How Many Times Would Santa Charge His EV?

As Christmas approaches, Santa Claus is starting to dust off the red and white suit ahead of an extremely busy night on Christmas Eve. 

The elves have been hard at work making presents for over one billion children around the world, but now comes the tough task of delivering them to 195 countries. After years of tough labour, the reindeer definitely deserve a night off. 

So, Xcite Car Leasing has taken a look into what could happen if Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph were replaced by an electric vehicle (EV). 

Looking at the 20 most EV-friendly countries in the world, where he’d be able to top up the battery, we reviewed the costs of charging, the number of public chargers, number of charges Santa’s sleigh would require and more.

Santa’s EV Would Need 48,411 Charges at a Cost of £339,839

On the whole, Santa would rack up a Scrooge-like bill of a whopping £339,839 when it’s all said and done and he returns back to the North Pole on Christmas morning. Covering a total of 12,925,653 square miles, he’d need to charge his EV sleigh 48,411 times, which in theory would take 346 days if all the chargers were ultra-rapid 350kW chargers. 

Santa’s EV Charging Bill Would be £7,154 in the UK

Even though the UK is one of the smallest countries on our list in terms of surface area, the ballooning energy prices mean Santa would have a large bill on his hands to charge his electric sleigh when travelling through.

At the time of writing, the cost of electricity in the UK is 34 per kWh, which is the fifth-highest price of all 20 analysed countries. 

Santa would have to visit 24.7 million homes in the UK, so he’ll need to start thinking about quicker delivery techniques when 24 December rolls around. 

The Sleigh Would Need 351 Charges to Get Around the UK via 3,961 Free Charging Points

Being one of the smaller countries with a dense population, we worked out that Santa would need to make 351 stops to charge his EV sleigh while in the UK, which puts us in the better half of the results. At the fastest ultra-rapid charging level of 350kW, it would take three days to complete all of these charges, or 125 days if he was hooked up to a 7kW charger. 

Our particular advice to Mr Claus would be to find some of the 3,961 free EV charging points in the UK in order to save on his electricity bill. 

When split into areas, Scotland has 1,343 free public charging points, mostly thanks to ChargePlace Scotland’s network. The South East of England also has a lot with 566 in total, while Greater London has 353. 

Of these almost 4,000 free charging points, 3,275 are fast chargers, while 283 are rapid. Of these, 586 are found in supermarkets, with 472 in dealership forecourts. As Santa would only need to make 351 stops to charge his sleigh in the UK, he could easily navigate and plan his route to ensure he didn’t pay a penny in charging costs.

It Would Cost Santa the Most to Travel Through the United States

Of the 20 countries that we analysed, we figured out that it would cost Santa the most to make his way through the United States of America.

With a surface area of 3,797,000 square miles, it would cost £120,309 (or $146,010) in electricity to deliver to all 130 million households in America, despite their electricity rates being less than half of ours (14p per kWh).

Canada would be the next most expensive country to deliver to for Santa if his sleigh was an EV, costing the Claus family £86,629 (or $140,160) when delivering presents to 15.3 million homes. 

China rounded out the top three most expensive countries, at a cost of £54,118 or 470,015 Chinese Yuan. 

Switzerland and South Korea are the Most Economical Legs of Santa’s Journey

At the other end of the scale, it would cost the least for Santa to travel through Switzerland and South Korea, at just £670 each. 

South Korea actually boasted the cheapest electricity prices of all 20 countries at just 8p per kWh, or 17p per mile. After paying out of his pocket in the larger countries, Father Christmas will likely breathe a sigh of relief when he’s passing through these countries due to the cheaper electricity bills. 

14,438 Charges Would be Needed in Canada

The Canadian figures were quite startling when it came to charging times, with the data suggesting that it would take 103 days to charge at 350kW or an eye-watering 5,157 days at 7kW. It would take 14,438 stops for charging, too, which may get in the way of jolly Saint Nick’s festive frenzy and could cause a logistics issue, as there are only 16,000 public EV chargers in the Great White North. 

The USA and China were also near the top of the list, with 14,221 and 13,876 charging stops needed respectively. 

After reviewing all of the data, it’s fair to say that if Father Christmas were to swap his reindeer power for brake horsepower, it would be much kinder on the animals, but he would need to work out a quicker way of charging the vehicle if he wants to ensure some children aren’t presentless on Christmas morning. 

If you’ve been inspired to swap your existing car with an EV, take a look through our electric car leasing deals. 

Methodology

For the purpose of this study, we looked at 20 of the most EV-friendly countries in the world, according to sales data from the IEA Global EV Outlook 2022 report, and determined how much it would cost for Santa Claus to travel through each country if his sleigh was an electric vehicle, as well as how many times it would need to be charged and how long these charges would take. 

To work out the costs, we used the cost of electricity per kWh according to GlobalPetrolPrices.com, along with EV data based on the world’s current bestselling all-electric car (Tesla Model Y).