Charging Guide: How much does it cost to charge the car?

Basic Concepts

The battery capacity of the car is given in Watt-hours (Wh) or kilowatt-hours (kWh), while consumption and charging current to and from the battery is given in kilowatts (kW). 1 kWh means that the battery can deliver power so that you can use 1000 Watts (1 kW) for 1 hour. Alternatively, 500 Watts for 2 hours, or 2000 W for half an hour. And vice versa when it comes to charging. If you charge with 1 kW, it will take 10 hours to fill a 10 kWh battery. If you increase the power of the charger to 10 kW, you charge the same 10 kWh battery in 1 hour.

Calculation of costs

The costs of charging the car depend on the consumption of the car per km and how much you drive. For the sake of simplicity, we use a round figure of 200 Wh per km, or 2 kWh per 10 km. If you drive 100 km a day to and from work, you will use about 20 kWh (100 km * 200 Wh per km = 20,000 Wh = 20 kWh).

Today's (11/01-21) average electricity price for households, including taxes and grid rent, is approximately 72.9 cents per kWh according to SSB. Note that the electricity price will vary with different agreements the individual has with their electricity supplier. For simplicity, one calculates approx. NOK 1.5 per kWh incl. taxes and grid rent. So if the consumption every day is 20 kWh and you charge all the consumption at home, the price will be about NOK 30 a day.

To cover this consumption, you need a charging power of 2 kW for 10 hours every day (2 kW * 10 hours = 20 kWh). By using the emergency charger (included charging cable against normal socket), you get 2.3 kW per hour which covers many people's daily needs. Feel free to use our charging time calculator to calculate how many hours it takes to charge your car based on what power you are charging with and how large the car's battery is.

A more accurate calculation is made by using the average consumption of your car and weekly driving distance. At the same time, you often charge at work, while you are training, in public places, etc., and thus the real cost is often lower at home privately as you distribute the charging over several locations.

*The calculation does not take into account heat loss and the efficiency of the on-board charger in the car, which has about a 10-15% loss.