Good Houses
EV charger cost calculator
Step 1 of 3
Where's the install?
A postcode gives you figures for your actual area. You can also skip this and get a regional estimate.
Of everything on this site, this is the install with the fewest surprises. It is a well established job, and most firms price it as a fixed quote rather than an estimate. The work takes somewhere between one and five hours depending on where the charger goes and how complex the unit is. A basic charger goes in quickly; an app controlled one with a smarter system takes longer.
So the useful thinking here is not really about the money. It is about where the charger goes. Work out where you park, which side of the car the socket sits on, and whether the cable will reach comfortably without crossing a path or stretching over the drive. That is the part people regret getting wrong, and it is far cheaper to solve before the installer arrives than afterwards.
Whether a home installation is possible at all
The first question is whether a domestic installation is possible at all. Without off-street parking it generally is not, and the calculator says so directly rather than producing a figure you cannot use.
From there the cost is built from the charger itself (untethered, tethered, or a smart unit with load balancing), plus installation labour that scales with the cable run from your consumer unit to where the car parks. That distance is usually the single biggest variable, which is why it is asked rather than assumed.
Additions are applied where they apply: a consumer unit upgrade if yours is old or full, earthing protection, groundwork where the cable crosses a driveway or runs a long way, and certification.
The result is always a range, never a single figure. A precise number would be a false promise, because two builders quoting the same job honestly can land a long way apart. Everything is rounded rather than shown to the pound, for the same reason.
Every figure behind this comes from a table we maintain by hand and review on a schedule. The date of the last review is shown on this page, so you can judge how current it is rather than take our word for it.
What the charger figure covers
The figure covers:
- The charge point, at the type you selected
- Installation labour, scaled to your cable run and adjusted for your area
- A consumer unit upgrade, where yours is old or has no spare capacity
- Earthing protection
- Groundwork, where the cable run is long or crosses a driveway
- Certification and notification
What the charger figure leaves out
Not in the figure:
- Upgrading your incoming supply if it will not carry the load
- Reinstating a driveway to match after it has been dug up
- A new supply to a detached garage that does not have one
- Planning permission where the property is listed or in a conservation area
- The electricity tariff change that usually makes home charging worth it
Why charger installation costs more in some regions
Labour is the part of an EV charger installation that moves most by region, so it is the part we adjust. Every area carries a labour multiplier, and the calculator applies it to the labour element rather than to the whole figure, because materials cost broadly the same everywhere, and scaling them by region would overstate the difference.
Where we hold published data for your area, that area's own multiplier is used. Where we do not, the calculator falls back to the figure for your region and the page says so. It will never quietly borrow a nearby city's numbers and present them as local. A London figure on a Cumbrian postcode is worse than no figure at all.
Taking this to approved installers
Take it to real quotes, and treat it as the shape of the answer rather than the answer. Get three written quotes from approved installers, since certification and notification are required, and compare what each one includes before you compare the totals, because the cheapest number on the page is often the one leaving the most out.
If a quote comes in below our range, that usually means a newer business building a reputation, or work that cuts corners. Above it usually means limited local supply, or a firm with higher overheads. Both can be the right choice. The question worth asking is what is included, not why the number differs.
Worth asking every firm you speak to:
- How are you running the cable, and what gets disturbed?
- Does my consumer unit need changing, and have you looked at it?
- Is load balancing included, and do I need it?
- Who notifies the network operator?
- What certification will I get at the end?
Common questions
I do not have a driveway. Can I still have one?
Generally not a domestic installation. Charging across a public pavement raises safety and liability problems that most installers will not take on, so the calculator says so rather than quoting for something unworkable.
Tethered or untethered?
Tethered is more convenient day to day; untethered is more flexible if you change car or have two with different connectors. The price difference is small compared with the installation, so choose on how you will use it.
Is there a grant?
Support exists but is restricted, broadly to flats and rental properties rather than owner-occupied houses with driveways. Eligibility is maintained as a setting here because the schemes change; check the current rules before assuming either way.
Is this a quote?
No. It is an estimate built from typical costs, and no contractor is bound by it. Use it to know whether a quote you have been given is roughly where it should be, and to walk into that conversation knowing what questions to ask.
Why do you show a range instead of one number?
Because one number would be misleading. The answer to "what will this cost" is a range, and where you land inside it depends on your property, your area and who you hire. Any tool giving you a single figure to the pound is telling you something it cannot know.
Do you save what I type in?
No. The calculation runs and the answers are discarded. Nothing is written down unless you explicitly ask us to email or save a result. We do not build a profile from calculator use.
How current are the figures?
The date of the last review is shown on this page. The costs behind the calculator are maintained by hand rather than scraped, and reviewed on a schedule.