EVCI Global, an independent inspection company that tests EV charging infrastructure, has submitted findings to Parliament's Transport Select Committee showing that 31.5 per cent of the public charge points it reviewed were either overestimating or underestimating the amount of energy being delivered to vehicles. In roughly 15 per cent of cases, the errors exceeded five per cent. A small number showed what EVCI described as materially larger deviations.
The most extreme case cited by EVCI CEO Craig Marsden involves a charger he personally tested that delivered 37 per cent less electricity than the figure shown on the display. A driver trusting that screen was paying for energy that never reached their car.
Marsden has been direct about what this means in practice.
"People with EVs need to know that they're getting what they're paying for, the same way that they do at petrol pumps."
The permitted margin of error for public EV charge points is plus or minus two per cent under the relevant MID Class A standard. Nearly a third of the chargers EVCI tested fell outside that window. For context, petrol pumps in the UK must operate within a margin of minus 0.5 per cent to plus one per cent, and are subject to regular mandatory verification by Trading Standards. EV chargers are not subject to the same regime.
The UK public charging network stood at 116,052 charge points as of January 2026, according to government statistics. If 31.5 per cent of those are measuring inaccurately, that is approximately 36,500 units potentially billing drivers incorrectly at any given time across the country.
The financial exposure is not trivial. A long session on a public rapid charger can cost upwards of £70. Drivers relying entirely on public infrastructure, typically those without off-street parking or a home charger, could face annual charging costs approaching £2,000. Public charge points already carry a 20 per cent VAT rate compared to five per cent for home electricity. An additional billing error of five per cent or more on top of that widens the gap further.
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The industry body ChargeUK has pushed back, describing the inaccurate chargers as isolated cases and pointing out that measuring electricity transfer is technically more complex than measuring liquid fuel volume. It added that EV drivers can cross-reference the energy delivered via their car's own software. That is true as far as it goes, though it places the burden of verification on the consumer rather than the operator, and assumes the driver knows to check, has the technical knowledge to interpret the data, and is willing to dispute charges with a charge point operator after the fact.
Tanya Sinclair, CEO of Electric Vehicles UK, made the regulatory case clearly.
"Drivers should have the same confidence charging an EV as filling up at a petrol pump. Stronger standards and regular verification are possible and practical, and the government must act."
The Department for Transport told the Telegraph that public EV charge points are expected to accurately measure and supply exactly the electricity they claim to deliver, and that most meters must meet regulations with an accuracy of two per cent. What the department did not address is why nearly a third of them apparently do not, what enforcement mechanism exists when they fall short, or what recourse an individual driver has when they suspect they have been overbilled.
The argument that EV charger accuracy is harder to verify than petrol pump accuracy may be technically true. It is not an argument for leaving the verification regime weaker. It is an argument for investing in better testing methodology. EVCI has demonstrated that independent verification is possible, is already being done, and is finding a material problem. The question of whether the government will act on the parliamentary submission before the UK's public charging network grows larger, and the problem with it, is one the Transport Select Committee now has in front of it.
Sources: Carscoops, March 2026 | Regit, March 2026 | EVCI Global parliamentary submission SEV0028 | UK Government EV charging infrastructure statistics, January 2026 | The Telegraph, March 2026