EV Home Charging Cost in Germany (2026): Per-100km Math

A mid-size electric car costs roughly €5.50 to €7.40 to drive 100km on home electricity in Germany right now. A comparable petrol car costs about €13. That gap is the whole story — but the honest number depends on three things almost no article puts in one place: your car's real consumption, whether you pay the standard household rate or a dedicated EV tariff, and the charging losses nobody mentions.

TL;DR — the numbers that matter

Standard household power is 37.0 ct/kWh in 2026 (BDEW), down from 39.3 ct in 2025.
A dedicated Autostrom tariff averages ~27.6 ct/kWh for new customers — about 25% less.
Average case: €7.40 per 100km at home vs ~€13.29 for a 7 L/100km petrol car.
AC charging loses ~10% between the socket and the battery — budget for the kWh you draw, not the kWh you store.
A €1,200 wallbox pays back in ~1 to 1.5 years against petrol at today's fuel price.

€7.40average cost to drive an EV 100km on standard German home power (20 kWh/100km × 37.0 ct/kWh)

The two electricity prices that matter in 2026

Germany does not have one EV charging price — it has two worlds, and which one you live in changes the answer by a third.

Standard household power: 37.0 ct/kWh

The average household electricity price in 2026 is 37.0 cents per kWh, according to the BDEW Strompreisanalyse (April 2026) — down 2.3 cents from the 2025 average of 39.3 ct/kWh, mostly because of a subsidy on transmission-grid fees. That headline price breaks down into three parts:

Price component	ct/kWh
Procurement & distribution	15.2
Network charges (Netzentgelte)	9.3
Taxes, levies & surcharges	12.6
Total	37.0

If you have never actively chosen a tariff, you are almost certainly on the local Grundversorgung (default supply) — historically one of the priciest options. Running a home lab that draws power around the clock, I watch my own kWh price closely, and the default tariff is rarely the one you want to charge a car on.

Autostrom and night tariffs

A dedicated Autostrom tariff is priced for EV owners. In April 2026, new-customer Autostrom rates averaged about 27.6 ct/kWh (existing customers ~31.2 ct/kWh), and across February 2026 the range ran from 19.74 to 34.05 ct/kWh. CHECK24 pegs the typical Autostrom saving at roughly 25% versus normal household power.

Go a step further with a dynamic or night tariff — Tibber, Awattar and Rabot.Charge price by the hour — and charging while you sleep can shave another 5 to 10 ct/kWh off the rate.

Tip

If your wallbox is registered as a controllable load under §14a EnWG (a steuerbare Verbrauchseinrichtung), you get reduced network charges — real money off that 9.3 ct component — in exchange for the grid operator being allowed to throttle charging briefly at peak demand. For overnight charging you will almost never notice the throttling.

The cost-per-100km table

Here is the calculation the search results keep skipping. The consumption figures are the kWh drawn from the wall per 100km, which already include roughly 10% AC charging loss over the battery figures of ~14.5 / 18 / 21.5 kWh:

kWh/100km (from the wall)	Standard 37.0 ct	Autostrom 27.6 ct	Night/dynamic 22 ct
16 (efficient — small EV)	€5.92	€4.42	€3.52
20 (average — mid-size)	€7.40	€5.52	€4.40
24 (thirsty — SUV/winter)	€8.88	€6.62	€5.28

Read one row across and the tariff choice alone swings the cost by 40%. Read one column down and consumption — driving style, cold weather, a heavy SUV — swings it by a similar amount. The two levers multiply.

Note

Those charging losses are not a rounding error. A car that shows 18 kWh/100km on its display actually pulls about 20 kWh from the socket, because AC-to-DC conversion and battery heating are not free. Bill math must use the wall figure, or you will under-count by roughly a tenth. This is also why deciding which EV to buy is partly a running-cost decision, not just a sticker-price one.

Versus petrol: the number people actually want

Super E10 averaged €1.899 per litre in July 2026 (ADAC). Run the same three-row logic for a petrol car:

Petrol consumption	Cost per 100km
6 L/100km	€11.39
7 L/100km	€13.29
8 L/100km	€15.19

So the average mid-size EV at 20 kWh saves ~€5.90 per 100km on standard power and ~€7.75 on Autostrom versus a typical 7 L/100km petrol car — a 44% to 58% reduction. That lines up with Clean Energy Wire's finding that home charging costs roughly half of refuelling. The savings are real, but notice they come from the fuel, not from any single gadget.

Does the wallbox pay for itself?

An intelligent wallbox with an integrated meter runs €800 to €2,000 installed, sometimes with a small annual base fee. Take a €1,200 wallbox and 15,000 km per year:

On standard power: €5.90/100km saved × 150 = ~€885/year → payback in ~1.4 years.
On Autostrom: €7.75/100km saved × 150 = ~€1,165/year → payback in ~1 year.

Warning

Frame that payback honestly. You can trickle-charge from an ordinary Schuko socket, so the wallbox does not create the savings — the switch away from petrol does. A wallbox buys you speed (three to four times faster) and electrical safety (a household socket running at full load for hours is a genuine fire risk). Justify it on those, not on a fantasy that a socket costs you money.

How to actually lower your number

Three levers, in order of payoff:

Leave the default tariff. Most households are on an expensive Grundversorgung rate. Moving to a competitive Autostrom or dynamic tariff is the single biggest lever, and it is a fifteen-minute switch.
Charge overnight. Pair a dynamic tariff with a wallbox timer and let the car fill during the cheapest hours.
Register under §14a EnWG for reduced network fees on the wallbox circuit.

The same "run the actual numbers before you commit" habit applies well beyond cars — it is exactly how I approach electricity cost in a 24/7 homelab and how the maths works for what you really pay for health cover in Germany.

Most households never leave the default tariff — an Autostrom or dynamic rate is the single biggest lever on your charging cost.

Compare electricity tariffs on CHECK24Partner link — we may earn a commission. The price you pay never changes; comparison and contract run on the licensed portal.

EV owners also tend to re-shop their car insurance in the autumn switching season — you can compare Kfz insurance on Tarifcheck when that window opens.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to charge an electric car at home in Germany per month?

At 15,000 km/year (1,250 km/month) and 20 kWh/100km, you draw ~250 kWh/month. On standard 37.0 ct/kWh power that is about €92/month; on a ~27.6 ct Autostrom tariff, about €69/month.

Is charging at home cheaper than public charging?

Almost always. Home power at 27–37 ct/kWh undercuts typical public AC (~50–60 ct/kWh) and DC fast charging (~60–80 ct/kWh) substantially. Public charging is for range on the road, not routine top-ups.

Do I need a wallbox, or is a normal socket fine?

A socket works for slow overnight charging but a household outlet running at full load for hours is a fire risk and very slow. A wallbox is safer and 3–4× faster; the electricity price is the same either way.

What is an Autostrom tariff and how much does it save?

It is an electricity tariff priced for EV owners, averaging ~27.6 ct/kWh for new customers in 2026 — roughly 25% below standard household power, per CHECK24.

How much do AC charging losses add?

Roughly 10%. A car displaying 18 kWh/100km pulls about 20 kWh from the wall, so always bill on the wall figure, not the dashboard figure.