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Prices at Electrify America’s DC fast charging stations are rising

Do you recall how electric vehicle owners weren’t affected by the ever-increasing cost of gas? Electrify America is boosting power costs at its stations, reminding DC fast charging customers of one of the major drawbacks of driving an internal combustion engine vehicle.

Electrify America’s regular tariff for US consumers is $0.48 per kilowatt hour, effective March 6th. The Volkswagen subsidiary formerly charged $0.43 per kWh, but it has now announced a price rise through email.

Electrify America’s comment on the pricing increases was sent to The Verge by Tara Geiger of corporate communications:

Electrify America has been able to maintain consistent and uniform pricing since September 2020; however, rising operational and energy costs have now made adjusting our pricing necessary. Our focus remains on meeting the needs of electric vehicle drivers of today and tomorrow by investing in our network expansion and enhancement to customer experience.

It will also impact Electrify America’s Pass Plus customers, who pay $4 per month for the service. The monthly price for Pass Plus, in addition to the lower rate of $0.31 per kilowatt hour, is said to result in cost savings of “approximately 25 percent on charging,” as marketed by the firm. The new price per kWh is $0.36. Geiger clarifies that the planned price changes are exclusive to Electrify America and are permanent by saying that Pass Plus customers “may still benefit from savings of roughly 25% on charging.”

In areas like Massachusetts and Texas, where firms are prohibited from directly billing consumers by the kWh, Electrify America is also boosting per-minute pricing rates. Pricing for sessions in those states has increased from $0.16 to $0.19 per minute for peak charging rates of up to 90kW. The current fee of $0.32 per minute for charging vehicles at speeds of up to 350kW is being raised to $0.36 per minute.

Furthermore, in certain jurisdictions, Pass Plus members will notice a fee hike from $0.12 to $0.15 per minute for sessions peaking at up to 90kW, and from $0.24 to $0.29 per minute for faster charging vehicles.

However, depending on the state and the time of day, Tesla owners who use the Supercharger network may pay anywhere from $0.25 per kWh to as much as $0.50. Over the course of many years, Tesla has raised the fee of using its Supercharger network.

In the middle of December, when travelling across the Mid-Atlantic area, I averaged $0.38 per kWh at Superchargers. For roughly $17 I was able to add 46 kWh to my battery in a single charging session. Electrify America’s prices are around $2 lower than the ones I was paying, so it would have cost me about $20 at the old standard rate and $22 at the new one.

After Tesla, Electrify America’s rapid charging network covers more of the United States than any other. The firm already has more than 800 charging stations around North America, and it’s collaborating with Ikea and TravelCenters of America to make more of them available to those who drive electric vehicles. Locations similar to the Electrify America Sky Club Lounge are also in the plans, which may make the price hike worthwhile once it’s completed.