Inside the crazy, mixed-up world of electric-vehicle charger pricing

Submitted by bostonglobe t3_123nkej in massachusetts

From Globe.com:

Electric vehicle adoption is booming, even as Massachusetts is far behind in its plans to reduce carbon emissions from cars and trucks. But charging outside of the home is the Achilles heel of the EV industry, with inconsistent and sometimes high pricing policies, frequently broken equipment, and a lack of chargers in key locations for everyone but Tesla drivers.

It’s enough to give EV drivers a constant headache — and to make people thinking about going electric wait a little longer. Compounding the frustration is that the price of electricity in Massachusetts has skyrocketed, and that increase is already hitting drivers looking to recharge.

To capture the current state of EV charging, the Globe did an informal survey of the pricing and performance of DC (Level 3) fast chargers around Greater Boston over the past three months. While most current EV owners charge at home overnight using slower Level 1 and 2 chargers, DC fast chargers are critical for longer trips and for people who can’t charge at home. Based on the experiences of a reporter charging four different vehicles across five charging networks, a few themes emerged.

Reliability is a major issue, with chargers going offline for weeks or months at a time. Some stations charge by the minute rather than by the amount of electricity consumed, leading to unpredictable pricing. Others have multiple subscription plans or charge different rates at different times of day. Overall, there have been some significant price increases over the past few months.

“It seems like there are so many factors at play,” said Ed Harrison, a Nissan Leaf owner in West Newton who prefers to charge at home as often as possible. “If I’m doing it elsewhere, it’s because I have to, so I’ll pretty much pay whatever they charge me.”

And whatever they charge is going up.

Electrify America, one of the largest operators of DC fast-charging stations in the state, just raised prices by 16 to 19 percent. Smaller rival EVgo made its rate plans more complicated and added a new fee. And Tesla, which raised prices at many of its chargers last year, is slowly opening its national network to other car brands but with higher prices for non-Tesla vehicles.

Charging companies said they needed to raise prices after utilities increased their rates. Electricity prices jumped to 39 cents per kilowatt-hour in February from 27 cents a year earlier, a 44 percent rise in the Boston metro area, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In EVGo charging sessions by a Globe reporter, prices averaged 61 cents per kilowatt-hour in March after the new rate plan took effect, compared to 42 cents in January. At Electrify America, effective rates per kilowatt-hour calculated by the Globe rose from 20 cents to 26 cents (though the company charges by the minute, adding an element of uncertainty).

At ChargePoint terminals owned by MassDOT, such as along I-95 and Route 24, prices have remained steady at 35 cents per kilowatt-hour. And prices have been steady at 70 cents — the highest in the survey — at the Nouria network. That new entrant is owned by convenience store chain Nouria Energy and has installed a few DC fast chargers so far in the southeastern region of the state. The calculations include fees and taxes tacked on by the operators.

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[deleted] t1_jdvh6yc wrote

[deleted]

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NoMoLerking t1_jdvm9pd wrote

It’s wild to me that at the very least, car dealers don’t have charging stations. Even if it were just priced at break even it seems like a no-brainer.

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quintus_horatius t1_jdw42qx wrote

I don't understand why gas stations don't have them, if they have a little parking.

What better use of your time while you wait 20 minutes to charge, than wander in, get a bottle of something, maybe a snack, keep warm in winter, etc.

IIRC most gas stations make their profit from the convenience store, not from selling gas.

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JJ2o2o t1_jdxu2wh wrote

There is an Electrify America at an Alltown Fresh in Plymouth which makes your point well. It's a gas station as well and you can go inside and get a sandwich or a snack while you wait.

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SeaworthinessLeft88 t1_jdvhbr6 wrote

Hey, glad to see that your ban has been reversed and you’re back to posting here.

I own a CCS EV myself, and I haven’t yet tried to charge at a L3. I have an L2 at home that pretty much meets all of my charging needs. But taking my EV on the road does give me a lot of pause. Not really in MA, which does have a relatively extensive charging network (even if some are overpriced or nonfunctional, I feel I could find an L3 in a pinch). But places like NH are complete EV charging deserts. There are pretty much no charging options in the lakes or white mountain regions at all.

Did the reporting get any comments from state politicians on any plans to lower the costs of both EV charging/investment and lowering the cost of electricity in general in MA? I feel like electricity costs in NE are more of a pressing issue than EV charging, and I really haven’t heard any solutions being discussed considering how pressing the issue is for most residents.

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bostonglobe OP t1_jdvigft wrote

We unfortunately didn't get any response from state politicians but based on the feedback we've been getting from this article I'm sure there will be a follow up story (or several follow up stories).

Thanks for your feedback. This is super helpful! I'll be sure to share your questions with our newsroom when pitching specific angles for our next EV piece.

We also just launched our NH bureau today and they're looking for stories to cover so I'll put this on their radar.

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oneMadRssn t1_jdw0afv wrote

Look at this way. In terms of cost per mile, the public chargers are priced to be about the same as gas. But ICE cars cannot charge at home, whereas EVs can.

Also, MA is a bit of an outlier here due to our crazy high electricity prices. On a national average, EVs make more sense.

