“Cheap” and “free” deals are everywhere — most hide the real cost in a tariff or leave work out of the quote. Here's the live lowest 7kW install we've sampled, an honest look at what cheap really means, and how to compare like for like.
A low headline price is easy to advertise and easy to hide cost behind. Four things decide whether a “cheap deal” is genuinely cheap — or just front-loaded.
When a supplier advertises a "free" charger it is almost always tied to a fixed-term energy tariff or a new-car deal — you pay for the fitting inside the contract, not at the till. Read what the tariff costs over 12–24 months before you call it free.
A budget charger with a short tethered cable can force a longer, costlier cable run from your consumer unit. The headline saving on the box is wiped out by the labour to fit it where you actually park.
A genuinely cheap, complete install includes the unit, cabling, an RCD/isolator, certification and the smart-charge compliance every new install needs by law. A suspiciously low number often excludes one of these — ask for an all-in price.
If you rent, live in a flat, or rely on on-street parking you can take up to £500 off with the 2026 grant — applied by your installer to the invoice. That is a larger, guaranteed saving than most “cheap deal” headlines.
For context only, here is where the cheap-end headlines come from. These are other companies' advertised figures, not our prices: electrical retailer evec has listed a charger from around £449.99 with the grant applied, and roughly £500 fitted in some grant-bundled deals.
Energy suppliers price the cheap end similarly — British Gas, for example, advertises EV charger installation from £999 — and UK owners comparing real quotes on forums report the same practical floor near £999 for a standard 7kW install with no grant. Our own live sample (in the strip above) is the only figure on this page that is ours — everything else is attributed market context.
The honest way to find the cheapest install is to compare the same spec across suppliers. Each “from” figure below is the provider's own published floor for a 7kW package — where we have no scraped figure yet it shows a dash, never a guess.
The cheapest published provider floor we currently track is £999. Independent installers in our network frequently match or beat a supplier bundle for the same 7kW spec — with no tariff lock-in. See the full breakdown on the EV charger installation cost page.
Renters, flats and on-street parking can take up to £500 off — the biggest guaranteed discount there is.
Check eligibility →The single biggest lever. The same 7kW job can vary by hundreds between fitters — competition drives your price down.
Match me with installers →The value sweet-spot for almost every home. A 22kW install averages £1,150 live and needs three-phase power most homes don't have — paying for speed you can't use is the most common overspend.
Why 7kW →Mount the charger near your consumer unit. A long run is the costliest hidden variable in any install.
What drives price →Know your likely number before you call anyone, so a 'cheap deal' can't dress up an average price.
Estimate my cost →Supplier bundles look tidy but lock you to a tariff. Price an independent fitter for the same spec before you sign.
Compare prices →There is no single fixed price — a complete 7kW home install is driven by your cable run and consumer unit. As market context, electrical retailer evec has advertised a charger from around £449.99 with the grant applied (roughly £500 fitted in some bundles), and UK owners on forums report a real-world floor near £999 for a standard install. Our live UK sample shows the lowest completed 7kW install at the figure in the strip above — get matched quotes to find your true floor.
Rarely in the way it sounds. "Free install" offers from energy suppliers are normally tied to a fixed energy tariff or a car-finance deal — the cost is recovered over the life of the contract. The only no-strings discount most people can get is the up-to-£500 grant, and that is for renters, flats and on-street parking, not for driveway homeowners.
Get three quotes for the same spec rather than accepting the first headline price, check whether you qualify for the £500 grant, choose a 7kW untethered unit (the value sweet-spot), and keep the cable run short by mounting the charger near your consumer unit. Our installer-matching does the first step for you with vetted, OZEV-approved local fitters.
Compare all-in prices for the same charger rating and the same scope — unit, cabling, isolator, certification and smart-charge compliance. A low number that excludes the consumer-unit work or a long cable run is not cheaper, just incomplete. Our live cost-by-provider table shows each supplier's published “from” floor so you have a like-for-like baseline.
Bundled “charger + fitting” packages from the major suppliers typically start around their published “from” price (see the table below). Independent installers in our network often match or beat a supplier bundle for a standard 7kW job, because there is no tariff lock-in. Always price the unit and the fitting together — a cheap box with an expensive fit is not a cheap install.
It must. Every new home charger fitted in the UK has to support scheduled off-peak charging and meet the Smart Charge Point Regulations — compliance is not an optional extra you can cut to lower the price. Any quote that skips it is not legal, not cheaper. Every installer in our network is compliant.
Up to three vetted, OZEV-approved quotes near you — so the cheapest honest number wins, not the loudest advert.
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