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The Advisory Electricity Rate (AER) recommended by HMRC for electric company car mileage reimbursement is not sufficient to refund drivers' charging costs in the vast majority of cases, according to data from Mina.
The charging payment company has published a new report on EV charging, based on its data from customers charging both at home and in public, collected over summer this year.
It reveals that not only are 100% of public charging sessions working out as more expensive than the 5p per mile AER, but also 93.44% of sessions on home chargers, which are generally much cheaper.
The report states: "The fact that over nine out of 10 charges, at home and in public, result in the driver being out of pocket if they reclaim costs using the AER, shows just how out of step with current electricity costs it is.
"As drivers come to realise this, it is likely to have a serious impact on the transition to electric vehicles, and as energy prices rise this winter, this disconnect will become greater.
"Those already in EVs will want to know why they are personally subsidising their business travel, while employees about to make the switch to electric may refuse once they realise they will be losing financially on every work trip they make."
According to Mina's data, the average cost of charging an electric car using a public charger was 16ppm, compared with 7ppm when charging at home. It says this works out to an average charging cost of 8ppm.
In addition, the report notes that the average cost of home charging during the time period covered by the data was 26p per kWh, compared with a general average electricity cost of 28p. According to Mina, this suggests many EV drivers are not taking advantage of off-peak and EV-specific tariffs.
The average cost of public charging was 56p per kWh.
The report also looks into the amount of time spent on public charging sessions, and states that at just over 45 minutes per session, this has reduced by nearly 15 minutes compared with historic data, due to increasing public charging speeds - although the cost of this charging has also gone up.
Commenting with the release of the report, Mina CEO Ashley Tate said: "There's a lot of discussion about the real cost of charging EVs, but much of it is entirely theoretical, and based on lots of assumptions and 'what-ifs'. At Mina, our technology monitors every single charge, and every piece of associated data from the moment a car or van is plugged in, so we know exactly what is going on in the real world, the second it happens.
"We know every tariff, at home and in public, we can see how green that electricity is, the carbon impact in real time of every kWh and how much it costs for every kWh. This is transformative, because from this you can build a picture of real-life costs, which is so important as the energy crisis unfolds, and also begin to understand behaviour and trends.
"As an example, I think many will be surprised at just how little time drivers who can charge at home actually spend charging in public. This will inform strategy in future, not just for businesses looking at costs and productivity, but for networks and authorities rolling out chargers and assessing demand."
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