A guide covering the two main types of charging subscriptions for homes and public charging, and how to decide whether to commit to one.
02 Jan 2026
5 min read
With an electric car charging subscription, EV drivers have the potential to save money, either on the costs of charging their car, installing a dedicated home charger, or both. They usually come with cheaper tariff rates and include other incentives like rewards, such as bonus miles, in exchange for allowing the subscription provider to handle your charging during a long-term commitment lasting multiple years.
Like many other kinds of subscriptions, an electric vehicle (EV) charging subscription is designed to make the experience of charging an electric car more affordable, more convenient, and more rewarding.
There are two kinds of subscriptions available – for homes, and for public charging.
Some network providers offer discounts and other incentives for using their chargers to paid subscribers. Whilst the details of how they work exactly can vary, the discounts are usually accessed via an associated app or physical card which replaces your debit or credit card.
By paying a subscription cost each month, members usually get some sort of discount around the 20% mark, which can quickly add up if you frequently charge in public. Other bonuses can include a month’s subscription for free when signing up.
Home EV charging subscriptions are similarly aimed at reducing costs, but specifically in the context of home charging. These subscriptions tend to be much higher than public charging subscriptions, but in exchange you’ll be able to get a dedicated home charging system at a significantly lower upfront cost. This is usually in the form of a one-off joining fee, which will still be much lower than the actual cost of the charger.
In exchange for all this, the provider will often handle the smart charging for you, so all you need to do is plug in and let them do the rest. For example, they’ll usually try to get the cheapest available charging rate, and they may even pay you back for it – either in direct cash, or with miles.
Tip: with Pod Drive, you’ll get an all-inclusive 3-year subscription that comes with a premium home charging system covered by a 48-hour lifetime warranty and up to 7,500 miles paid for, all for just £40 per month and a one-off £99 joining fee.
A subscription can be a great way of reducing your overall charging costs, but you often need to commit to them for a long period of time. So there are some key factors you need to consider before committing to one:
If you never or rarely use public charging, then a subscription might not be worth it and could even cost you money in the long run. Similarly, there’s no need for a home charging subscription if you don’t (or can’t) charge at home.
But how often you charge also matters, to an extent. If you rely solely on public charging, but very rarely need to charge, then again you might find you don’t need a subscription, whereas if you charge frequently then it could be worth considering. On the other hand, if you only charge at home, a charging subscription is much more likely to be beneficial. That’s because of...
Charging subscription costs do obviously rack up over time, especially for home charging subscriptions which cost a fair bit more than public subscriptions. But even if you don’t need the rewards that come with a home charging subscription, it may pay off in other ways, such as reducing the upfront costs of getting the charger installed and spreading it over a more manageable timeframe.
Whether a public charging subscription is worth it is purely down to your charging habits. Fortunately, the subscription will tell you what sort of discount/rewards you get for becoming a member, so it should be easy to make the decision.
For public charging, it’s worth considering which charging provider(s) your membership covers, and whether these are chargers you have reliable access to. This is because there’s no point getting a subscription for a service that have very few public charging stations in your area.
On the other hand, some subscriptions cover multiple provider networks, so even if you have a preference for a specific company’s chargers, it may be worth getting a subscription if it gives you access to a wider range of chargers.
Home charging subscriptions that let you spread the cost of the charger will likely last for a long time, so you need to be sure you can be in a financial position to keep up with the monthly payments later down the line.
Public charging contracts, by comparison, tend to be much more flexible, offering cancellations any time during the contract. This means you can trial the subscription for a month or two and easily compare the costs to see if it’s worth it, and then cancel if it’s not.
Ultimately, which one you choose is largely a matter of preference. If you only ever charge in public, and don’t have access to a home charger, then a public subscription could be worth going for.
However, if you have a home charger and want to charge frequently at home, then a home charging subscription would make the most financial sense. This is doubly the case for anyone that doesn’t have a charger yet but wants one, or is swapping out an older charger for something newer, as it will allow you to make the upgrade with more manageable monthly payments, rather than one lump sum.
Tip: New Pod Drive customers get our latest charger, the Solo 3S, when they join for just £99. Our all-inclusive subscription makes charging easy, with our easy-to-use app doing all the hard work; just tell us when you need to be charged by, plug in, and we’ll do the rest!