Depending on the efficiency of a particular EV, routine driving (i.e., our and about within an hour of your home) saves an EV drivers hundreds of dollars compared to the cost of gas. That savings can be used to rent an ICE vehicle as needed for long trips. As long as it's not done often, I would still come out far ahead.

Take these real numbers for example:

  • A good EV gets roughly 4mi/kwh. Some Tesla's get more, some bigger truck EVs get less.
  • Average MPG in the US right now is 25mpg.
  • Regular gas is roughly $3.50/gal right now.
  • So to drive 100 miles would use 4 gallons, which would cost $14.
  • For an EV to beat that, the cost of electricity has to be less than $0.56/kwh.
  • Average electricity costs is $0.15/kwh (I know I know, MA is way higher).
  • Driving 10,000mi/yr in an ICE vehicle would use 400gal and cost $1,400.
  • Driving 10,000mi/yr in an EV would use 2,500kwh and cost $375.
  • The net difference is a savings of $1,025/yr.
  • Looking at some non-airport car rentals nearby, I can get a 2 week-long rentals of a fullsize SUV and a several tanks of gas, and still have some savings left over.
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dougunder t1_jdvnbr7 wrote

My family has a Chevy bolt and a Honda fit, soon to be replaced with a mazda5.
We expect to have one gas car for the foreseeable future.
The EV is perfect for 90% of use, but useless for 10%.

Still a lot of free lv2 chargers in my area. We could/will charge entirely at home if they start trying to turn a profit. Free chargers are the only reason we don't already have solar.

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classicrock40 t1_jdvp27a wrote

This and things like this https://jalopnik.com/public-ev-charging-sucks-bad-payment-apps-electric-car-1850184391 are what make me think twice. Personally, I don't need a charger in a city or garage, but they need to be as easy, reliable and ubiquitous as gas stations. And why oh why do we have to go down the cell phone/multiple standards route.

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SeaworthinessLeft88 t1_jdvwnej wrote

Yeah, EV charging infrastructure needs work, but that article is sort of hilarious in the lack of preparation of taking a road trip in an EV. They leave for a fairly long road trip at 48% (first mistake). They don’t plan their route at all for L3 chargers nor take the time to actually click on the EA charger that’s “coming soon” (second mistake). Then they end up having trouble at an L2 station because they didn’t update the app on their phone (entirely a user issue).

There are third party apps for finding chargers (like PlugShare), and most EV owners understand that route planning based on chargers is required at this stage of adoption.

We are still in the early adoption phase of EVs, and I don’t blame on people not wanting to make the leap right now. I own an Ioniq 5 myself, but I’m not ready to take it on certain road trips (I mentioned in another post that NH is a fast charging desert). But the driving experience of the I5 is so far ahead of an ICE. I hate driving our Subaru during those few long road trips we make a year.

And there really isn’t an issue with standards per se. I hear this complaint/concern a lot, but there is basically one standard (CCS) that almost all automakers other than Tesla uses. Tesla has their own proprietary standard, and always has, but they’re opening up their superchargers to CCS vehicles. There’s chademo too, but that’s sort of an abandoned Japanese standard that never really took off here. The Nissan Leaf is pretty much the only vehicle that I’m aware of that is still manufactured with chademo L3 charging. L2 is the same, J-1772, across all manufacturers except Tesla which sells/includes a J-1772 adapter for their vehicles.

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classicrock40 t1_jdvygmu wrote

good info - as someone just thinking about an EV, these articles just don't help. Tesla seems to be the Apple/iPhone of EV and none of this is going to get better without some govt intervention/regulation.

I've been looking at the Ionic. What insights can you give?

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SeaworthinessLeft88 t1_jdw0z9b wrote

I have nothing but good things to say about the car. I ended up getting the RWD SE model, so it lacks some of the fancy stuff at higher trims. It handled fine in the limited amount of snow we’ve gotten this past winter, and the range increase of RWD vs AWD is something to consider. Still, it’s admittedly an expensive car even at its RWD base trim models. If you meet income requirements for the federal tax credit, it’s important to note that the I5 does not qualify for the federal tax credit due to the 2023 models being manufactured in Korea. They have plans to start manufacturing them in the US, but my understanding is that they’re at least a couple of years away from that.

Some owners of the 2022 model have reported 12V battery issues around the 1 year mark, possibly from faulty ICCUs, possibly from excessive drain from third party apps “waking” the car to harvest data (one possible source has been speculated as utilities on reduced rate programs retrieving updates from the car hundreds to thousands times a day). Hyundai has supposedly fixed the early ICCU issues and just released a patch that prevents third parties from pinging the car so much, but it remains to be seen if later models will have 12V issues at the same frequency.

Competitors would be VW’s ID.4, Tesla’s Model Y, and Ford’s Mustang Mach E. I believe all of those are also pretty well reviewed, and some (if not all) would get the federal tax rebate. If you don’t qualify for the federal tax rebate anyway due to the income cap, then the I5 is more competitive in price. All EVs do qualify for a $3500 rebate through MA’s EV-mor program (no income or manufacturing origin requirements), and I was able to get that without any issues.

