Public Level 2 Chargers vs Superchargers - Cost Comparisons?

[VeryRealPerson]

I am looking for more data points on what you guys have experienced with public level 2 charging in terms of cost.

We lost the free charging at my work place and now they are charging (CAD) $0.03/min for the 5kW max power chargers.

I am coordinating with the other tenants to see if we can fight it to go back to free, or at least reduce the cost. The $0.03 min seems excessive for a very basic 5 kW level 2 charger. I did 1 session and calculated out:

8.865 kWh added @ $3.52 CAD. For my LR with 82 kWh capacity, cost to fill 0-100 estimated to $32.56 = $0.08 / km ($0.0772)

This compared to my local supercharger (Tiered pricing @ $0.46 high power & $0.23 low power):
37 min @ $0.46
12 min @ $0.23
kWh added = 49.23 (Per TeslaFi)
Total cost = $20.64

So doing the math on the supercharger session... It rounds down to $0.08 / km also ($0.0815)

Am I wrong to think that the Level 2 charger pricing is crazy? I thought general advise is that supercharging is the most expensive type of charging you can do and you are paying the high price for convenience. Does anyone have a different level 2 pricing model that I can suggest to the landlord?

 

[Sophias_dad]

So that 5000wh is 83wh/minute.

It'll take 12 minutes per kwh, so your kwh is $0.36 cad or 0.28 US. Here in Massachusetts, that's actually pretty close to the residential rate.

A few quick searches suggest that bchydro's rate for commercial purposes is around 0.10-0.13(cad) per kwh, but that's a little misleading because medium and large commercial customers have to pay extra for a 'demand' charge(high usage during high-demand periods of the day).

How about suggesting that rather than per-minute, they use per-kwh pricing? That makes it more 'fair' for some cars that can only take 3kw charge rates.

Now that they see that there's profit to be made from charging, they probably won't step away from it. Sorry for your loss.


Side note: my own workplace did this exact same thing maybe six months ago. They are now charging basically the same rates as I pay at home, and I hear there are ZERO users of the formerly-free chargers now, but it still makes the place look more 'woke' even with no one charging. I myself haven't been to the office for close to two years, and will never be returning in person, so I don't really care much. I sort of hope that the administrative/billing costs are causing them distress.

 

[jrweiss98020]

IIRC, US 26 or 28¢/kWh is/was the advertised Supercharger rate, so Sophias_dad is correct. Your employer's rate comes to about US 32 or 33¢/kWh, so it's not out of line.

 

[Sophias_dad]

IIRC, US 26 or 28¢/kWh is/was the advertised Supercharger rate, so Sophias_dad is correct. Your employer's rate comes to about US 32 or 33¢/kWh, so it's not out of line.

Not sure where you are getting your numbers. I thought Supercharger rates in the US were all over the place, and OP's employer's rate comes out to around 0.28 US/kwh as I put the math in my response. 12 minutes of charging at 5kw is 1kwh, and therefore costs OP 0.36cad/kwh.

 

[bobby g]

California recently mandated charging by unit rather than time, much better. But, it isn't implemented in other than a totally political way.

 

[VeryRealPerson]

So that 5000wh is 83wh/minute.

It'll take 12 minutes per kwh, so your kwh is $0.36 cad or 0.28 US. Here in Massachusetts, that's actually pretty close to the residential rate.

A few quick searches suggest that bchydro's rate for commercial purposes is around 0.10-0.13(cad) per kwh, but that's a little misleading because medium and large commercial customers have to pay extra for a 'demand' charge(high usage during high-demand periods of the day).

How about suggesting that rather than per-minute, they use per-kwh pricing? That makes it more 'fair' for some cars that can only take 3kw charge rates.

Now that they see that there's profit to be made from charging, they probably won't step away from it. Sorry for your loss.


Side note: my own workplace did this exact same thing maybe six months ago. They are now charging basically the same rates as I pay at home, and I hear there are ZERO users of the formerly-free chargers now, but it still makes the place look more 'woke' even with no one charging. I myself haven't been to the office for close to two years, and will never be returning in person, so I don't really care much. I sort of hope that the administrative/billing costs are causing them distress.

Thank you for your sanity check. Based on your figures, I shouldn't feel that the level 2 charger is overpriced. Rather... the level 2 charger cost is the norm and the supercharger rates available near me is a good deal.

I was always under the impression superchargers will always be the most expensive charge method (I had free supercharger all of 2021 so only just started calculating this stuff out).

 

[Sophias_dad]

I shouldn't feel that the level 2 charger is overpriced

I don't really agree. 0.36 per kwh is MUCH more than 0.10-0.13kwh, which they might be paying for the electricity. Its also well above the $0.21 per kwh for residential Vancouver rates.

 

[VeryRealPerson]

I don't really agree. 0.36 per kwh is MUCH more than 0.10-0.13kwh, which they might be paying for the electricity. Its also well above the $0.21 per kwh for residential Vancouver rates.

I misunderstood your message. Back to being upset! Lol!

Can't wait til my condo is built where each stall has a level 2 integrated. Just gotta persevere another 1.5 years with this overpriced level 2 or the standard supercharger