How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Van? Depot, Solar and Public Compared

Charging one electric van that covers 18,000 miles a year costs about £1,738 a year on a business electricity supply, about £3,888 at standard public chargers and about £5,544 at public rapid chargers. Those are the energy bills only: they assume the van uses 0.40 kWh a mile at the charger, which is an illustration rather than a published figure, so replace it with your own vehicle’s number. The gap between the three is the reason depots install their own chargers, and the reason some then add solar.

The prices behind the sums

• Business grid supply: 24.14p per kWh, the Q1 2026 average non-domestic price including the Climate Change Levy (DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices). Your own contract may be higher or lower.
• Public standard chargers (3–49 kW): 54p per kWh, and public rapid chargers (50 kW and above): 77p per kWh, both Zapmap’s August 2026 pay-as-you-go averages.
• Van efficiency: 0.40 kWh a mile, an illustrative figure for a medium electric van. A small van will use less and a large one more.

One van, one year

At 0.40 kWh a mile the energy cost is 9.7p a mile from a business supply, 21.6p a mile at standard public chargers and 30.8p a mile at rapid chargers. Over 18,000 miles the van takes 7,200 kWh, so:

• business supply at the depot: £1,738 a year;
• standard public chargers: £3,888 a year;
• rapid public chargers: £5,544 a year.

Charging on your own supply therefore cuts the energy bill by about 55% against standard public charging and about 69% against rapid charging, before any solar is added. The saving has to pay for the chargers, the electrical work and any supply upgrade, which this post does not price; the fleet depot guide works through the supply side.

Twenty vans, with and without solar

The same arithmetic for a depot of twenty vans, each doing 18,000 miles a year, in London with a 100 kW array. The solar rows depend on when the vans are parked, which is why the same array gives very different results for a daytime depot and an overnight one.

Three things stand out. First, the move from public charging to the depot’s own supply is the big saving; solar adds a smaller one on top. Second, how the chargers are controlled matters: the same array and the same vans cost more to run when charging starts on arrival than when it follows the sun. Third, vans that are parked only overnight take about 2% of their energy from the array, so for them solar is a poor fit — see solar EV charging at night for what to do instead.

What the figures leave out

• The cost of the chargers, installation, any supply upgrade and the monitoring software.
• Standing charges, capacity charges and any time-of-use pricing on your contract.
• Charging losses between the meter and the battery, which raise the energy needed above the vehicle’s own consumption.
• Maintenance, warranties and charger replacement.
• Grants and tax relief, which change the capital side. The Depot Charging Scheme and the capital allowances guide cover them.

Run it with your own numbers

Swap the illustrative consumption, your supply price and your parking hours into the EV charging cost calculator, which runs the same model in your browser. If you are deciding whether solar belongs in the project at all, the break-even test shows when it pays, and the guide to a solar powered EV charger explains what to specify. For a car rather than a van, the cost-per-mile comparison uses the same prices.

Sources: DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices table 3.4.2 (Q1 2026); Zapmap Price Index, August 2026; EU JRC PVGIS 5.3 hourly series 2005–2023 for the solar rows. The van consumption is an assumption. Checked 20 October 2026.