Bye bye ecotricity?

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tlongdon

Active member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
40
Just received an email from Ecotricity, that they will now charge £5 for a 20-minute rapid charge.

If I average, realistically, 20 miles on a charge, that's 25p per mile.

When I run on a flat battery (i.e. petrol only) it costs approx 13-15p per mile.

So that's the end of some electric charging then. Still, qualifying for the London congestion charge exemption despite running a 2litre, 2ton petrol car around the city is still ok by me :D :roll:
 
Exactly!
I replied to the email with "No thanks! That makes it more expensive than petrol."

Surely they've got their charging model wrong if it alienates the large PHEV market.
 
Just got the email too.

I didn't have cause to use it that much, but it was nice to have, for the occasional ikea trip etc.

but at that price!? well, its just another useless bit of plastic now...
 
I just saw it..

over 5 x more expensive than a home charge (only to 80% in 20 mins) so that's it, end of plugging in.

I don't go anywhere there are slow chargers and many of those are not cost effective either for a PHEV.

If it were £1 or even £1.50 I would still use it.

During the day when I am out and about I can usually find an available or a short wait charger but it is getting harder. Went somewhere last Saturday and it was hopeless, queues of EV waiting for charges at various places I tried. Its clear the network is already overloaded and close to collapse as being viable for EV users.
 
Unless you switch to their electricity supply, then you still get charges free but their rates are terrible, the higher bills would not be offset by the free charges. No Thanks.

They even admit, its so expensive as they expect YOU to fund a big expansion of the network! for the benefit of everyone who jumps on the bandwagon when its done? not with my money!
 
Email this morning. £5 to charge, unless you are ecotricity customer... :cry:


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.
How do I continue to get free charging?

Step 1: Switch your energy to Ecotricity
You can do that online here. You'll get a £40 discount on your annual bill just for having an electric vehicle.



Step 2: Create an Eco ID
Your Eco ID allows you to access your Ecotricity energy account and the Electric Highway app with the same login details. You can create your Eco ID once you've completed your online energy switch.

Step 3: Download the App
Download the Electric Highway App, login using your new Eco ID and register your car and your credit/debit card.*

Enjoy free charging!
That's it! You'll receive free charging once your account goes live (normally within about three weeks), and it will remain free for as long as you have a live energy account with us.

*You won’t be charged for using the Electric Highway as an Ecotricity energy customer, but we will ask you to register a credit or debit card when you set up your account. That’s just so that, if you switch to another energy supplier and would like to continue to use the network, we’ll already have a payment method set up for you to do so.
 
Problem is there is no way to come up with a fair model, a full charge on a Nissan Leaf and an outlander may use the same amount of electricity, but produce wildly different ranges and therefore value....but the electricity generation costs would be the same.

We were always going to be losers when it came to a pay per charge model.
 
I can't see what is wrong with 12p a kW. It would still be profitable against the wholesale cost they are procuring the electricity (probably a 5p kW margin) at allowing them to expand. It would make charging viable for all.
 
That's the end of that then!

As said I found Ecotricity to be not worth switching last year even with their 'discount' and occasional free 80% fast charge. Perhaps a smart meter and a free day per week will be better?

£5 a bash seems much too much to me too. Having said that I do actively avoid fast charging as I found their charge points difficult to comprehend and operate (too many buttons and not enough directions), presumably because they are designed with their App in mind.
 
BobEngineer said:
I can't see what is wrong with 12p a kW. It would still be profitable against the wholesale cost they are procuring the electricity (probably a 5p kW margin) at allowing them to expand. It would make charging viable for all.

Have just checked their domestic supply tariff and it is 15p kWh so unlikely to choose 12 for their hugely expensive charge point network!
Cheers
H
 
Talking to many EV drivers, 80 miles tops seems to be realistic range so now it will cost them 6.25p a mile.

petrol at 108p a litre in a small 60mpg car equates to 8p a mile with no charging stops needed.

They are going to feel this very badly too.
 
Hypermiler said:
BobEngineer said:
I can't see what is wrong with 12p a kW. It would still be profitable against the wholesale cost they are procuring the electricity (probably a 5p kW margin) at allowing them to expand. It would make charging viable for all.

Have just checked their domestic supply tariff and it is 15p kWh so unlikely to choose 12 for their hugely expensive charge point network!
Cheers
H

15p is what they sell retail. I was saying they will obtain wholesale supply cheaper than that so 12 would still give a margin. Their network is expensive, but most the cost is the initial upfront cabling and digging up. Ongoing maintenance of the units is obviously done on a tight budget, it took months to repair the one I use the most.
 
even the full EV's (leaf etc) wont get the full 80+ mile range on a 20 min charge - of all the owners I've seen, they arrive with no less than 20% remaining from range anxiety, so a 20 min charge will take them up BY 60% to 80%. That 60% is about 50 miles so their pence per mile is worse at about 10p/mile than first glance. Maybe a few will be on low battery warning 10% but even they will only go up by 70%.
Anyway, I read the email, initially thinking not surprised they are now charging, and was expecting £1 - £2 but £5 is a complete laugh. Like others say, £1 of electricity for £5 isn't exactly a bargain. However, a great way to remove all the PHEVs from the bays freeing up for full EV owners who will have no other option but to overpay.
 
If everyone who gets the email replies to politely tell them "no thanks" perhaps they will get the message
 
The eco trinity website says that the £5 for 20 minutes is NOT suitable for Mitsubishi PHEV due to its slow charging. This will surely upset a lot of people.
 
rgilyead said:
If everyone who gets the email replies to politely tell them "no thanks" perhaps they will get the message
good point, no point me grumbling without letting them know the feedback, have just done so, a polite no thanks, with clear £5 too high price as sole reason.
 
Unfortunately for you guys, you have caught up with us here in the Netherlands. We have been in that situation for more than two years now. The rapid chargers alongside our motorways are virtually never used. I think Jaapv has predicted this would happen to you guys at some point.
 
There website also says that the £5 charge for 20 minutes is NOT suitable for PHEV due to the slow charging rate. So makes it doubly "no thanks" from me.
 
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