June 9th was the day this year when the average UK petrol driver will have spent more on fuel than an electric vehicle (EV) driver will do on charging for the whole of 2026.
Analysis from The Electric Car Scheme calculated that based on annual mileage of 7,400 miles, the average petrol driver will spend £1,353 on fuel this year, compared with £592 for an EV driver charging at home on a standard electricity tariff.
That equates to fuel costs of £3.71 per day for a petrol vehicle, meaning the annual EV charging cost is reached by June 9.
The Electric Car Scheme has called June 9th "Electric Car Day 2026", the point in the year when the average petrol driver's fuel bill exceeds the annual charging costs of an EV driver. Electric Car Day is 24 days earlier than in 2025, reflecting rising petrol prices due to the war in Iran and the lower running costs associated with EVs.
The Electric Car Scheme also examined vehicle emissions, finding that the average petrol car would have emitted more CO2 by February 23 than an EV will generate through charging across an entire year.
Thom Groot, chief executive and co-founder of The Electric Car Scheme, said: “The economics of switching to electric keep moving in one direction, and 2026 has accelerated the trend.
“Petrol drivers are now spending the equivalent of a full year of EV running costs before we hit summer, which means everything they pay at the pump from 9 June onwards is, in real terms, a surcharge for choosing a combustion engine.
“With petrol prices unlikely to return to where they were two years ago, that surcharge keeps growing.”
Groot said the gap between average motorists and drivers using EV-specific charging tariffs and salary sacrifice arrangements had widened further this year.
He said: "What genuinely interests me about this year’s figures is how far the early-adopter group has pulled ahead of the average.
“EV drivers on overnight tariffs combined with salary sacrifice charging are running their cars at under 2p a mile.
“That isn’t a marginal saving over petrol, it’s a different category of household expense entirely, and it’s now available to anyone whose employer offers the right benefits package."
