With petrol prices rising again, the cost of filling up is becoming difficult to ignore for motorists in Stone.
For anyone making regular journeys to Stafford, Stoke on Trent or farther afield, switching to an electric car may look like a way to bring monthly costs down. The saving can be substantial, but it depends heavily on where the car is charged, how many miles it covers and how it is financed.
Charging at home changes the calculation
A petrol car returning 40 miles per gallon costs around 18p per mile to run when petrol is close to £1.58 a litre.
Over 8,000 miles, that comes to roughly £1,435 a year, or just under £120 a month.
An electric car averaging 3.5 miles for each kilowatt hour would cost about 7.5p per mile when charged at the current standard domestic electricity rate of approximately 26p per kilowatt hour. That works out at around £597 over the same 8,000 miles.
The cost falls much further for drivers who can use an overnight electric vehicle tariff. At an off peak price of around 8.8p per kilowatt hour, the charging bill would be close to £200 a year.
Against the petrol example, that is a saving of more than £1,200.
Those figures are illustrations rather than quotes. Efficiency varies between cars and can be affected by temperature, speed, driving style and the use of heating or air conditioning.
Public charging can narrow the gap
The difficulty is that the cheapest figures depend on having access to home charging.
This is particularly relevant in Stone, where residents of terraced properties and some homes near the town centre may not have a driveway or another place to install a private charger.
Staffordshire County Council is currently gathering views on possible cross pavement charging channels. These would allow a cable to run between a home charger and a vehicle parked on the road without leaving a loose cable across the pavement.
The council’s survey closes on Sunday 9 August 2026, although completing it does not guarantee that a charging channel will be installed.
Drivers who depend on public chargers face a different calculation. In June 2026, the average pay as you go price was around 54p per kilowatt hour for chargers below 50kW and 79p for rapid and ultra rapid chargers.
At those prices, the same electric car would cost around 15p per mile on a slower public charger and nearly 23p per mile on a rapid charger.
That means slower public charging may still be cheaper than petrol, but regular use of rapid chargers could cost more.
Before choosing an electric car, it is worth checking where it will normally be charged rather than basing the decision on the cheapest overnight tariff available elsewhere.
Electric cars now pay road tax
Electric cars are no longer exempt from Vehicle Excise Duty.
For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, a new electric car pays £10 in its first year. Most electric cars registered since April 2017 then move to the standard annual rate of £200.
That removes one of the former savings for private buyers, as most recent petrol cars also pay the £200 standard rate.
There is another change ahead. From 1 April 2028, fully electric cars will be charged an additional 3p for every mile driven under the new Electric Vehicle Excise Duty scheme.
A driver covering 8,000 miles would therefore pay another £240 a year at the introductory rate, alongside the normal annual road tax.
The charge does not apply yet, but anyone taking out a long lease or finance agreement during 2026 should include it in their longer term calculations.
Company car tax remains much lower
The position is different for company car drivers.
The Benefit in Kind rate for a fully electric company car is 4% during the 2026 to 2027 tax year. Petrol cars are assessed according to their carbon dioxide emissions, with rates reaching as high as 37%.
For a higher rate taxpayer using an electric company car with a £35,000 list price, the tax would be approximately £47 a month.
A petrol car of the same price assessed at a 30% rate would create a tax bill of about £350 a month. The actual amount depends on the car, its emissions, its taxable list price and the employee’s Income Tax rate.
This tax difference is one reason electric cars remain attractive to company car users even though private owners now pay road tax.
Servicing may cost less, but it is not free
Electric cars have no engine oil, exhaust, clutch or timing belt. Their drivetrains also contain fewer moving parts, while regenerative braking can reduce wear on conventional brake pads.
That usually means fewer routine service items and lower maintenance costs over time. Estimates from the Energy Saving Trust suggest annual maintenance can be almost £200 cheaper than for a comparable petrol or diesel vehicle.
An electric car will still need tyres, brakes, suspension checks, air conditioning maintenance and an MOT once it reaches the required age. Tyre wear can also be higher on some heavier electric models.
Insurance, depreciation and accident repairs should be checked separately. They vary widely between individual cars and can outweigh a saving made on servicing.
Salary sacrifice can reduce the monthly cost
The purchase price or private lease cost remains one of the biggest barriers for drivers considering an electric car.
An employer salary sacrifice scheme can make the monthly cost more manageable. The employee gives up part of their gross salary in exchange for the car, reducing the salary on which Income Tax and National Insurance are calculated.
A provider such as EZOO electric car salary sacrifice can arrange the vehicle through an employer, with packages that may include insurance, servicing, maintenance, breakdown cover and road tax.
The saving is not the same for everyone. It depends on the employee’s tax band, salary, chosen car, annual mileage and the terms offered by the employer.
Salary sacrifice can also affect pension calculations, statutory payments and other earnings related benefits. An employer cannot allow the arrangement to reduce cash pay below the National Minimum Wage.
Employees should therefore compare the reduction in take home pay with the cost of obtaining the same car privately, rather than relying only on an advertised percentage saving.
What an 8,000 mile year could cost
For a petrol car returning 40 miles per gallon at late July 2026 prices, fuel would cost around £1,435 a year.
The electric equivalent would cost about £597 on a standard home electricity tariff, or roughly £200 using a suitable overnight tariff.
Using slower public chargers for every journey would raise the annual cost to around £1,234. Relying only on rapid charging would take it to approximately £1,806.
Road tax for most recent cars would be £200 a year in each case. Servicing is likely to favour the electric car, although the amount will depend on the vehicle and garage.
These figures exclude the cost of purchasing or leasing the car, insurance, depreciation and the installation of a home charger.
So would switching save money?
For a Stone driver who covers a reasonable annual mileage and can charge at home overnight, an electric car could save more than £1,000 a year in energy costs compared with a 40mpg petrol car.
The saving is less dramatic on a standard household tariff, although it could still amount to several hundred pounds.
For somebody relying on public rapid chargers, the calculation may point in the other direction. A low mileage driver may also struggle to recover a higher purchase or leasing cost through fuel savings alone.
The most useful comparison is based on the journeys the car will actually make, the charging available at home or work and the complete monthly cost of the vehicle. Petrol against electricity is only one part of the bill.
