Diesel tops 200p a litre: how much cheaper an EV is per mile

The average price of diesel in the UK passed £2 a litre for the first time on 2 October, reaching a record 200.01p, according to the RAC. By our sums that puts fuel for a 50mpg diesel at about 18.2p a mile, against 7.5p for an electric car charged at home on the price cap and 2.3p on an 8p smart charging deal. The catch for drivers without a driveway: at the average rapid charger price, an EV now costs more per mile than that diesel.

Unleaded averaged 174.71p on the same day, so a 55-litre tank now costs £96.09 in petrol and £110.01 in diesel. The RAC links the rise to disrupted supplies during the Middle East conflict and the lack of an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

How far have pump prices risen this year?

Diesel first broke its June 2022 record on 28 September (RAC). It has climbed almost 58p a litre since the US-Iran war began on 28 February, and a 55-litre fill now costs £31.70 more than it did then. Oil topped $100 a barrel in September (Fuel Finder).

Date	UK average diesel	What happened
June 2022	199.09p	Previous diesel record
28 February 2026	142.38p	US-Iran war begins
28 September 2026	199.18p	Diesel beats its 2022 record; petrol reached 174.13p in September
2 October 2026	200.01p	Diesel passes £2 a litre; petrol averages 174.71p

Source: RAC.

Oil slipped on 5 October as Middle East crude exports rose and the G7 moved to release stocks (CNBC), but the RAC has said it takes a sustained lower oil price, over several weeks rather than days, to bring wholesale fuel costs down meaningfully.

What does a mile cost in diesel, petrol and electric?

The table assumes 50mpg for diesel, 45mpg for petrol and 3.5 miles per kWh for an EV, before charging losses. It uses the Ofgem cap rate from 1 October, ScottishPower’s EV Optimise rate and Zapmap’s August averages for public chargers.

Fuel or charging rate	Price	Cost per mile	Cost over 10,000 miles
Diesel, 50mpg	200.01p a litre	18.2p	£1,819
Petrol, 45mpg	174.71p a litre	17.6p	£1,765
EV at home, Ofgem price cap	26.32p per kWh	7.5p	£752
EV at home, ScottishPower EV Optimise	8p per kWh	2.3p	£229
EV at public standard chargers	54p per kWh	15.4p	£1,543
EV at public rapid chargers	77p per kWh	22.0p	£2,200

Charging at home on the capped rate costs about two-fifths of what diesel does per mile, a saving of about £1,067 over 10,000 miles. On an 8p smart rate the EV costs about one-eighth as much, and the saving rises to about £1,590. Our October price cap analysis shows what a home top-up now costs.

Most drivers mix home and public charging. Split 80% home on the cap and 20% rapid and the blended cost is about 10.4p a mile, or about 6.2p with the home share at 8p. Both are well below diesel.

Is rapid charging now dearer than diesel?

Yes, at the national average. A 77p rapid kWh works out at 22p a mile, almost 4p more than a 50mpg diesel. For rapid charging to match diesel, the EV would need to manage about 4.2 miles per kWh, or diesel would have to reach about 242p a litre.

In April, trade body ChargeUK said rising pump prices had made public charging cheaper than fuel for most drivers, putting a typical EV on 54p standard chargers at 15p a mile against 17p for petrol and 17.5p for diesel. Drivers using only ultra-rapid chargers paid 21p a mile, more than either fuel, and diesel’s rise since has not closed that gap. Prices vary widely between networks, as our public charging price report shows.

Are fuel prices pushing drivers to go electric?

Partly. Battery electric registrations rose 36.3% to a record 99,199 in September, a 28.3% share of a market up 12.1% to 350,536 cars (SMMT). SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes called September’s record EV performance “a major achievement” and said high fuel prices are “undoubtedly giving more consumers reason to consider going electric” (see our September sales report).

Diesel buyers have not vanished, though. Diesel registrations rose 11.5% to 14,061, or 4.0% of the market, and Carwow noted that diesel sales grew despite higher fuel costs.

Energy suppliers see the shift too. ScottishPower says enquiries for its EV offers are up around 630% year on year, customer numbers on EV Optimise are up 430% and its EV Saver tariff has grown by over 10%. Charger maker Easee says its UK sales volumes are up 37% year on year (Renewable Energy Magazine).

What does an 8p “anytime” rate really mean?

ScottishPower says a 55-litre tank of petrol costs about £96 to fill, while covering the same distance on EV Optimise costs about £10. On our more cautious 3.5 miles per kWh, the 544 miles a 45mpg car gets from 55 litres would cost about £12.44 at 8p, still a saving of more than £80.

The “anytime” label needs reading closely. EV Optimise is a free add-on to an existing ScottishPower tariff, but it cannot be added to the supplier’s EV, Heat or Solar Saver time-of-use tariffs. You set how much charge you need and by when in the ScottishPower app, and it schedules charging at the cheapest and greenest times. The 8p rate applies only within those smart charging sessions, which do not run from 4pm to 8pm. Even so, it is about 70% below the 26.32p cap rate. Compare it with rival deals in our EV tariffs guide.

What this means for you

If you can charge at home, the record widens a gap that was already large. Even at February’s 142.38p, a 50mpg diesel cost about 12.9p a mile, well above today’s 7.5p capped home rate. Moving from the cap to an 8p smart rate is the biggest single saving, worth about £523 over 10,000 miles.

If you rely on rapid chargers, an EV will not save you money on fuel at today’s average prices. Standard public chargers at around 54p still beat diesel, so use them where you can.

High-mileage drivers stand to gain most, as our diesel versus electric guide explains. Our view: do not choose a car on one week’s pump price, as oil prices have started to slip. But with off-street parking, the per-mile case for electric held long before diesel hit £2, and it is stronger now.