What's the cost to charge an electric car at a public station, and why

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The more electric car charging stations exist, the more useful will be electric cars, so long as the fees to use charging stations make sense.

Every so often an electric car owner discovers a public charging station costing $3 per hour to charge their car. Their reaction isn't always positive because of the fee paid per mile of range received by charging.

The public charging stations fall into three groups. The first group is the stations in one of the two electric car charge station networks in the U.S., the Blink Network run by ECOTality, and the ChargePoint network run by Coulomb Technologies. The second group are the other public charging stations that aren't in one of those networks. The last group are the stations, in California and elsewhere, left over from 10 or so years ago when electric cars were last manufactured by the automakers.

The cost to use each electric car charging station differs based on various conditions. Sometimes the station is owned by a business, and is available for its employees. Sometimes a city will own the charging station making it available for the city employees, the city fleet, or for the public. Sometimes a parking garage owner will install a charging station, making it available for electric car owners parking in the garage. Some of these public charging stations are free, while others cost money with a fee that varies from station to station.

For the stations where users pay to charge their cars, the effective cost per mile is calculated from two factors. First is the cost per hour to use the charging station. Second is the number of miles of range the car gets per hour of charging. The electric cars with a 3.3 kilowatt on-board charger (Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and Mitsubishi iMiev) typically get 12 miles of range per hour hour of charging. Hence the stations that cost $3 per hour, costs $0.25 per mile of range. On the other hand the cars with a 6.6 kilowatt on-board charger (Ford Focus Electric and Coda Sedan), if charging at a station that costs $3 per hour, costs $0.12 per mile of range. To compare with gasoline, if a car gets 30 miles per gallon fuel efficiency and gasoline costs $3.50 per gallon, the cost per mile for gasoline is $0.12.

A quick perusal through the interactive map on mychargepoint.net shows a wide range of charging station fees from "free" to $3.95 per hour for some stations in New York City. Stations in the Charge Point network are privately owned, in a sort of franchise arrangement, with the Charge Point network collecting data about usage and managing customer fees. Each station owner sets the fees for their stations according to their business determinations.

Access to electric car charging stations on the Blink Network has been free, but in the Spring 2012 fees will start. These fees depend on your membership level which are are, $1 per hour for Blink Plus members, $1.50 per hour for Blink Basic members, and $2.00 for Guests who do not have a Blink membership.

Why are electric car charging fees set this way? Why isn't the fee based on the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed while charging? The most important reason for this is federal and state law mandating that only utilities can legally charge for electricity by the kilowatt-hour. Fees to access charging stations are paid by the hour in part because the charging station owners cannot be paid by the kilowatt-hour, and in part because access to a charging station is similar to normal parking fees in a parking lot. An electric car at a charging station is not only consuming electricity, it is consuming a parking space. In some cases the parking garage fees are included in the fee for using the charging station, and in other parking garages the two fees are paid separately.

In the U.S. today there are approximately 150,000 gasoline stations. Without those gas stations the gasoline powered cars would be useless heaps of metal. While an electric vehicle can be charged at home with electricity bought through the home-owners utility bill, if that was the only place the car could be charged its effective daily range would be half its total range. That is, the car owner could only drive far enough away from home to be able to return home. To make longer trips will require a network of public charging stations so the car can be charged throughout the day as they go from place to place. The availability of those charging stations and the fees to use them are still a work in progress.

Submitted by Robert (not verified) on January 30, 2012 - 8:21AM

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Would you mind citing your source for the statement, "The most important reason for this is federal and state law mandating that only utilities can legally charge for electricity by the kilowatt-hour." I am so far unable to verify this, (though I've only spent a few minutes so far.) But, how do I know it's true? If it's federal law, it shouldn't be difficult for you to cite. If it's state law, that would have to mean all 50 states rule the same on this? You should be able to cite at least one state law.

I do not think there are any Federal laws that pertain to this because California, Oregon, Washington, Michigan, and Virginia have removed this "resale of electricity" problem from their electric tariffs. Hopefully the other states will follow suit soon.

From the BlinkNetwork FAQ: "Why are you charging by time and not by kWh? The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission mandates that only utilities can legally charge for energy by the kilowatt-hour. We charge for hourly access to our Blink chargers, not the energy passed through them."

