Georgia superchargers now per minute instead of per kWh?

[Jeremy3292]

I was perusing the supercharger map today and noticed that all Georgia superchargers are now being charged on a per minute basis instead of per kWh? Is that a new Georgia law or something? Because I’m 99% certain it didn’t used to be that way. See the new Millen supercharger pricing below as an example:

 

[jsight]

I've only been using them for 1.5 years or so, but it has been that way the whole time for me. They just increased the number of per minute tiers during the past year. South Carolina used to be per minute as well, but has changed to $/kwh.

 

[JulienW]

I was perusing the supercharger map today and noticed that all Georgia superchargers are now being charged on a per minute basis instead of per kWh? Is that a new Georgia law or something? Because I’m 99% certain it didn’t used to be that way. See the new Millen supercharger pricing below as an example:

In Georgia it has always been that way for EV charging. I believe it is illegal to resell electricity for more than you pay for it to make a profit. So in order to sell by the kWh it would have to be priced at 10¢ or less per kWh. I think this was originally put in place (decades ago) to protect renters from landlords requiring they buy electricity from them after they move in. However now GeorgiaPower/Southern Compony want to keep this in place to charge more (and keep the price ambiguous) for EV charging.

EDIT: As jsight stated we did only have 2 pricing tiers and now we have 4. This is new. Would LOVE to see it changed to kWh so you could know what the hell you are getting/paying for. Maybe when/if Rivian opens we may see change.

 

[ChrisC]

No new law. We tried in the last session, failed.

It's just a config error, especially for the new site in Millen. They are still required to charge by the minute.

 

[JulienW]

No new law. We tried in the last session, failed.

It's just a config error, especially for the new site in Millen. They are still required to charge by the minute.

When by "No new law" you mean electricity still can't be sold by the kWh but trying to change it?

Also a little confused, what do you mean by "It's just a config error, especially for the new site in Millen"? Is it only supposed to be 2 tiers? Since Tesla is just charging for a service based on time can't they make as many or few tiers as they want?

 

[Jeremy3292]

Thanks for the replies. I could've sworn the GA superchargers I've been to were always per kWh but I guess I was wrong.

 

[jsight]

Tbh, with the two tier pricing it was really cheap. I miss that aspect of it.

 

[jsight]

Just did a road trip from sc to fl. So far, even with the new rates, Georgia is by far the cheapest. I think it worked out to less than .25/kwh.

 

[Lord Voltemort]

FYI, on July 1st 2023 Georgia switched over to pay by kWh instead of per minute. Georgia lawmakers overhaul EV charging - WABE &

https://twitter.com/x/status/1676086466286419968

 

[JulienW]

FYI, on July 1st 2023 Georgia switched over to pay by kWh instead of per minute....

It is all about IRA $s.

 

[Tronguy]

I've been looking at this per-minute/per-kW-hr stuff for a few years, especially as NJ switched some years back to the per kW-hr method.

One can see how the original time-based business got started, though. Imagine if one were a landlord and decided to Really Rook The Tenants. Install a meter and charge the moon for electricity and profit on the difference between retail from the local utility and what the tenants got charged.

So, state legislatures everywhere put a kibosh on this act by declaring, "If you want to charge for electricity, then you got to publish your rates and get approval from the Public Utilities Commission, just like every other seller of electricity." That, at least, stopped the greedy landlords.

However, this was before electric cars got popular. The anti-mad-landlord rules were still on the books when Tesla and Co. showed up and, perhaps at the behest of certain entrenched interests, or not, those rules were the standard that Tesla and other BEV-electricity vendors were being held to. So, Tesla sold by the minute, with gradations per power level, to at least approximate the curve one would pay if one were paying for electricity per kW-hr.

At least three states since 2018 through which I travel up here in the Northeast have seen the errors of BEV chargers doing it per minute and have changed their act to per kW-hr; looks like Georgia has done the same. The only oddball thing I saw in the article is that the state is mandating an excise tax on the electricity sold this way. Which almost make sense, except that it appears that Georgia BEV drivers already pay a $300/year fee for that purpose. Um. That doesn't get the out-of-staters, but we got our own problems, I suppose.

 

[MY1stEV]

I'll grant you I am drawing from a very small sample set, but every time I have been charged per minute rather than per kWh, when you divide the final amount paid by the kWh added the prices are the same (for that geographic region) give or take 1 or 2 cents per kWh. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[gtae07]

The only oddball thing I saw in the article is that the state is mandating an excise tax on the electricity sold this way. Which almost make sense, except that it appears that Georgia BEV drivers already pay a $300/year fee for that purpose. Um. That doesn't get the out-of-staters, but we got our own problems, I suppose.

Yeah we get it coming and going here. Their argument is that by taxing the public chargers they are collecting the equivalent to gas taxes; when EV owners objected because they're paying the annual fee, they basically "but you're charging at home so you aren't paying the tax most of the time".

 

[Tronguy]

Yeah we get it coming and going here. Their argument is that by taxing the public chargers they are collecting the equivalent to gas taxes; when EV owners objected because they're paying the annual fee, they basically "but you're charging at home so you aren't paying the tax most of the time".

Um. So, about a year ago, a local newspaper up this way stated that the DMV was looking for volunteers to join a study about electric vehicle charging costs. Let's see, got the emails around here somewhere.. Yep, it was called the "TETC MBUF Pilot", which was a study being run by The Eastern Transportation Coalition. MBUF is Mileage Based User Fee. They had hired a company named, "Azunga" to do the dirty work. Out of curiosity I applied and got in.

General idea: Each state on the East Coast, from Maine down to Florida and wrapping around to Alabama set up a cost per mile. The Azunga guys would either send one a GPS fob that could communicate with their servers, or, if you had the Right Kind of Car (a Tesla being one) they would go at the Tesla API/Tesla Mothership and get the mileage that way.

Each month they would send one a purported bill stating how much money one would owe for bopping about the landscape. However, no actual money changed hands, ever. And Azunga swore up, down, and sideways that all user data and access codes would be very thoroughly destroyed. Which, apparently, was the case.

At the beginning, middle, and end of the study they asked participants to fill out questionnaires about how they felt about it all.

I kind of wondered how toll roads would fit into all of this.

Interesting bits: Each state got to set their own BEV cost per mile. It ranged pretty widely; I think that Pennsylvania was the most expensive. Cost per month depended upon mileage, natch. In theory, I guess, they could have jiggered things for the GPS-enabled cars to pay tax to the appropriate state one was driving through at the time; but what with our Tesla cars, that info wasn't available, so it was mileage, only.

I think that, since then, Virginia has gone for this approach. From what you guys are saying, GA hasn't. I think NJ is mumbling in their beer about it all.

Turns out that there was 'way more than one study. The website with the info is at The Eastern Transportation Coalition MBUF Pilot - Paving the way to fair transportation funding..