Electric vehicles are arriving in Gauteng in meaningful numbers, and the question we’re getting more often is: “What does it actually cost to charge at home?” The short answer is: significantly less than petrol. But the longer answer involves understanding your Eskom tariff, your driving habits, and whether your home’s wiring is actually ready for the job.

The cost of charging vs petrol — real numbers

The current Tshwane domestic electricity tariff sits at approximately R2.97/kWh. Most EVs on the South African market — BYD Atto 3, Changan, MG ZS EV, various others — achieve around 5–7km per kWh of charge in real-world Gauteng driving conditions.

For a driver covering 1,500km a month at 6km/kWh: that’s 250kWh of electricity, costing around R742 per month to charge at home. The same distance in a petrol car doing 10L/100km at R22.50/L costs roughly R3,375 per month. The saving is real — over R2,600 a month, or R31,000+ per year.

If you have solar panels generating during the day, those numbers tilt even further in your favour — especially if you schedule charging during peak solar hours (10am–2pm) and draw directly from panels rather than the battery or grid.

Why a wall socket isn’t enough

Every EV can technically charge from a standard 15A plug. The problem is speed and safety. A standard socket delivers around 2.2kW — fine for a phone, not designed for the sustained 6–10 hour draw of overnight EV charging. Extended load on an ordinary socket causes heat buildup at the plug, accelerated cable degradation, and in poorly maintained installations, a real risk of fire.

A dedicated Level 2 charger runs on a properly sized 32A circuit with its own breaker, RCD protection, and correctly rated cabling — designed specifically for this purpose. It also charges 4–6 times faster, meaning most EVs go from near-empty to full overnight rather than partially charged by morning.

What a proper installation involves

A qualified EV charger installation isn’t just mounting a box on the wall. It involves assessing your existing DB capacity and incoming supply, running a dedicated circuit of the correct cable size to the charging location, installing the correct breaker and RCD protection, and testing the full installation to SANS 10142-1 before issuing a Certificate of Compliance.

If you have a solar or off-grid system, we also assess whether your inverter and battery bank can handle the additional load before anything is connected — a Level 2 charger drawing 7.4kW can overwhelm a smaller inverter if it’s not properly sized and managed.

Try our free calculators

Before you book a site assessment, you can run your own numbers on our EV charger page — we’ve built two free interactive calculators: one that estimates your monthly Eskom charging cost vs petrol based on your actual driving habits, and one that checks whether your existing solar system can handle EV charging without an upgrade.

Anictom is qualified and authorised to install Level 1, Level 2, and three-phase EV charging points for homes and businesses across Pretoria East. Every installation comes with a Certificate of Compliance on completion.