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 30, 2012 - 11:30AM

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As people learn more about electric cars (actually "coal-powered" cars), they will realize how impractical they still are.

They cannot survive on their own in the market without government bribes of your tax money and mine.

If a car salesman tried to sell you a gasoline powered car with the limitations of a "coal-powered" car, you would laugh in his face and keep laughing hysterically as you walked out of the showroom.

Some electricity comes from coal plants which have a large carbon foot print. It's true.

But for an accurate comparision, the carbon foot print of PRODUCING, not using, a gallon of gas must be calculate. Extracting the oil, transporting the oil, refining the oil into usable gasoline and finally trucking the gas to your local gas station.

So yes, cleaner electricity is needed and we are moving in that direction, but electrical production is still much 'cleaner' than gasoline production.

The same costs apply for the fuel to power electric generating station. If it is coal you need to mine and transport the material to the generating plant usually by rail using diesel electric locomotives. If the plant is powered by gas there are still mining and pipeing costs. If it is solar you will need batteries to store the power at night for use, then there are the battery production costs. Wind would likely need batteries to supply 24/7 demand. Nuclear has its costs as well. Lets be above board electric vehicles are dirty because they need these very same electric genetating plants to recharge their batteries. We need to decide what we want if it is a reduction in carbon dioxide then solar and wind would be better but they are not 24/7 on demand sytems, but nuclear is. But nuclear has waste annd safety issues. It seems to me that we will be using fossil fuels for a while yet to supply our more reliable (distance traveled and refueling time) gasoline and diesel engines. We need technology to come to the rescue and it is not here yet. It may take decades.

Check with your utility. Ours, AEP, has a subsidiary AEP Energy that offers electricity that is 100% wind power. You might have to search around a bit. We pay $0.15/kwH (total cost) for prime time usage and, if necessary, I'll spend the money to install a 240V high amperage charging system, though I'd rather not. I charge the car at night.

Submitted by Ted Fagenson (not verified) on January 30, 2012 - 12:55PM

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With natural gas prices decreasing and the likelihood of oil increasing, electricity may be the least expensive fuel in the coming years. Given the single most expensive component of an EV is the battery, the trajectory of battery prices and the R&D that is going into this segment, there is a highly probability that EVs will be cheaper than gasoline-powered cars even without the need for subsidies. Once the cost of the car and the maintenance is added together, and when combined with ubiquitous EV filling stations, the EV market will explode.

Submitted by Ted Fagenson (not verified) on January 30, 2012 - 12:56PM

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With natural gas prices decreasing and the likelihood of oil increasing, electricity may be the least expensive fuel in the coming years. Given the single most expensive component of an EV is the battery, the trajectory of battery prices and the R&D that is going into this segment, there is a highly probability that EVs will be cheaper than gasoline-powered cars even without the need for subsidies. Once the cost of the car and the maintenance is added together, and when combined with ubiquitous EV filling stations, the EV market will explode.

Submitted by Felix Kramer (not verified) on January 30, 2012 - 2:45PM

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Good presentation of the issues. One additional key metric: refueling by charging at home, for instance at $0.12/kWh (less if you have rooftop solar), and getting perhaps 3 miles/kWh, means you'll pay $0.04/mile for most of your driving.

Submitted by Felix Kramer (not verified) on January 30, 2012 - 2:48PM

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Good presentation of the issues. One additional key metric: refueling by charging at home, for instance at $0.12/kWh (less if you have rooftop solar), and getting perhaps 3 miles/kWh, means you'll pay $0.04/mile for most of your driving.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on March 5, 2013 - 9:50AM

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Your article does not take into account the costs of parking itself, where EV users actually save significantly, as compared to ICE users who pay both at the gas station as well as for parking.

The cost of parking is a wash - the parking lots I'm familiar with charge the same whether or not it is an electric or gas car. The cost of parking is a separate fee from anything charged by the charging station owner. However there may be instances, that I haven't seen, where the parking fee is included in the charging station fee.

Submitted by Low12s (not verified) on March 16, 2015 - 9:15PM

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These folks are dirt bags. Be very careful dealing with there technology. If anything happens to your car they will blame you and aggressively pursue you in court.