Fleet charging costs: depot, home or public
What it costs to charge 10, 50 or 100 electric vans at the depot, at drivers' homes and on public chargers, from government and industry price data, and when a depot charger pays for itself.
Checked against the official source on 3 November 2026
Charging an electric van fleet costs about 10p a mile at the depot, 9.2p at drivers' homes, 15.7p on public standard chargers and 23p on public rapid chargers, against 20.9p for diesel (business prices excluding VAT; THRIVE, from DESNZ, Ofgem and Zapmap).
Use this data
Citation: THRIVE Fleet Charging Costs, prices checked 3 November 2026. thrivefleet.co.uk/data/fleet-charging-costs
Free to use in articles, presentations and reports. Please credit THRIVE and link to this page. It is a request, not a condition of use: see the data terms.
Pence a mile, by where you charge
Business prices, excluding VAT (home as the driver pays)
| Category | Value (p) |
|---|---|
| Depot | 10p |
| Home | 9.2p |
| Public standard | 15.7p |
| Public rapid | 23p |
| Diesel | 20.9p |
Your fleet's charging bill
| Energy a year | 1,575,000 kWh |
|---|---|
| Depot price band | Small/Medium (1102.5 MWh), 27.67p/kWh |
| Depot chargers (7kW) | 250, 2.5 hours a night each |
| Power if every van charges at once | 1,750 kW |
Does a depot charger pay back?
Charging 70% at the depot instead of on the public network saves £305,907 a year. Enter your installer's quote above to see how long 250 chargers take to pay for themselves.
Illustrative, not a quote. Depot electricity is DESNZ's average non-domestic price for the business size band your charging falls in (excluding VAT, including Climate Change Levy); public charging is Zapmap's average pay-as-you-go price, shown excluding VAT; home is the Ofgem price-cap unit rate. Standing charges, grid connection work and any charger grant are not included. A van uses 0.35 kWh a mile, over 250 working days a year.
10, 50 and 100 vans compared
At 18,000 miles a van a year. The depot price is the average for the DESNZ business size band the fleet's charging falls in. All three fleets fall in the Small band (28.59p/kWh). From about 114 vans at this mileage, depot charging moves into the Small/Medium band at 27.67p/kWh.
| Charged | Pence a mile | A year |
|---|---|---|
| Depot (Small business band) | 10p | £18,012 |
| At drivers' homes | 9.2p | £16,582 |
| Public, standard chargers | 15.7p | £28,350 |
| Public, rapid chargers | 23p | £41,475 |
| Diesel equivalent | 20.9p | £37,615 |
| Typical mix (70% depot, 30% public) | 12.8p | £23,082 |
| Charged | Pence a mile | A year |
|---|---|---|
| Depot (Small business band) | 10p | £90,059 |
| At drivers' homes | 9.2p | £82,908 |
| Public, standard chargers | 15.7p | £141,750 |
| Public, rapid chargers | 23p | £207,375 |
| Diesel equivalent | 20.9p | £188,076 |
| Typical mix (70% depot, 30% public) | 12.8p | £115,410 |
| Charged | Pence a mile | A year |
|---|---|---|
| Depot (Small business band) | 10p | £180,117 |
| At drivers' homes | 9.2p | £165,816 |
| Public, standard chargers | 15.7p | £283,500 |
| Public, rapid chargers | 23p | £414,750 |
| Diesel equivalent | 20.9p | £376,151 |
| Typical mix (70% depot, 30% public) | 12.8p | £230,819 |
What this means for fleets
Where a van charges matters more than almost anything else in its running cost. A van charged at the depot costs 10p a mile; the same van on public rapid chargers costs 23p, 2.3 times as much and more than the 20.9p a diesel van costs. For 100 vans charged 70% at the depot, the bill is £230,819 a year against £376,151 for diesel.
