Government review of public EV charging costs to report this autumn

The government's review of the cost of public EV charging, whose terms of reference were published in June, will report this autumn on options to lower public charging costs. For fleets running electric vans and cars without depot charging, the gap between public charging prices and home rates is the single biggest drag on total cost of ownership. (DfT)

Across Europe, governments are moving well beyond purchase grants to tackle the infrastructure side directly: Germany has put €500 million into charging for multi-unit residential buildings in 2026, covering wallboxes, grid connections and construction work, while Spain's Auto+ scheme carries €400 million for 2026 and runs to the end of 2030. France's Advenir and Ireland's apartment scheme both extend support to shared and collective charge points, the exact use case that leaves fleet drivers without a driveway reliant on the public network. The UK review's terms of reference [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-public-ev-charging-review-terms-of-reference/cost-of-public-ev-charging-review-terms-of-reference] cover public charging costs, with options including government funding, regulation, market-based trading schemes and dynamic pricing; domestic charging costs are out of scope and the review will not recommend tax changes. (Alfen)

Why this matters: Any autumn measures on public charging costs will feed straight into EV total cost of ownership modelling and driver reimbursement policy. Fleets with a significant proportion of home-less chargers should flag the review now and be ready to revisit AFR-style reimbursement assumptions once detail lands.