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What it costs to charge an electric car at home in South Africa

By EasyGov (Pty) Ltd editorial team · Last updated

Most electric car owners do most of their charging at home. But "electricity costs R3.60 a unit" hides a catch: most South African municipalities charge more per kWh the more you use in a month. Plugging in a car pushes your household into higher blocks. This guide shows what that means in four metros, using each city's 2026/27 residential tariff, and compares it with public fast charging and petrol. Our calculator is at cars.randswitch.com/charging/home.

How the calculation works

  1. Energy the car needs = km a month ÷ 100 × the car's consumption (kWh per 100 km).
  2. Add 10% for charging losses. Some energy is lost as heat between the wall and the battery. Public chargers bill what goes into the car, so we do not add losses there.
  3. Stack it on top of your normal household use. If your house already uses 600 kWh a month, the car's kWh are charged at the rates for kWh number 601 onwards.
  4. Leave out fixed monthly charges, because charging a car does not change them.

All rates below include 15% VAT and apply from 1 July 2026.

The 2026/27 tariffs we use

Metro and tariffBlocks (c/kWh incl. VAT)
Johannesburg, City Power Residential Prepaid High0–350 kWh: 334.03 · 351–500: 383.16 · above 500: 436.59
Cape Town Domestic (prepaid)up to 600 kWh: 413.79 · above 600: 493.90
Tshwane domestic0–100 kWh: 372.74 · 101–400: 436.22 · 401–650: 475.26 · above 650: 512.34
eThekwini (Durban) residentialflat 411.09
Eskom direct (for reference)343.61 (298.79 excl. VAT, from 1 April 2026)

We checked the Johannesburg, Cape Town and eThekwini figures against the official documents on 1 November 2026. The Tshwane website did not load when we rechecked, so the Tshwane figures are as recorded in our calculator from the City's tariff notice. Johannesburg's published rates exclude VAT (290.46, 333.18 and 379.64 c/kWh); Tshwane's are 324.12, 379.32, 413.27 and 445.51 c/kWh excluding VAT. Cape Town's Domestic tariff also has a daily Services and Wires charge (R2.46 a day incl. VAT), which does not change when you charge a car.

Worked example: a small EV driving 1 500 km a month

We use the Geely E2 Aspire's claimed consumption of 15.2 kWh/100km.

Cost of that 250.8 kWh on top of your household use

MetroHouse already uses 300 kWhHouse already uses 600 kWh
Johannesburg (Prepaid High)R964 (R3.84 per kWh)R1 095 (R4.37 per kWh)
Cape Town (Domestic)R1 038 (R4.14 per kWh)R1 239 (R4.94 per kWh)
Tshwane (domestic)R1 153 (R4.60 per kWh)R1 266 (R5.05 per kWh)
eThekwini (flat rate)R1 031 (R4.11 per kWh)R1 031 (R4.11 per kWh)

Two lessons:

  1. Your "extra" kWh cost more than your average kWh. In Tshwane, a house already on 600 kWh pays about R5.05 for every kWh the car uses.
  2. Flat tariffs are simpler. On eThekwini's single rate it does not matter how much the house already uses.

Compared with petrol and public charging

Option, 1 500 km a monthMonthly cost
E2 at home, Johannesburg, house on 300 kWhR964
E2 at home, Tshwane, house on 600 kWhR1 266
E2 on public fast chargers only, at R7.50 a kWh (228 kWh)R1 710
VW Polo Vivo 1.6 at 6.2 L/100km, 95 inland R30.25R2 813

These are claimed consumption figures. Real-world use is usually higher. Our upgrade tool adds 30% for this, based on ICCT research.

Public fast-charging prices vary by network. Our default of R7.50 a kWh sits within the R7.00 to R8.45 range we found for DC charging on networks we checked; AC public charging was about R5.88 a kWh. Always check the network's app before you rely on a price.

Solar charging

If you already have solar panels and charge during the day, the energy can be close to free, because you have already paid for the system. That ignores the system cost. To be fairer, our calculator can spread the system cost over 10 years of output instead. It does not include finance costs or panel wear. Our home power guide at randswitch.com/power helps you decide whether solar makes sense at all.

Load-shedding, inverters and wallboxes

A typical home wallbox draws about 7 kW. That is more than most home inverters and batteries can supply. Plan to charge outside outage times, or from solar in the daytime, rather than from a backup battery. A 3.6 kW charge from a wall socket is slower but easier on a backup system. Always have a registered electrician check your wiring and inverter before installing a charger.

Eskom reported on 30 October 2026 that South Africa had gone 532 consecutive days without load-shedding since 16 May 2025, though "load reduction" still affected about 193 556 customers in parts of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Tips to cut charging costs

FAQ

Why not just use R3.60 a kWh? It is a reasonable national default for quick comparisons. Your real marginal rate may be higher, as the table shows.

Does a plug-in hybrid cost the same to charge? Per kWh, yes. Plug-in hybrids have smaller batteries and use petrol for the rest. Our tools assume 70% of kilometres on electricity, which is our own estimate.

Are fixed charges really unaffected? For the tariffs above, yes: they are daily or monthly amounts, not per kWh.

My municipality isn't listed. Use the custom tariff option in the calculator and type your rate including VAT.

Sources

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How we research, update and correct these guides: editorial policy. Information only, not financial or tax advice.

Data last updated: · 3 hours ago