Looks like the UK free CHAdeMO highway charging is ending

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phb10186

Well-known member
Joined
May 13, 2016
Messages
325
Location
North London suburbs, UK
Balls, well unless they supply your domestic electricity...:

'I’m writing to you as a member of the Electric Highway to let you know of a significant change to our service.

After five years of providing charging for free, we’re moving to a ‘charging for charging’ model.

When we began in July 2011, there was a bit of a chicken and egg situation – people were reluctant to buy electric cars because there were no charging facilities being built, but nobody wanted to build those facilities while there were still so few cars on the road. That’s when we jumped in to help kickstart the electric car revolution in Britain.

And that’s going pretty well: today there are over 40 models to choose from and 64,000 plug-ins on the road. The Electric Highway itself comprises almost 300 electricity pumps – of the fast charging variety.

The combination of more cars on the road and faster charging means we're now delivering two million miles of clean driving each month – all powered from the wind and sun. That’s a great result. It’s also a growing cost. And to keep pace with demand, we need to build more electricity pumps – at existing and new locations.

So the time has come for us to charge – for charging.

We’ve taken a lot of feedback from EV drivers in order to arrive at the right pricing model. We’ve decided that a simple flat fee of a fiver for a 20 minute fast charge strikes the right balance.

Here’s how it will all work and when it will all happen

First, we’ve created an Electric Highway app. You’ll need this app to use our pumps once we’ve changed over to the ‘charging for charging’ model.

The app will have other features that you’ll find useful. It will show you a live feed of our entire network so you can see the location and availability of your nearest pump, making it easier for you to plan your journeys. You’ll be able to track the progress of your charge with the app’s charging countdown, and there’ll be other features coming in the future.

The transition to ‘charging for charging’ will require a hardware upgrade of each pump. We’ll start that work on Monday 11 July and we’re aiming to have the entire network finished by Friday 5 August.

During this transition period, you’ll need the app for some pumps and your swipe card for others. The app itself will tell you which pumps have switched over to the new charging model.

Once the work is complete, our entire network will only be usable through the Electric Highway app.

We’ve updated the FAQs on the Ecotricity website to provide more information, should you need it.

I hope this is all clear and that you’ll understand our need to finally move to ‘charging for charging’ – it’s the next vital step in the evolution of the Electric Highway and it will allow us to continue to reinvest in improving and expanding the network.

Viva the EV revolution :)

Thanks for being with us.

Dale Vince

P.S. Nearly forgot ... the Electric Highway will still be free to use for Ecotricity energy customers – so if you’re not already a customer, now is a pretty good time to switch. You’ll not only get free use of the Electric Highway, we’ll give you a discount on your energy just for having an electric car. If you’d like to switch, just click here.'
 
I didn't realize that the UK market was so deregulated as to both allow Ecotricity to pick such a stupid pricing model, and to also allow individual homeowners to pick a power provider just like we do in the US with internet or satellite TV service (and used to do for long distance 'telephone').

Simple flat fees aren't always good, but a straight cost per kWh is fair (coupled with a cutoff to keep campers off of the DCFC). Here in Washington State there were years of confusion over the ability to 'resell electricity', so many DCFC still charge by the minute, which is more equitable as a LEAF passes 80% SOC on a DCFC.
 
jray3 said:
I didn't realize that the UK market was so deregulated as to both allow Ecotricity to pick such a stupid pricing model, and to also allow individual homeowners to pick a power provider just like we do in the US with internet or satellite TV service (and used to do for long distance 'telephone').

Simple flat fees aren't always good, but a straight cost per kWh is fair (coupled with a cutoff to keep campers off of the DCFC). Here in Washington State there were years of confusion over the ability to 'resell electricity', so many DCFC still charge by the minute, which is more equitable as a LEAF passes 80% SOC on a DCFC.

Completely deregulated now its all been privatised about 20 years ago, sort of. Of course the electricity and gas you consume comes from the same source, you just get billed by a load of different providers. You have about 6 big players, and load of other small ones, like Ecotricity, who will be more expensive as they have a green premium.

That said, there is a government watchdog that prevents yearly price increases over a certain amount - which is somewhere between inflation and the corporate mark-up.

Ecotricity are a tiny player, they come in about 20% more expensive than my provider, that's about £100 pounds a year more for electricity. So based on a £5 charge - I'd have to make 20 of them to just break even.

Though you unlock the charger with the app - and suppose someone let all their friends charge their EVs with a single account?

It costs me about £2 to charge domestically, so its a big premium to use now. Though its worth it if you need it, but i'll likely not be using it at that rate.

You are right, they have a very stupid pricing model, and it disincentivises charging a small capacity EV. It also means that the CHAdeMO is about the same price to drive as the Insight, even with our crazy high gas prices - so ill just use the Insight on the highways, which is an infrequent occurrence these days... unless I get them to supply my domestic electricity. They should be charging their standard rate for electricity for these, as the government gave them a big grant to install the infrastructure.

Ive only used 70KWh in 6 weeks, thats literally all the car driving I do these days - so thats about £9 in 6 weeks - hardly going to break the bank.

Cant say i've ever been a socialist in any way, but I was happy being an EV energy parasite off the back of petrol tax revenue. That said, since this whole Brexit business, the entire rule book has literally been chucked in the fire... looks like we will be in for a good few changes like this.

This asside, the UK has become far more Americanised over the last 10-15 years, not sure if thats mostly good or mostly bad, but we have gone far more free market and less government provision - other than healthcare, which is still free.
 
I do not mind paying for the convenience of a fast charger, although $10 which is what it is around here is a bit high. I'd prefer say 6 or 7. But the economics are tough, it is an expensive piece of equipment and there is maintenance involved as well as the backend systems. Plus the power of course.

The alternative for me on the rare longer trip to the dealer is to start out full from home or the dealer, plod along letting traffic pass periodically and sit at a free midpoint L2 charger for 1-2 hours :roll: I wish there were a DCFC on that route, it would turn a 3 hour 70 mile trip into an hour twenty to an hour and a half.
 
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