With 1.4million electric vehicles on our roads and around 450,000 new battery cars being snapped up in 2025, a major question remains over etiquette when visiting friends and family ahead of the busy festive period…
If you charge the car as a guest at someone else’s house, should you pay for the electricity you use?
Three in ten would be irritated if a visitor charged their EV at their property without offering to foot the bill for the electricity they used, according to a poll of 2,200 people.
Six per cent would be unhappy with the situation even if their guest did offer to compensate them.
Of people surveyed who have an EV charger at home, two fifths said they have already faced this topic of conversation with guests who arrive at their houses in their EVs.
More than half said they have accepted money from their visitors for allowing them to plug into their domestic energy tariff, while a third said no to payment when their guests offered.
We asked experts what the best etiquette should be for visitors with EVs, and those facilitating charging for their guests…
If you charge the car as a guest at someone else’s house, should you pay for the electricity you use?
Where guests plugged in but didn’t offer to pay, only 2 per cent of homeowners said they confronted their visitors and requested a contribution towards the cost of charging their vehicle.
Some 12 per cent said that their guest didn’t offer to pay and that they didn’t ask for payment either.
With cold weather set to drain batteries faster and festive trips to visit family and friends on the horizon, MoneySupermarket – which commissioned the survey – said hundreds of thousands of Britons could be on a collision course for charging-related fallouts.
Kara Gammell, from the comparison site, said: ‘Charging your electric vehicle at someone else’s home might feel harmless, but our research shows it can cause tension.
‘If you’re visiting friends or family and need to charge, always check first and offer to cover the cost.
‘It’s a small gesture that can go a long way, especially when energy bills are already stretched.
‘If you regularly host guests who need to charge up, switching to an EV-friendly energy tariff could help ease the pressure and make those conversations a little less awkward.’
According to a new poll of almost 2,200 UK adults, three in ten would be irritated if a visitor charged their EV at their property without offering to foot the bill for the electricity they used
Should you pay for the electricity you use?
We posed the question about whether EV owners should offer to pay for the electricity they use when charging their cars when visiting friends and family.
AA President Edmund King, who is an EV owner and advocate, told us that ‘most people’ have told the AA that they wouldn’t charge close family and close friends if they visited infrequently, but would likely ask for contributions if the same visitor was returning on a weekly basis and not offering to pay as a gesture.
King also points out that you can rent a charger via platforms like Co Charger or Just park or charging brands like Evois ‘allow you to allocate a pin number to a neighbour so they can come at leisure to charge and you have a record of what it cost’ and are a good solution for ‘a neighbour waiting to get to a charge point or a builder’.
Evois shows you how much range has been added to the car, how long the session was and how much it cost.
Hundreds of thousands of Britons could be on a collision course for charging-related fallouts this month
Michelle Breffitt, co-founder of EV campaign group, Women Drive Electric, says: ‘No way would I ask a friend of family member to pay for charging their car if they are visiting us at home – especially if it’s overnight on my cheap EV energy tariff.
‘The simplicity and convenience of charging when you have stopped is hugely appealing to drivers and means we get to spend more time with loved ones, too.’
Last year, we also posed the question to the late Quentin Willson, one of the nation’s biggest EV experts and campaigners for cheaper public charging who sadly passed away in November.
He told us: ‘Etiquette for friends charging at your home is to not ask them to pay. EV owners tend to have a helpful community spirit.
‘But if it’s a stranger, who perhaps needs a charge in an emergency or you’re sharing your home charge point, you normally ask for them to pay, or at least contribute.’