E.ON launched a pop-up grocery shop to teach you about EV charging costs

More than half of UK drivers are cutting down on journeys because of the cost of petrol, according to research by energy firm E.ON Next.

52 per cent of drivers say they’re driving less than they used to due to fuel prices, while half of those surveyed say they’ve missed out on a special event or family outing because they couldn’t afford to fill up their car.

In one of the stranger publicity stunts we’ve seen this week, E.ON Next is attempting to address price anxiety relating to electric cars with a pop-up shop stocking items worth exactly £2.70 – the price the energy firm says drivers could be paying to fully charge an EV at home using its E.ON Next Drive tariff.

Shoppers at the London shop could choose from a range of goods, including four fifths of a coffee, one and a half loaves of bread and three quarters of a box of cereal.

Driver concerns about fuel prices, alongside ambitious government sales targets, is helping to drive the transition to electric vehicles in the UK. Trade association SMMT reports the market share of fully electric vehicles rose from 16.5 per cent to 19.6 per cent in 2024, making the UK one of the leaders in EV adoption around the world.

But despite record numbers of EVs on UK roads, two thirds of drivers are in the dark when it comes to EV charging costs, saying they’ve no idea how much it costs to charge an EV at home. E.ON’s £2.70 price stunt was based on the cost of charging a 40kW battery overnight, while larger EVs like the Tesla Model 3 would set you back £4.69 on the firm’s tariff – enough for a full coffee at least.

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Fuel prices have been slowly falling in the UK as wholesale costs come down, but they remain higher than they were prior to a spike in demand for oil in 2022. A report by RAC Fuel Watch suggests retailers should be doing more to pass price reductions on to customers. The average UK driver spent £48 on petrol last time they were at the pump, while 77 per cent of drivers surveyed said they’re worried about rising fuel costs.

Energy providers have started adapting to new charging habits with cheap overnight electricity pricing, with the likes of EDF GoElectric, Ovo Charge Anytime and British Gas Electric Driver all offering special tariffs aimed at electric car owners. Last month, Ford launched its Ford Power Promise alongside the new Ford Puma Gen-E, which offers new customers 10,000 miles of free charging credit with Octopus Energy’s Intelligent Octopus Go tariff.