Home charging costs: questions answered

Charging at home costs about €6.05 per 100 km on a standard rate in a Tesla Model Y, €2.71 on a night rate and €1.56 in an EV tariff's cheap window. A petrol car using 6 litres per 100 km costs about €11.89.

For a Tesla Model Y, about €10.18 on a night rate.

An EV tariff's window is cheaper, but shorter, and the rest of the day can cost more. Compare the whole bill.

For an EV or time-of-use plan, yes.

At home, yes: about €2.71 per 100 km on a night rate in a Model Y, against €11.89 for a petrol car using 6 litres.

Up to €300 from SEAI, for a smart charger and its installation, with off-street parking.

One registered electrician who fits home chargers in your county. Not a list.

If your electricity supplier pays 18.5c to 24c per kWh for exported solar under the Clean Export Guarantee and charges around 8.5c to 9c per kWh during the 2am–5am EV window, it is financially smarter to export your daytime solar for credit and schedule the car to charge overnight at the 8.84c rate.

A 7.4 kW home charger delivers about 22 kWh in a 3-hour window (roughly 120 km of driving range). That covers almost any daily commute in a single night; if you return home near empty after a long weekend trip, you either top up across two consecutive nights or let the charge run into the surrounding 15.42c/kWh night rate.

Your car's dashboard displays energy drawn from the battery to turn the wheels, whereas your ESB meter bills the AC electricity entering the charger. Roughly 10% is used by the car's on-board AC-to-DC converter, cooling fans, and battery management electronics during charging.

An EV booster tariff only offers its 8.84c rate for 3 or 4 hours in the middle of the night and often charges higher Day (8am–11pm) and Peak (5pm–7pm) rates for the rest of the house. If you drive under 8,000 km a year or run a heat pump and tumble dryer heavily during daytime hours, a standard 9-hour Night rate can work out cheaper overall.

Public DC rapid chargers on Irish motorways and forecourts typically cost 55c to 75c per kWh—roughly €10 to €14 per 100 km, which is similar to petrol or diesel. Charging the same car at home on a night or EV rate costs €1.50 to €3.00 per 100 km, saving €1,000+ a year for an average driver.

Either works. Almost every modern electric car lets you set a 'charge only between 2am and 5am' departure schedule on the dashboard screen, and every smart charger on the SEAI register also has its own smartphone app timer. Avoid setting two conflicting timers at once—pick either the car app or the charger app.