Electric Companies Hike Prices after motorists switch to EV

Bachelorplace

What is to stop Electric Companies from hiking prices of kwh when they know a car is being charged, or in general, hike the prices anyway knowing that their customers will have no option but to pay it.

The EV sales tricks speak of how much you are saving - sure NOW - but when there are 5 million electric cars on the road the electric providers can simply creep prices up so that anyone who has switched is not saving money on fuel hardly at all.

Car_54

Bachelorplace wrote: »

What is to stop Electric Companies from hiking prices of kwh when they know a car is being charged, or in general, hike the prices anyway knowing that their customers will have no option but to pay it.

The EV sales tricks speak of how much you are saving - sure NOW - but when there are 5 million electric cars on the road the electric providers can simply creep prices up so that anyone who has switched is not saving money on fuel hardly at all.

Competition, and possibly government regulation.
I’d be more worried about tax increases to make up for the lost fuel duty.

CvPiper

Looking at the price agreement on places like the new Hinkley C plant in Somerset, there appears that we will be paying many times more than now. At least that’s what the government has promised EDF to have returned, and why would they do any favours?

dogshome

With Electric cars there is not one, but two Elephants in the room.


1) The zero road tax won't last - Roads need to be built and maintained
and sooner or later the exchequer will snatch back this gift.
2) Smart meters aren't about accurate bills based on instant readings,
the aim is 'Time of Day/Use' pricing.

facade

dogshome wrote: »

2) Smart meters aren't about accurate bills based on instant readings,
the aim is 'Time of Day/Use' pricing.

So when lots of people are charging smart cars at night, when we have no solar input to the grid, the cost per kwh will shoot up over that time.
I read somewhere that they were thinking of 20 minute pricing blocks.

Jonesya

What stops the oil companies and petrol retailers charging us as much as they want now?

Oil prices move up and down with supply and demand, and competition prevents petrol stations from over-charging, and the ones which do over-charge, well you drive on and use another supplier.

Just the same with electricity, wholesale prices move around with time of year, time of day, demand, the weather. We buy it from our supplier., if they over-charge then we will move elsewhere. EVs may affect demand, prices might move around a bit but it's not different to buying your petrol.

Does anyone here worry about oil companies and petrol station's over charging? Worry that as oil reserves reduce the oil companies will squeeze us dry?

By the same logic you'd never buy a petrol car, it runs on oil, they're not making any more of it, and the supply is limited and controlled, the oil companies have us over a barrel :rotfl:

MEM62

Bachelorplace wrote: »

What is to stop Electric Companies from hiking prices of kwh when they know a car is being charged.

Nothing but (a) there is nothing preventing the supplier of fossil fuels doing that now so we already face that market risk and (b) maybe not in my driving lifetime but what choice will you have when fossil fuels are no longer available?

The market risks in the future will not be much different to what they are now. It is just the type of energy/fuel that will differ.

If you are talking short-term then the cost of electricity would have to increase astronomically before the cost of running an electric car meets the current costs of feeding one with petrol or diesel.

onomatopoeia99

dogshome wrote: »

1) The zero road tax won't last - Roads need to be built and maintained
and sooner or later the exchequer will snatch back this gift.

Road tax, as VED is known, is not hypothecated to road building and maintenance and hasn't been since before WWII.

DrEskimo

Also, not all EVs are exempt from VED. Those with a list price ≥£40k have to currently pay £320 per year in VED.

DrEskimo

MEM62 wrote: »

Nothing but (a) there is nothing preventing the supplier of fossil fuels doing that now so we already face that market risk and (b) maybe not in my driving lifetime but what choice will you have when fossil fuels are no longer available?

The market risks in the future will not be much different to what they are now. It is just the type of energy/fuel that will differ.

If you are talking short-term then the cost of electricity would have to increase astronomically before the cost of running an electric car meets the current costs of feeding one with petrol or diesel.

Using average peak electricity costs of £0.15/kWh, the typical cost per mile of an ICE is 14p, whilst it's just 4p for an EV. So electricity would have to increase by 3.5X. Assuming of course there are no increases in fuel prices.....a completely unrealistic assumption...

If you go by off-peak electricity prices of £0.05/kWh, then it would need to increase by around 12X....

It's an odd thing to base purchasing decisions in the near future on some wholly finger in the air speculation on future prices of things as complex as energy decades from now! If anything, isn;t it a motivation to get on the EV 'wagon' now??

Jackmydad

Don't worry though, however it works, they will find a way of taxing your car use.
Whether it runs on fossil fuel, electricity, or unicorn dung, they won't in the long run lose the tax you pay for using it.