High public charger pricing - war on EVs?

[s_c]

Has anyone else noticed or felt impact of increased electricity and charging costs?
Thankfully i do most of my charging at home but occasionally i need a boost if i have a few long drives back to back, and Wow has the public charger pricing gone way up

Most around me are above $0.60/kW and numerous are $0.79/kW and lots have a plug-in fee making short charges even more expensive. These are the same chargers that were in the $0.2X range when i got the truck. The only charger over 100kWh near me less than this is $0.49/ and only serves about 50kWh for some reason

With winter efficiency here lets say 1.5mi/kW, $0.60/kW is 40 cents per mile

An miraculously gas is the same price as it was in 2006 (cherrypicking some data here for impact). Just saw $2.60/gallon so lets say 20mpg for efficient gas 2025 F-150, the fuel cost would be 13 cents per mile

I hope my math is wrong but I'm just frustrated. It seems very suspect electricity has to be so expensive all of a sudden and gas can be provided at historically low costs

i can not wait to invest in a solar setup when my situation allows it

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[Heliian]

all of a sudden

It's going to vary heavily by region. I actually saw a decrease in dcfc prices this year at some stations.

In my case, I'm spending about a 1/4 of what I used to for the gasser overall. My last road trip cost about half of what gas is. Roughly $2.95 USD per American gallon gas price here, regular 87 octane.

 

[RLXXI]

Prices will flux for a variety of reasons.

 

[Maquis]

In Missouri, EA is $0.56 per kWh. I can buy gasoline for $2.10. I quit taking my EVs on trips to St. Louis once I used up my free kWh that came with the vehicles.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

We just took a 2500 mile road trip through AZ and CA.

• Total distance: 2,508 miles
• Total energy used: 1,201 kWh
• Average efficiency: 2.1 mi/kWh
• Total cost: $376.58
• Cost per mile: $0.15
• DC fast-charge stops: 11 (plus some hotel charging)
• Elevation gain/loss: 42,681 ft each
• Max elevation: 7,364 ft
• Min driving temp: 37°F (27°F recorded)
• Max wind gusts: 65 mph crosswinds

Conditions were not EV-friendly (cold temps, wind, mountains, heavy DCFC use).

But if we had a gassy vehicle and had driven that, we would have paid significantly more.

Vehicle	MPG	Fuel Used	Total Cost	Cost per Mile	Cost relative to Lightning
2.7L EcoBoost	20 mpg	~125 gal	~$581	~$0.23	-$205
3.5L EcoBoost	19 mpg	~132 gal	~$611	~$0.24	-$235
3.5L PowerBoost Hybrid	23 mpg	~109 gal	~$505	~$0.20	-$130
F-150 Lightning (actual)	—	1,201 kWh	$376.58	$0.15	—

We could have, of course, saved even more if we’d driven the Mustang, but it’s not as comfortable as the Lightning.

Last year, we did a longer trip along much of the same route in late November instead of late December. We got 2.33 miles/kWh on that drive and averaged $0.13 mile.

 

[DerMot]

That's a great comparison chart @SpaceEVDriver! Charging at home is way less, but when you do a road trip, I'd even be ok if you broke even with an ICE vehicle for fuel/charging costs. Think of what you save on breaks on that road trip too.

Anyone else benefitting from the United Charger's Grizzl-e club (where they pay you $0.03/Kwh and provide a free charger?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

That's a great comparison chart @SpaceEVDriver! Charging at home is way less, but when you do a road trip, I'd even be ok if you broke even with an ICE vehicle for fuel/charging costs. Think of what you save on breaks on that road trip too.

Note that we saved as much as we did in part because we had access to “free” Level 2 charging in several locations (hotels and homes).

We also find EV driving far more comfortable.

And it is, to us, more convenient when convenience matters: we don’t have to make a run to the gas station when we’re visiting; both of the groups we visited with had to take time out of our limited visiting time to get gas from the running around. We just plugged in overnight and had a full or close to full charge every morning.

 

[DerMot]

Note that we saved as much as we did in part because we had access to “free” Level 2 charging in several locations (hotels and homes).

We also find EV driving far more comfortable.

And it is, to us, more convenient when convenience matters: we don’t have to make a run to the gas station when we’re visiting; both of the groups we visited with had to take time out of our limited visiting time to get gas from the running around. We just plugged in overnight and had a full or close to full charge every morning.