Depot charging has a catch that scales with the fleet: power. 100 vans on 7kW chargers draw 700kW if they all plug in at once, which for most depots means a conversation with the local network operator about a bigger connection, or smart charging that staggers the load across the night. Each van needs only 2.5 hours at 7kW for a typical day, so staggering is usually possible.
Home charging is cheap per mile (9.2p), but HMRC's advisory electric rate for home charging is 7p a mile, so a driver reimbursed at that rate is 2.2p a mile out of pocket at the current price cap. See the real cost to charge and the charging cost gap.
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Depot: DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices table 3.4.2, the average price non-domestic consumers pay for electricity by annual consumption band, including the Climate Change Levy and excluding VAT. The band is chosen from the fleet's charging energy alone; a depot that already uses a lot of electricity may sit in a larger, cheaper band. Standing charges and capacity charges are not included.
Home: Ofgem's energy price cap average electricity unit rate for Direct Debit customers; no VAT is charged on electricity in this period. Many drivers on an EV off-peak tariff pay much less.
Public: the Zapmap Price Index, Zapmap's weighted average pay-as-you-go price across around three quarters of UK public chargers, shown here excluding 20% VAT for a VAT-registered fleet. Subscriptions and fleet deals are often cheaper.
Diesel: this week's UK average diesel pump price (DESNZ), excluding VAT, in a 36mpg van. Electric vans use 0.35 kWh a mile, THRIVE's stated assumption. (The Fleet Cost Index prices electric miles differently, at HMRC's advisory electric rates.)
Depot chargers and payback: one 7kW charger per van, over 250 working days a year. The payback compares depot charging with the public mix it replaces and uses the installer's quote you enter; we do not estimate installation or grid connection costs because no primary source publishes them.
| Input | Figure | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Depot electricity | 38.36p to 25.17p/kWh by business size, excl VAT | DESNZ QEP table 3.4.2, Small band (499 MWh/yr max), Q2 2026, incl CCL, excl VAT |
| Home electricity | 26.32p/kWh, no VAT this period | Ofgem price cap, 1 October to 31 December 2026, average unit rate by Direct Debit, no VAT charged in this period |
| Public, standard chargers | 54p/kWh incl VAT | Zapmap Price Index, September 2026, weighted average PAYG, incl VAT, Standard and Standard Plus (3-49kW) |
| Public, rapid chargers | 79p/kWh incl VAT | Zapmap Price Index, September 2026, weighted average PAYG, incl VAT, Rapid and Ultra-rapid (50kW+) |
| Van efficiency | 0.35 kWh a mile | Methodology v1 assumption: representative electric-van energy use per mile (kWh). Documented on /data/cost-to-charge. |
| HMRC advisory electric rate, home | 7p a mile | HMRC advisory electric rate - home charging (separate public rate since 1 September 2025) |
Figures checked against DESNZ, Ofgem and Zapmap on 3 November 2026.
Free JSON API - no key, open CORS, cache-friendly:
curl 'https://www.thrivefleet.co.uk/api/v1/fleet-charging-costs?vans=50&miles=20000'{ "prices": { … }, "fleet": { "routes": [ { "key": "depot", "pPerMile": …, "annual": … } ], "mix": { … }, "depot": { … } } }Free to use. Please credit THRIVE and link to the page a figure came from: a request, never a condition of use. See the data terms and the API guide.
How much does it cost to charge a fleet of electric vans?
At 18,000 miles a van a year, 10 vans charged 70% at the depot and 30% in public cost about £23,082 a year to charge, 50 vans £115,410 and 100 vans £230,819, excluding VAT.
Is depot charging cheaper than public charging for vans?
Yes, by a wide margin: 10p a mile at the depot against 15.7p on public standard chargers and 23p on rapid chargers, excluding VAT.
How much power does a depot need to charge electric vans?
About 7kW per van if every van has its own charger and they all charge at once: 350kW for 50 vans and 700kW for 100. Smart charging that staggers vans overnight cuts the peak, because a typical van needs only 2.5 hours of charging a night.