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Ecotricity 5GBP for 20 mins charging costs announced

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thegruf

Active Member
Mar 24, 2015
2,339
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Inevitable but excessive charges. More expensive per mile than petrol!
Completely wrong that it is a fixed cost as different cars at different states of charge will charge at different rates, is even fixed cost no matter what the charger is capable of.

Classic case of set it up for free with exclusivity agreements, gain market share, then slap on the charges later.

Like to think that this immediately revokes Ecotricity's exclusivity arrangements so other suppliers can compete.

Lots of comments that other ev owners will go back to fossil fuels, probably a knee jerk reaction but definitely a negative sentiment.

@tesla - keep progressing with the supercharger rollout please, some big gaps up the east side of hte country still, A1/A14 in particular
 
Looks good to me. Just wish they hadn't gone the "app" route.

Filling an 85 to >80% from empty using CHadEMO will cost £15 (60 mins). For that money you get at least 160 motorway miles. Putting that into perspective, I used to spend at least £60 in petrol for about 250 motorway miles in a smaller, less capable car.

As an ecotricity customer, I have been subsidsing people who based their EV purchasing decsions on having free electricity provided by a free infrastrure. Now these people can either help support the network by going green at home, or by paying £5/20 mins.

Now all we need is a way to stop PHEVs from blocking rapids by parking & pluging but not charging.
 
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last time I used an Ecoticity point was the Chademo at Baldock.
Rated 50KW - charged at 35KW no other car on the same charger , though there was one on the adjacent charger.
Bet they dont offer a discount if the charger doesnt charge at its stated rate.

So appx 100 miles of charge in an hour/ 50 miles in half an hour.

As it was, I just needed an extra 20 miles to get me home.


Cant see how a fiver works for that.

The bit that irritates me is this apparent exclusivity deal that Ecotricity have (which is what I gather the row with Tesla was about).
Not good for competition.

As for phevs plugging in and not charging, well definitely charge them heavily to prevent selfish blocking.
 
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..no matter what rate they let you charge at :(

Wrong call Ecotricity.

Charging should nullify exclusivity agreements to permit competition.
Perhaps this should now be referred to the Competition Regulator.

Charging rates should be per KWH; with a deterrent time based rate for for leaving your vehicle at a chargepoint when charging is completed.
 
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Now apparently modified to £6 for 30 minutes.

On Radio 4 today Dale announced new rates of £6 for 30mins, after listening to EV user feedback. On another forum out of 100 replies only 2 said they spoke to them....

I agree it is a bad call, and in a strange way strengthens Tesla hand with the free charging at a certain level, if the maths fits it could work out depending on your use and mileage.

Ecotricity offering free charging if you sign for their electric/gas supply, which itself is much more expensive than the competition.
 
It gets better. A quick top up charge (at an unknown charge rate) to get home just went up by 20%

I (used to?) support ecotricity's apparent enthusiasm for moving the world on but, there's a reason this bloke is worth a lot of money.

Charge per KWH, charge at a penalty for time leaving car a point after charging is complete.

You have to register to use the system anyway so log what type of car the account is for using DVLA registration lookup and put restrictions on PHEVs which are claimed to be blocking sites in order to prioritize full EVs.
It's not difficult.
 
On Radio 4 today Dale announced new rates of £6 for 30mins, after listening to EV user feedback. On another forum out of 100 replies only 2 said they spoke to them....

I agree it is a bad call, and in a strange way strengthens Tesla hand with the free charging at a certain level, if the maths fits it could work out depending on your use and mileage.

Ecotricity offering free charging if you sign for their electric/gas supply, which itself is much more expensive than the competition.

Only need electric to get access to the EH without having to pay at the pump.

Hopefully they will be able to lower their prices a little, now that ecotricity customers are no longer subsidising the EH for everyone.
 
Only need electric to get access to the EH without having to pay at the pump.

Hopefully they will be able to lower their prices a little, now that ecotricity customers are no longer subsidising the EH for everyone.

I do wonder though that didn't EH get UK Govnt funding to install the network, so in theory it was all paid up by UK PLC with zero cost to Ecotricity when all the billing is settled and thus not Ecotricity customers?

Hasn't Dale done a blinder, getting someone else to pay for an entire EH network that his Company alone will profit from?

Possibly :)
 
Not really. Some initial funding came from Renault and Nissan. Later, they were part of the EU RCN consortium.

You could probably find out the exact details with a brief search on the Web.

Suffice to say that other UK networks have benefitted from UK Plc significantly more than EH, and most of those have also been gifted with regional monopolies.

Ecotricity at least had to do the groundwork themselves to get in to the MSA's.
 
Yes it would make sense for EH to have had some funding, I guess to what exact level is out there online.

Wonder if Renault or Nissan have any issues with the new scale of the charging, the EU RCN payments well I assume anyone in the same arena would have applied at some point. I guess Tesla also had some funding payments or at least applied for some through the EU. The US Tesla pretty much built the whole platform on US grants/loans I believe ?

It always feels though as that the end user, the people paying for it all ultimately (plus VAT naturally), are the last in the line after all their financial games are played out to their benefit, ever thus I suppose. But they have made the installations, but you never truly feel they are built for our benefit, really at the end of the day, you feel its just another cog in the current money wheel, this one happens to be charging EVs...ah well.