I picked up my truck in Edmonton in November and drove it home for the first time! What a road trip at over 4,400km (2700+ miles) in 4 days. Public charging was super easy to CarPlay / Maps integration. Super quiet and comfortable ride. I didn't buy this truck for road trips, but I'd use it in a 'flash' now

 

[WXman]

After 5,300 miles of solely charging at home, yesterday I stopped at the Walmart in Georgetown, KY to charge on a level 3 for the first time. I was shocked. First of all it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get it going. Then while I was charging another guy showed up in a Kia EV, couldn't figure out how to start a session, and left. Then a third couple showed up in a Hyundai and tried for 5 minutes to get their car in a position where the cord would reach their charge port. Ridiculous.

Then, it charged me $40 bucks for 43% of a charge! Good grief...my previous F-250 was less expensive to fuel and had 90% more range.

I'm glad that I can do 99% of my charging at home because if I had to rely on public charging it would absolutely be a deal breaker for me.

 

[DerMot]

When I drove 4400km's I bought a Tesla membership and cancelled it (so I had it just for the month). That gave me discounted charging for the trip.


Here are the details from the trip.

 

[Scorpio3d]

After 5,300 miles of solely charging at home, yesterday I stopped at the Walmart in Georgetown, KY to charge on a level 3 for the first time. I was shocked. First of all it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get it going. Then while I was charging another guy showed up in a Kia EV, couldn't figure out how to start a session, and left. Then a third couple showed up in a Hyundai and tried for 5 minutes to get their car in a position where the cord would reach their charge port. Ridiculous.

Then, it charged me $40 bucks for 43% of a charge! Good grief...my previous F-250 was less expensive to fuel and had 90% more range.

I'm glad that I can do 99% of my charging at home because if I had to rely on public charging it would absolutely be a deal breaker for me.

Are you sure they just didn’t put a hold (pre-authorize)on that amount and then the total was less?
I know a lot of places do that!

 

[Scorpio3d]

When I drove 4400km's I bought a Tesla membership and cancelled it (so I had it just for the month). That gave me discounted charging for the trip.


Here are the details from the trip.

Yeah, y’all have much better pricing up north of the border it seems!

 

[Landscaper]

Note that we saved as much as we did in part because we had access to “free” Level 2 charging in several locations (hotels and homes).

We also find EV driving far more comfortable.

And it is, to us, more convenient when convenience matters: we don’t have to make a run to the gas station when we’re visiting; both of the groups we visited with had to take time out of our limited visiting time to get gas from the running around. We just plugged in overnight and had a full or close to full charge every morning.

Well if some of the charging was free the whole comparison is kinda meaningless. Minimally not apples to apples

 

[K6CCC]

I'm in southern California - home to some of the highest electric rates in the country. Yesterday I made the shortest time charge since I bought my truck at a BP Pulse station in Duarte, CA. I paid $0.40 per KWH for just under 10 KWH total (stopped mainly to use the nice clean restroom).

End of October I paid $0.44 and $0.45 in Baker, and Barstow, Calif. with a Tesla subscription ($0.62 and $0.63 if I did not have the subscription). Earlier in October I paid $0.43 and $0.46 in Barstow and Lone Pine, Calif. with a Tesla subscription ($0.60 and $0.65 without the subscription).

And I agree with Scorpio3d that the $40 that WXman saw was a hold, not the total charge. That is VERY common. Might take a day or two before the correct value shows up on your credit card account.

And so far (never used Walmart - none here), I have never had any real issues with public charging. I have used Tesla, Electrify America, BP Pulse, PowerFlex, EVGo, and CalTrans for fast charging, and Shell Recharge, ChargePoint, and Tesla Destination for L2 charging. My only complaint is the requirement to have a bunch of different apps on my phone...

 

[Landscaper]

After 5,300 miles of solely charging at home, yesterday I stopped at the Walmart in Georgetown, KY to charge on a level 3 for the first time. I was shocked. First of all it took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get it going. Then while I was charging another guy showed up in a Kia EV, couldn't figure out how to start a session, and left. Then a third couple showed up in a Hyundai and tried for 5 minutes to get their car in a position where the cord would reach their charge port. Ridiculous.

Then, it charged me $40 bucks for 43% of a charge! Good grief...my previous F-250 was less expensive to fuel and had 90% more range.

I'm glad that I can do 99% of my charging at home because if I had to rely on public charging it would absolutely be a deal breaker for me.

Doesn’t Walmart use Electrify America chargers? They’re always super simple/intuitive to use

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