Oh, and just to add some insight on superchargers: Tesla has already started rolling out the magic dock upgrade to their chargers that enable CCS charging. But the I5 has had some issues due to the higher voltage architecture (800V versus 400V of Tesla). Those issues are supposedly being patched soon by Tesla, but as of now, the I5 only charges at reduced power at the few superchargers with magic docks.

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JJ2o2o t1_jdxvlxs wrote

There is a price cap on the EV-Mor program.

https://mor-ev.org

It was bumped up to $55K as of last November. Ioniq 5 AWD Limited trim exceeds this amount - so just make sure if you are banking on getting the rebate.

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United-Hyena-164 t1_jdwx1ml wrote

EVGo is terrible. Chargepoint is clunky but mostly reliable. Electrify America is excellent.

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instrumentally_ill t1_jdw0hpw wrote

You go electric to save the environment, not to save money.

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_jdx6raq wrote

Still waiting on someone to tell me how 7 people with 7 cars living in 1 Triple Decker are going to be able to charge their cars.

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daviongray t1_jdy40oy wrote

Why wouldn't you be able to charge multiple cars at the same time? You can charge on a regular house outlet, install multiple lv 2 chargers, charge at work/public, use a splitter to charge multiple cars on the same lvl 2 outlet. This is a non issue.

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_je00x76 wrote

It's 35 feet from my front door, which no one in the building uses, to the street. It is 125 feet from the garage, which no one has exclusive use to use. The driveway is 125 feet long and is only wide enough for one car, and the live-in landlord has exclusive parking except for snowstorms. The spaces in front of our building allow for 2 cars to park, but are shared with the 2 dozen or so other neighbors that live around us. There is also a sidewalk that would need to be crossed in order to charge the car.

If 7 cars were to need to be charged, how do you see that working?

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daviongray t1_je08blz wrote

Sounds like you're only thinking about the present not the future. As the demand for EVs increase landlords, workplaces etc will become more accommodating. Your building setup doesn't have to stay the same forever. I'm a landlord and installed a 240V outlet so my tenant could charge their EV faster. I got a rebate from the electric company and it's a tax write off so in the end it barely cost me anything. People probably said the same thing when we went from horses to cars without many roads. "Cars will never work, they'll get destroyed driving around." We built paved roads to accommodate cars, we will build infrastructure to accommodate EVs. Everyone doesn't need to own an EV right away, we'll get there eventually.

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_je09726 wrote

Is the cord 125+ ft long?

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daviongray t1_je0avon wrote

You know wires can be run from one place to another, right? The EV charger doesn't have to be in the garage or on the house. It can be installed closer to where the cars are parked. Anyways, I'm going to enjoy the quiet of my EV and the fuel savings. You have a great day.

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_je0d8ml wrote

Yeah, that's what I want to have when I live in a city where people constantly having catalytic converters stolen from their cars. A nice and not inexpensive electric charger right alongside the road sounds perfect. I'm sure they would last long.

I'm all for the electric car revolution, however I worry about the practicality and logistics of charging stations when you don't live in a single family home, and nothing you or the other person replying to me has said eases my concern.

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SeaworthinessLeft88 t1_jdxxnou wrote

Well, first of all the odds of everyone charging all 7 cars at the same exact time are fairly low. With my Ioniq 5, I don’t even charge daily. It’s more like every 2-3 days. And with a relatively low amperage charger (32A), it’s only charging for 4-5 hour increments typically.

They also make chargers that network with others for load sharing. My Juicebox 32 can be paired with other ones to ensure that the load is below a certain threshold. So if I have 2 cars and set my current limit to 32A, it will deliver 16A to each car instead of 32.

So to answer your question, you would maybe have 1 charger for each level of the triple decker. Maybe even two for each. You could have each on its own 40A 240V circuit. Or you could place multiple on the same 240V circuit with load sharing enabled.

And if you’re going to ask how a triple decker can have 3 40A 240V circuits operating at the same time, I would note that it’s not unusual for each unit to have its own service and meter, with each meter having its own panel with similar circuits such as heat pumps, electric ranges, baseboard heat, and dryers operating at the same time.

I guess you can stop waiting?

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FIFAFanboy2023 t1_je014ml wrote

I'm not worried about the electrical load, I'm talking about the compounding difficulties that a lot of people who live in 3 deckers simply in terms of parking needs.

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SeaworthinessLeft88 t1_je04qfg wrote

Are you asking how we would provide chargers for public parking on the side of streets? Because that solution already exists. You can mount L2 chargers right on utility poles. It’s fairly easy, since you have a direct line to 240V at whatever amperage you want to provide for the chargers. There has already been a trial in Melrose, in Seattle, in LA, and in Europe.

We already have the technology there, and the engineering challenges are trivial. It’s just a matter of public investment.

And if you’re instead asking how 7 EVs parked in a triple decker would charge right now, I would note that nobody is forcing anyone to buy a BEV right now. We’re at the early adoption phase, and building out charging networks like this is a goal of both federal and state governments including with funding provided from the bipartisan infrastructure law.

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