Charging a Tesla at home costs between £5.38 and £57.60 for a full charge, depending on the model and tariff. A Model 3 RWD on an EV off-peak tariff comes in at around £5.38, and 100 miles costs £2.15 against £19.75 for an equivalent petrol car.
At V2C we manufacture chargers in Spain, so this guide works from meter readings rather than rounded estimates: each Tesla’s real usable capacity, charging losses included, and 2026 UK electricity prices. Below you’ll find the table by model, the annual cost, and the two questions almost no one answers: whether you need to upgrade your electrical supply, and how much a solar panel system actually cuts the bill.
Table of Contents
- 1 How much does a full Tesla charge cost at home, by model?
- 2 How much do 100 miles cost, and how much do you save versus petrol?
- 3 What do you actually pay per kWh in the UK?
- 4 How much does it cost to charge a Tesla over a year?
- 5 Do I need to upgrade my electrical supply to charge a Tesla?
- 6 How much does it cost to charge with solar panels?
- 7 How to pay less to charge at home
- 8 Frequently asked questions about charging a Tesla at home
- 8.1 How much does a full charge cost for a Tesla Model 3 at home?
- 8.2 How much do 100 miles cost in a Tesla?
- 8.3 What’s the cheapest electricity tariff for charging an electric car in the UK?
- 8.4 Do I need to upgrade my electrical supply to charge a Tesla?
- 8.5 How much do you save per year compared with a petrol car?
- 8.6 Is it cheaper to charge with solar panels?
- 9 Install your charger with V2C
How much does a full Tesla charge cost at home, by model?
The maths is simple: kWh that go into the battery, plus losses, multiplied by the price of your kWh. What almost no one factors in is the losses: charging on AC loses around 10% between the meter and the battery. So you pay for more kWh than the car actually stores. The figures below already account for that.
| Model | Usable battery | kWh from the meter | EV tariff, off-peak (8p/kWh) | Price cap (26.3p/kWh) | Public charging (54p/kWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 3 RWD | 60.5 kWh | 67 kWh | £5.38 | £17.69 | £36.30 |
| Model 3 / Model Y Long Range | 75.0 kWh | 83 kWh | £6.67 | £21.93 | £45.00 |
| Model S / Model X | 96.0 kWh | 107 kWh | £8.53 | £28.07 | £57.60 |
A note on the Model S and Model X: Tesla no longer produces them, but they’re still on the road and sold second-hand, so they stay in the table.
Work out what charging your Tesla at home costs
Set the controls to your car and your tariff. The calculation includes 10% charging losses, so the figure you see is what the meter bills, not what reaches the battery.
Cost calculator
- Model 3 RWD 60.5 kWh
- Model 3 / Model Y Long Range 75.0 kWh
- Model S / Model X 96.0 kWh
- Other capacity custom
Charging to 80% day to day is the usual advice for battery health.
EV tariff off-peak 8p · price cap 26.3p · public standard 54p · rapid 77p
Indicative figures using average efficiency per model and petrol at 173.8p a litre. Real consumption varies with speed, temperature and climate control.
How much do 100 miles cost, and how much do you save versus petrol?
This is the comparison that really settles it, because it’s the one you feel every month.
| Model | Real efficiency | At home, off-peak | At home, price cap | Public (54p/kWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 3 RWD | 4.1 mi/kWh | £2.15 | £7.06 | £13.04 |
| Model 3 / Model Y Long Range | 4.0 mi/kWh | £2.22 | £7.29 | £13.47 |
| Model S / Model X | 3.1 mi/kWh | £2.86 | £9.41 | £17.38 |
And an equivalent petrol car?
A petrol car of similar size uses roughly 44.8 mpg. With unleaded at £1.738/litre, the UK average price in late September 2026, that’s £19.75 per 100 miles.
Against £2.15 for a Model 3 charged at home on an EV off-peak tariff, that’s 89% less.
One honest caveat, though: fuel prices are volatile and currently sit at an elevated level. The comparison shouldn’t rest on a single figure. At different prices per litre, those same 100 miles by petrol cost:
- £1.50/litre: £17.05 per 100 miles
- £1.65/litre: £18.76
- £1.738/litre (current price): £19.75
- £1.90/litre: £21.60
Cost per 100 miles
The same distance, four ways to pay for itA Tesla Model 3 charged at home on an off-peak EV tariff costs roughly ten times less per mile than an equivalent petrol car.
Even in the scenario most favourable to petrol, charging at home on an off-peak tariff still costs a fraction of the price. And there’s an asymmetry that favours electric: the price of off-peak electricity is far more stable than fuel prices, and with solar panels it stops depending on the market altogether.
What do you actually pay per kWh in the UK?
This is the variable that changes your bill the most, and the one you can actually do something about. In the UK, there are essentially three options.
Standard variable tariff (price cap)
A single rate regardless of time of day, currently around £0.2632/kWh under the Ofgem price cap. It’s simple, but for anyone charging a car at home, it’s also the option that leaves the most money on the table.
EV off-peak tariffs
Tariffs like Octopus Intelligent Go or Go, and similar EV plans from other suppliers, offer a low overnight rate of around £0.08/kWh for several hours, with the standard rate applying the rest of the day. The gap is enormous: more than three times cheaper than the price cap rate, for exactly the same energy.
For an electric car, this is almost always the right choice: charging is the easiest use of electricity to shift into the night, since the car is parked anyway.
