UK: Cost of charging an electric car surges by 42% - with prices nearing the same as petrol

[ripcord]

What suburban people don't understand it's that a huge percentage of people will only have access to public chargers.

Plus, eventually governments will force EV manufacturers to program their cars to only charge according to government regulations as well as report the power consumed for taxing purposes. EVs won't be cheaper to drive for long.

 

[demarpaint]

Imagine that, higher costs to charge an EV.

 

[LDM]

Easy enough to do with tiered rates, say 10 cent per KWh for the first 1000, 20 cents the next 1000 and so on.
Home supplied, cheap EV fuel is a short term thing, higher EV fuel costs are inevitable.

While they can certainly do that, Ameren's plan is to use all those smart meters they have installed in the last few years to know what you plug at your house, then charge you the appropriate amount for what you are using. Fine for dumb devices that it can't determine what it is but EVs all have the smart system built in so they will be able to immediately start the higher surcharge for such a device while it is in use. So the idea of charging during off peak hours and saving money with lower electric costs won't matter, you will still have to pay the EV surcharge.

They will also be able to shut off the charging to any smart device during any "power emergency" so you may wake up in the morning to find your EV didn't charge at all that night as there wasn't enough power to go around. They could also pull power from the batteries of your EV to help balance the grid, although they would technically have to compensate you for this. Neither of which will do you any good in the morning if you have to go somewhere and the battery on your EV is at a critical level and you can't drive anywhere. Has some of the same issues as the power company in Colorado locking people out of their smart thermostats recently because of the "power emergencies" and setting them to 78+, although I'd say its far worse overall.

 

[chrlsful]

"...give me the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want in terms of energy. I want my freedom."
In fact, I want more (whatever it is - gas, ele, lpg) than the nxt guy.
/OR/
there's some problems, lets get some ways we can - to get out of them...
The "Admin" seems to be the way (general coordination) but the corps keep buying the pols (gov & business against citizens).
Only when we agitate in large enuff numbers do things seem to change (fora while). Then we have to do it again as it slides back.

 

[wpod]

"...give me the freedom to do whatever I want, whenever I want in terms of energy. I want my freedom."
In fact, I want more (whatever it is - gas, ele, lpg) than the nxt guy.
/OR/
there's some problems, lets get some ways we can - to get out of them...
The "Admin" seems to be the way (general coordination) but the corps keep buying the pols (gov & business against citizens).
Only when we agitate in large enuff numbers do things seem to change (fora while). Then we have to do it again as it slides back.

We can not expect the cause of a problem to provide the solution.

 

[chrlsful]

then doing the same thing gets the same results.

 

[ecotourist]

Won't be for long when the power companies start charging surcharges for your electric vehicle. Where I live AmerenCilco is already planning this in the next few years, prices for home charging of your EV could be anywhere from $1-2 a KWh.

How will they know what you're using the electricity for?

 

[LDM]

How will they know what you're using the electricity for?

Smart meters. See my post above for more details. They are on just about every single house in IL at this point, aside from maybe the chicago area. They have a different electricity provider up there than the rest of the state.

 

[UncleDave]

Yeah, in Finland too, if you have a "big" house and heating with electricity that many houses from the 90s have.

Im being told the Belgian government is capping home pricing at 2500 month.

 

[JeffKeryk]

We can not expect the cause of a problem to provide the solution.

We can expect problems to be opportunity generators. In fact, around here EV demand is causing condos and apartments to install charging stations. Opportunity abounds if you are willing to try.

 

[ecotourist]

Yeah, in Finland too, if you have a "big" house and heating with electricity that many houses from the 90s have.

Our house has electric baseboard heaters that cost a fortune to run. So I installed a heat pump (which works well down to -10 or even -15 C). Before that we used wood to heat only part of the house and used the baseboard heaters only at night and even then only in part of the house. So it wasn't all that comfortable. But with the heat pump heating the whole house all day every day the electricity bills were actually lower. And the house is much more comfortable.

Below -10 or -15 the heat pump reverts to resistance heating which would be expensive. But as it hardly ever gets as low as -10 C here, that doesn't matter to us.

 

[2EHA]

unfortunately this is what happens when you have to deal with muscovites. nothing but treachery and headaches

 

[Bjornviken]

Our house has electric baseboard heaters that cost a fortune to run. So I installed a heat pump (which works well down to -10 or even -15 C). Before that we used wood to heat only part of the house and used the baseboard heaters only at night and even then only in part of the house. So it wasn't all that comfortable. But with the heat pump heating the whole house all day every day the electricity bills were actually lower. And the house is much more comfortable.

Below -10 or -15 the heat pump reverts to resistance heating which would be expensive. But as it hardly ever gets as low as -10 C here, that doesn't matter to us.

Yes there are many that install those heat pumps nowdays. And they seems to be pretty good.
Lucky me i have district heating system when i could face -20 to -40 C in winter time when its the coldest

 

[The Critic]

There is little point in having an EV if you don't have a garage or a dedicated parking spot with your own charger.

Agreed.

 

[Bjornviken]

unfortunately this is what happens when you have to deal with muscovites. nothing but treachery and headaches

Yes, just when i had big headache from EU politics, Russia parked a truck in my head

 

[ripcord]

We can not expect the cause of a problem to provide the solution.

In their mind, that IS the solution.

 

[ecotourist]

Smart meters. See my post above for more details. They are on just about every single house in IL at this point, aside from maybe the chicago area. They have a different electricity provider up there than the rest of the state.

When that happens, there will be a market for a spoofer to make it seem that an EV is an electric stove. And then there will be a market for a spoofer detector.

And governments might want to prohibit electric companies from imposing higher rates to charge an EV. So there will be a market for lobbyists to get the government to back off. And elections will be fought over whether higher rates to charge an EV should be prohibited. And the electric company's lawyers will sue the government for interfering with their business practices. And so on and so on.

There will be lots of opportunities for fighting.

Or, maybe the electric companies will expand their generation capacity and enhance their networks. And then make lots of extra money. And that's where I will invest my money.

 

[OVERKILL]

And yes, in theory once there will a lot of Solar generators/farms that are are a huge chunk of a local generation -- then it will make sense to shift loads to daytime. But we are nowhere near this.

California is already there. This is what drives the duck curve, and rates.

BTW, I just visited a friend last week in San Jose and pokes around her new Bolt. Set it to charge between 8:15 pm - 4:50 pm, for that very reason. Since most will have their timers set at 8:00-5:00. (their higher rate is between 5 pm and 8 pm,

Yes, their rate is the highest when solar is falling off and gas is ramping up to cover for it.
This is what that looks like:

she was just trying not to forget to plug in the car, didn't bother to go see all the settings car had )

 

[OVERKILL]

Easy enough to do with tiered rates, say 10 cent per KWh for the first 1000, 20 cents the next 1000 and so on.
Home supplied, cheap EV fuel is a short term thing, higher EV fuel costs are inevitable.

Yes, though I suspect what we'll see is something that knows when you are charging your EV, likely as part of the Smart Meter system that's already in place. There is already communication available over the charge port, something that communicates the VIN to the utility company so that they know who to bill, and how much for, would make the most sense. This will be how they get the equivalent to the road tax we pay on fuel, which covers R&M of that infrastructure that EV's currently use for free. It will naturally penalize heavy vehicles (like it does with fuel consumption) because they will use more kWh.

 

[JeffKeryk]

As rates rise, people will seek out solution. This is exactly what I did in late 2017. In March 2018 PG&E switched my solar project on. Little did I know what a good investment that would turn out to be.

Necessity is the Mother of invention.
Some people see problems; I see opportunity. What about you?