Increasing costs of EV Charging

Petriix

I made some fairly extensive use of free supermarket charging while in the limbo between Symbio going bust (fixed at 12p per kWh) and getting onto Octopus Go at 5p off-peak about 4 months later. That involved leaving the car charging for a few hours at a time while going off and doing something else (after buying something in store). It pays to check the parking conditions in detail.

Public (particularly rapid) charging has really gone through the roof recently so I wouldn't currently advise anyone who would be doing all/most of their charging at paid public chargers to switch to EV.

Home charging, however, even at the current 7.5p per kWh works out at just 2p per mile. A 50% increase on next-to-nothing is still next-to-nothing. 

Nebulous2

There's a very mixed picture depending on where you are, and how you charge, with some incentives still available to get people into EVs. 

In Scotland most of our chargers are run / managed by local authorities and they set their own pricing. Our authority is 21p a unit for both destination and fast chargers. I don't have a home charger, and am dependent on public charging.

My commute is a 60 mile round trip, and costs about £4 in my EV or £12 in my van.  It would have to go up to 60p a kwh to match the current £1.80 a litre for my van. 

While plugging in for an hour in the supermarket may seem more bother than it is worth, I'd get about 6.5 kwh in that time, or £1.40 worth. Of more interest - a big shopping centre I occasionally visit has a cinema and some reasonable restaurants. It has free chargers, and charges £1 for parking in the evening. Parking for 3-4 hours, getting some food and taking in a film I'll take onboard over £5 worth of free electric at the same time. 

ComicGeek

[Deleted User] said:

Freecall said:

Oh, forgot to mention, last (and best of all if you have access)

Free charging at work
This has to be best as it's free and you are probably parked there all day anyway.  Although I  have no idea how many actually get this perk.

But should be taxed as a benefit in kind.

I'm not sure if you're just suggesting that it should be, but there is no tax incurred if the employer provides free charging at work.

Freecall

Herzlos said:

But you don't need to sit in the the car park. You can do some shopping, sit in the cafe, whatever. 

True, but for hours on end?  You would have to truly love those activities.

The best free charge you will get at a supermarket is 7kW (and some are less than half that), so in an hour the maximum charge is 7kWh.  As it only costs 5p per kWh to charge at home you only save 35p an hour absolute maximum.

You have to be a truly dedicated MSEer to do that just to get a reward of 35p/hour.

Petriix

Freecall said:

Herzlos said:

But you don't need to sit in the the car park. You can do some shopping, sit in the cafe, whatever. 

True, but for hours on end?  You would have to truly love those activities.

The best free charge you will get at a supermarket is 7kW (and some are less than half that), so in an hour the maximum charge is 7kWh.  As it only costs 5p per kWh to charge at home you only save 35p an hour absolute maximum.

You have to be a truly dedicated MSEer to do that just to get a reward of 35p/hour.

Yes, if you're on the 5p Octopus Go rate then free public charging loses its appeal. However, when away from home, it can be a nice little bonus. We'll be camping at the coast this weekend and will definitely make use of the maximum charging time at Tesco while at the beach. It's that kind of activity which makes it worth while.

Before getting on to Go, I was paying 21p per kWh for about 6 weeks. That ~ £1.50 per hour saving made sense with free charging at Lidl just a 10 minute walk from the gym. But, at 5p, it takes 85 minutes to recoup the 49p I was spending on my snack. 

born_again

Herzlos said:

Freecall said:

Free supermarket charging
If you are really keen and are happy to sit in a supermarket car-park then free is as cheap as you can get.  It would need real dedication although I imagine some dedicated MSEers no doubt do it.

But you don't need to sit in the the car park. You can do some shopping, sit in the cafe, whatever. You probably should at least spend some money in the supermarket before wandering off, though, since it's only fair.

We're rarely round Asda in under an hour for the weekly shopping so can get a lot of free electrons in that time.

Just remember not to exceed the parking time limits. Be careful as some will also want car to be registered in store.  

Remember  a recent story of someone sat in supermarket car park eating a big mac & getting a invoice for the privilege?

So may not end up quite as MSE as you think...

[Deleted User]

Charging at home, especially if you have a cheap overnight tariff, is still much much much cheaper than buying fossil fuels.

There is also the fact that you save a lot of money on maintenance.

Grumpy_chap

Looks like public EV charging has risen in cost slightly less than petrol / diesel.

Wonder whether public EV charging costs will reduce when oil prices reduce.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61592931

Grumpy_chap

I read the article I linked just above in more detail and it states "unsurprisingly" that faster public charging is more expensive per kWh electricity than slower public charging.

I wonder whether that is more surprising than the author suggests. 
I wonder whether faster charging reduce in cost comparatively than slower public charging, perhaps as demand is less driven by "want" EV to "need" EV customers.

My rationale is this:

• EV charge company has a charger post plus parking space.  Fixed cost.
• Fast charge "fills" your car with electricity in 30 minutes.  So company can sell a "load" of kWh in 30 minutes.
• Slow charge "fills" your car with electricity in 2 hours.  So company can only sell a "load" of kWh in 2 hours.
• For that fixed infrastructure (charger post plus parking space), the best return on investment is to sell 2 "loads" of kWh per hour rather than 1/2 "load" per hour.

The equivalent to a slow charger would be for me to fill my car at the petrol pump but then keep the car there for another 1/2 hour while I wait for the check-out transaction to complete.  No business in their right mind would want me hogging that valuable pump space for any longer than necessary.  The same logic must apply to the valuable parking space at a charge point.

Jenni_D

But do you not also need to account for the fixed costs of installing the infrastructure? A fast charge point likely costs more to install than a standard one, as it would require a 3-phase power source whereas a standard (7kWh) charge point only needs single phase.