MILLIONS of drivers could be set to pay £10 extra every week just to stay on the road after a fuel price shakeup.
The new rates are set to come into force in a matter of days, squeezing Brits even more during the cost of living crisis.
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Owners of certain vehicles could be in for a nasty shock next week when the new Ofgem price cap is established.
The cap limits how much energy companies can charge per unit of gas or electricity to prevent excessive price increases.
This is measured by the amount the average UK household would pay per year on direct debit – with the current limit sitting at £1,568 (although you can pay more than that if you use more than average).
However, Ofgem confirmed announced last month that this would rise by 10% to £1,717.
In practice, this means the typical household will see around £149 added to their bill each year.
However, the impact will be keenly felt by Brits who have made the decision to switch to an electric car, especially if they charge at home.
While still significantly cheaper than public charging, experts suggest that the price of fully charging an EV at home is set to rise from £13.41 to £14.70.
This could leave drivers paying as much as £10 more each week to charge their cars from October 1 – working out to £520 a year.
The change will affect an estimated 1.2 million drivers across the UK at a time when the Government is pushing hard to incentivise EV ownership.
And the same goes for thousands of plug-in hybrid drivers, who could see per-charge costs rise from 3.13 to 3.43.
The data suggests that collectively, owners of low and zero-emission vehicles will have to shell out an extra £40 million for their charging.
Aidan Rushby, founder and CEO of Carmoola said: “Ofgem’s price cap has a very real effect on the lives of households across the UK, especially as we approach winter and energy consumption rises.
“To save money, we’d suggest that EV drivers aim to charge their cars at home whenever possible and explore whether their energy providers offer off-peak tariffs to help reduce charging costs by topping up at these cheaper times.”
Nonetheless, it will come as a relief to many that home charging still averages a unit price of around 26p/kWh, which is about half that of public charging.
And households can take some comfort in the fact that, while the cap is going up, it is still nowhere near the average annual bills seen in January last year, which soared above £4,000.
