The hidden reason behind high public charge costs

[knighty]

For Our public chargepoint at work the cost to purchase the unit was subsidised by Govt (the staff only one was not!) and our company sparky did the install.

Our electricity is currently between 15-18p/kWh apart from 4-7pm when it’s 35p.

We charge out at 24p apart from 4-7pm when it’s 50p /kWh.

It’s a small but useful bit of extra cash into the business every month, but I can also see how hard it would be to generate substantial cash flow and profit if that was your only business.

any idea how that's setup/how it works?

I'd be interested in setting that up at work

[Joeboy]

For Our public chargepoint at work the cost to purchase the unit was subsidised by Govt (the staff only one was not!) and our company sparky did the install.

Our electricity is currently between 15-18p/kWh apart from 4-7pm when it’s 35p.

We charge out at 24p apart from 4-7pm when it’s 50p /kWh.

It’s a small but useful bit of extra cash into the business every month, but I can also see how hard it would be to generate substantial cash flow and profit if that was your only business.

I don't think there should be any pretence about AC charging being profitable in and of itself. It should be more of a benefit to attract and retain good staff and to attract customers for your gym or whatever. If you can make a few pennies over and above the price of electricity, all the better.

I really do think that 25p/kWh is the appropriate price for AC charging and 75p/kWh is the appropriate price for DC charging. Businesses should also give "vouchers" towards free or discounted electric. For example if you buy a coffee and cake at the coffee shop you save 5p/kWh...

BP stations do the reverse with Pulse. Charge up and coffee, cakes etc are 1/2 price. Not tried that side of it but good chargers. Up there with Ionity. My thought is that they have the dialed in fuel station network and are 24/7 manned sites so if any chargers drop out they will be attended to quickly.

I like the charging, toilet, coffee and M&S shop all on one site Apparently they sell petrol too?

[dan_b]

We set it all up through PodPoint. There’s a site management platform where you set the tariffs and basically at the end of each month we get paid for the public charging sessions logged. Pretty straightforward to be honest.

I remember adding our charger to ZapMap to get it on the Apps.

For Our public chargepoint at work the cost to purchase the unit was subsidised by Govt (the staff only one was not!) and our company sparky did the install.

Our electricity is currently between 15-18p/kWh apart from 4-7pm when it’s 35p.

We charge out at 24p apart from 4-7pm when it’s 50p /kWh.

It’s a small but useful bit of extra cash into the business every month, but I can also see how hard it would be to generate substantial cash flow and profit if that was your only business.

any idea how that's setup/how it works?

I'd be interested in setting that up at work

[dan_b]

Just had a BYD Atto 3 charge up at our public charge point for the first time - it pulled down 58kWh at a very solid 11kW!

Yesterday afternoon it seems we had a visitor at the public site whose car was pulling 21kW - but frustratingly the charging log doesn't say what the vehicle was!

I don't think many BEVs max out at 7.4kW these days. 11kW is standard with some (Porche Taycan, Ioniq 5, and others) capable of 22kW.

Just had a look at the average charging speeds delivered to different vehicles at our public PodPoint charger at the office over the last year.
We have a 22kW 3-phase AC PodPoint.

BMW 530e (hybrid) - 3.3kW
VW Golf GTE (hybrid) - 3.6kW
MG ZS - 6.4kW
Hyundai Ioniq (Windknife model) - 6.5kW
Nissan Leaf E 62kW - 6.6kW
Vauxhall Corsa-e - 6.8kW
Vauxhall Astra-e - 10.3kW
Audi Q4 e-Tron - 11kW
Tesla Model 3 - 11kW
VW iD4 - 11kW
Vauxhall Mokka-e - 11kW
Kia e-Niro - 11kW
Renault Zoe 50 - 18kW

Citroen e-C4 - failed!

[Stinsy]

Just had a BYD Atto 3 charge up at our public charge point for the first time - it pulled down 58kWh at a very solid 11kW!

Yesterday afternoon it seems we had a visitor at the public site whose car was pulling 21kW - but frustratingly the charging log doesn't say what the vehicle was!

I don't think many BEVs max out at 7.4kW these days. 11kW is standard with some (Porche Taycan, Ioniq 5, and others) capable of 22kW.

Just had a look at the average charging speeds delivered to different vehicles at our public PodPoint charger at the office over the last year.
We have a 22kW 3-phase AC PodPoint.

BMW 530e (hybrid) - 3.3kW
VW Golf GTE (hybrid) - 3.6kW
MG ZS - 6.4kW
Hyundai Ioniq (Windknife model) - 6.5kW
Nissan Leaf E 62kW - 6.6kW
Vauxhall Corsa-e - 6.8kW
Vauxhall Astra-e - 10.3kW
Audi Q4 e-Tron - 11kW
Tesla Model 3 - 11kW
VW iD4 - 11kW
Vauxhall Mokka-e - 11kW
Kia e-Niro - 11kW
Renault Zoe 50 - 18kW

Citroen e-C4 - failed!

TBH I don;t see the point of charging a PHEV at a public charging station unless the electric is free!

Zoe is still the only car that youve had that can chrge quicker than 11kW. No Taycans round your way?

[dan_b]

There are a couple of Taycans in the town, but I suspect they've got at home charging!

There is one car that appears every now and again on the charging logs which is pulling 20kW, but for some reason the platform logs don't record what vehicle that particular one is, and I've not yet been there to see it when it does.