Public charging
On the public network, a standard AC charger costs around £0.35 to £0.55/kWh, and a rapid or ultra-rapid motorway charger can reach £0.79 to £0.85/kWh. Some networks cap around £0.54/kWh on faster units with a subscription.
When is off-peak electricity available?
It typically runs for 4 to 6 hours overnight, commonly between 00:30 and 05:30, though the exact window depends on your supplier and tariff. Smart EV tariffs often let the app or car choose the cheapest window automatically.
Time of day
Pick when you charge and see what changesClick the hours you would leave the car charging. Each hour adds 7.4 kWh on a home charger.
How much does it cost to charge a Tesla over a year?
With a Model 3 and 12,000 miles a year, a reasonable UK average:
| How you charge | Cost per year | Against petrol |
|---|---|---|
| At home, always off-peak | £257 | saves £2,112 |
| At home, standard tariff | £847 | saves £1,522 |
| Public charging only | £1,564 | saves £805 |
| Equivalent petrol car | £2,370 | — |
The gap between off-peak and standard-rate charging comes down entirely to what time you plug in: same car, same mileage, hundreds of pounds of difference. That’s why scheduling your charge pays off more than almost any other adjustment.
Do I need to upgrade my electrical supply to charge a Tesla?
It’s the most common question, and the one that gets answered worst, because the usual answer, upgrade your supply, costs money every month even if you only charge the car a handful of times.
The real problem is simpler: if your home’s main fuse is rated at 60A or 80A and you plug in a 7.4 kW charger while the oven, the shower and the kettle are all running, the main fuse trips.
With a charger that manages power dynamically, an upgrade usually isn’t necessary. Trydan includes dynamic load management: it measures what the house is drawing in real time and adjusts the power sent to the car so the total never exceeds your supply’s rating. If the washing machine kicks in, it scales back; once it finishes, it ramps back up. And if the breaker trips anyway, it resets itself automatically.
In practice, you can charge at home without touching your electrical supply, a fixed cost that many guides treat as unavoidable.
How much does it cost to charge with solar panels?
If your surplus covers the charge, those kWh cost nothing. The useful question isn’t that one, though — it’s how much of the charge you can actually cover, and that comes down to how the charger talks to your system.
Trydan has solar integration with a direct connection to the inverter, which opens up three ways of working:
- Surplus only: the car charges exclusively from solar surplus, without drawing from the grid. If there isn’t enough sun, it doesn’t charge.
- Combined: it uses the available surplus and tops up from the grid up to the power level you set.
- By time window: you can apply different modes at different times of day, for example surplus only in the morning and off-peak grid power overnight.
It’s this last combination that cuts the bill the most in practice: sun when it’s there, off-peak power when it isn’t. If you’ve already got panels, our guide on how to make the most of solar panel surplus covers the detail.
How to pay less to charge at home
Four levers, ranked by how much they actually save:
- Switch to an EV off-peak tariff. This is the single biggest saving available in the UK: moving from a standard variable rate to an EV tariff can cut the price of a charge by more than two-thirds.
- Schedule charging for the off-peak window. With the V2C Cloud app, you set the window once and stop thinking about it.
- Charge to 80% day to day. Saving 100% for long trips preserves the battery and reduces the time spent charging outside the off-peak window.
- Use a three-pin plug only in emergencies. A standard socket delivers around 2.3 kW: filling a Model 3 takes more than 24 hours, and you’ll inevitably end up charging outside off-peak hours. We cover the detail in our guide on charging an electric car from a normal plug.
Frequently asked questions about charging a Tesla at home
How much does a full charge cost for a Tesla Model 3 at home?
Around £5.38 on an EV off-peak tariff and around £17.69 on the standard variable rate. The calculation starts from 60.5 kWh of usable battery plus 10% charging losses, so around 67 kWh measured at the meter.
How much do 100 miles cost in a Tesla?
With a Model 3 charged at home on an EV off-peak tariff, around £2.15. On the standard variable rate, that rises to around £7.06. On a public charger, around £13.04. An equivalent petrol car, with unleaded at £1.738/litre, costs £19.75 per 100 miles.
What’s the cheapest electricity tariff for charging an electric car in the UK?
EV-specific off-peak tariffs such as Octopus Intelligent Go or Go, at around £0.08/kWh overnight, are the cheapest option by a wide margin. The standard variable rate under the Ofgem price cap, around £0.2632/kWh, costs more than three times as much for the same energy.
Do I need to upgrade my electrical supply to charge a Tesla?
Not if the charger manages power dynamically. Trydan measures the home’s real-time consumption and adjusts the power sent to the car so it never exceeds the supply’s rating, which lets you charge without upgrading your electrical supply.
How much do you save per year compared with a petrol car?
With 12,000 miles a year and charging consistently on an off-peak tariff, around £2,112 a year, or 89% less. Because fuel prices are volatile and currently elevated, the real saving moves with the market.
Is it cheaper to charge with solar panels?
Yes, and if the charge is covered by surplus, those kWh are free. What determines how much you can cover is the charger: Trydan connects directly to the inverter and lets you charge on surplus only, combine surplus with grid power, or apply different modes by time of day.
Install your charger with V2C
Everything above depends on one condition: having a programmable charger at home that doesn’t force you to upgrade your electrical supply. At V2C we design and manufacture Trydan entirely in Spain.
To find out what installation involves in your case, the best step is to talk to a professional who can assess it in person. Find your installer in our network of certified installers.