Updated: 20:28 AEDT, 5 January 2025
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'My father-in-law drove down from Stoke-on-Trent to Hitchin to see the grandkids for Sunday lunch and when he arrived his EV (Audi e-Tron) was on 20 per cent.
He hooked up to our home charger (we have an Ioniq 5 so we have a wallbox charger) and charged up to 80.
I don't want to be stingy but he does this every time - and he comes down at least once a month.
Should I start asking him to pay for his charging?
I wouldn't mind so much if it was an overnight charge with off-peak rates and cost less than a tenner, but he charges in the middle of the day so it's about £20.
He wouldn't ask me to pay for his petrol... I don't want to cause a family - what should I do? Is there a precedent? Dan C.
Should you ask a friend or family to pay to use your EV charger? We ask experts for their take and give you an etiquette guide so you aren't tiptoeing round the subject like an awkward Brit
This is Money's EV expert Freda Lewis-Stempel answers: Dan you're asking a question an awful lot of people are probably thinking. And if they aren't already, with the rise of EVs means they soon will be.
Do you offer to let visiting friends and family charge on your home charger? And do you ask them to pay when they're adding to your electricity bill?
Or if you're the visitor, do you ask to charge? Do you offer to pay? And how do you work out how much it costs?
And as you've pointed out, no-one would ask you to pay for fuel so if you compare it like that it seems a bit bonkers to pay for someone's charge. But then it's typically much less expensive, and depending on where you live there might not be public chargers nearby.
This is unchartered territory for people and there's no official line - so what's the correct etiquette?
As plenty of EV owners are tiptoeing around the subject in a typical British way, we asked some EV experts on what's the fairest and politest way to handle the situation.
AA President Edmund King says 'most people tell the AA that they wouldn’t charge close family and close friends if they weren’t taken advantage'
If you're the visitor - should you offer to pay to use your host's EV home charger? A rough etiquette guide
It's absolutely fine to ask your host to use their charger.
While we might have just told the host not to ask for payment, but as the guest you should always offer.
Again it's a matter of manners. It's highly likely your host will wave away your offer, but if you're going to hook up your car for some juice (especially during peak hours) then you've got to take the initiative on the payment front.
A happy medium - offer a different contribution other than payment
If you use a friend or family member's home charger and they don't ask you to pay then it's a nice token to give them a small thank you - a box of chocolates or a bottle for instance.
Generally this situation is only going to come around if the someone's charger isn't working, or all the local public chargers are taken and it's a time pressured situation, or someone's guest is already using their charger.
In these cases it's fine to ask your neighbour to use their charger and the correct thing to let your neighbour charge.
After all that's what neighbours are for - to help each other out.
But definitely pay your neighbour. And if it's anything but a small overnight cheap charge then it's entirely fair to ask them to pay!
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