a VW Golf as an MG4 on full charge (around 240 miles), you would need to spend £38 extra in a VW Golf. 

But what if you don’t do all your public charging at home? 

Public charging is more expensive than charging from a home EV charger. How much will depend on the type of charger you use. 

EV drivers typically do most of their charging at home, and use public chargers to top up. We find that a typical mix would be around 65% home charging, with the rest coming from public charging or occasional workplace charging. 

For that MG4 we looked at above, this would translate to around £14 per charge – still significantly cheaper than the Golf! 

Sold on the savings on fuel prices, but unsure if an EV fits with your lifestyle? Take our EV readiness quiz to check your compatibility. 

The average range of an EV is currently around 239 miles. That’s enough to get from London to Leeds on a single charge. 

For drivers who frequently need to cover serious distances, long range EVs will go further, with some pushing 400 miles on a single charge, and even more! 

And, planning charging stops is simple with Electroverse! Simply type your destination into the app, and Electroverse will plan a charging-friendly route for you, with suggested charging stops en-route. You’ll never need to worry about not finding a charger. 

Whilst home charging via a wall-box charger is the cheapest option, ‘slow’ chargers (which include lamp post chargers and chargers in parking garages) are still cheaper than filling your car with petrol. 

Plus, Octopus EV is currently offering 50% off kerbside charging if you don’t have a driveway to level the playing field. 

Our personal leasing scheme, Intelligent EV, makes the jump to electric driving as easy as possible, whilst keeping costs down. Here’s what we offer: 

• A selection of EVs to suit your lifestyle – from handy hatchbacks to spacious SUVs
• Free charger and installation included with many EVs or discounted public charging
• Exclusive access to home and public charging discounts, with exclusive Octopus Energy tariff rates and 10% off public charging with Electroverse
• Road tax, servicing and maintenance included in your monthly leasing payments

Charging costs

Home charging costs are calculated based on prices from 1st April 2026, charging off-peak using Octopus Energy’s Intelligent Octopus Go - EV Saver tariff at 7p per kWh (available when you lease a car through Octopus Electric Vehicles).

Public charging costs are based on the AA’s EV Recharge Report.

We based the mix of home and public charging on a typical split of doing 65% of charging at home, 22% on rapid public chargers and 13% at work. This split is based on research by Roland Berger.

Typical workplace charging cost is 22p per kWh. We’ve assumed employers will pass on the cost to employees at an average of their commercial energy rates. Sourced from Business Energy deals.

To calculate the cost to charge the MG4 EV we’ve assumed a usable battery of 61.7kWh.

Petrol costs

These are based on the RAC's Fuel Watch, correct as of 6th May 2026.