Charging an Electric Vehicle In Public Can Cost Triple What Fueling Up a “Gas-Guzzler” Does

100% of my charging is at a DC Fast Charger. You see, I live in an apartment in Boston and none of the EV parking spots are available. I'm on a waiting list.

So, I charge up at a Shell less than 1-mile away that is free and conveniently located at a market and Starbucks.

Like the OP said, going to NH or VT has some challenges, but I've found a couple of EVgos at supermarkets or cafes that provide a convenient stop a bit over halfway -- in range and destination distance, which means you can get back to it if you fail to find a destination charger.

The other major issue is that time-based charging will always overpay as no car reaches it's peak charging rate for very long. They all have curves -- yes, even Tesla -- that give averages much lower, yet the billing is rarely by the electricity used but rather some tiered rate based on peak output. Some states, though, have added regulations to make EV charging stations only bill for the electricity used, not the time. 10 kWh shouldn't be more than around $2-3 at a public charger in most states, regardless of how long it takes.

I know everyone is talking about Tesla, but even other cars have much more affordable charging through Electrify America. Even with a local charger still on the per-minute pricing you can add that same 34 miles of range to the Mach E for less than $2. That would match even a particularly efficient hybrid on price per mile with current gas prices.

It seems like you went out of your way to find the most expensive charging option in order to make a point that doesn't hold up if you take advantage of the better options.

I've owned, driven and both publicly and privately recharged my Chevy Bolt for more than 5 years. I've never paid that amount unless I was fully recharging an almost empty battery.
Agendize much? Seems like your sample size is tiny (1 charge) and that you extrapolated an entire article. You must really be desperate for content huh?

If you simply take the cost of how long the battery's lifetime is and the replacement costs it's cheaper to drive a vehicle getting 15 mpg even if the electricity is free.

EV public charging has to be shopped. Some chargers charge a connect fee, which can be more than the actual electric cost. There maybe also idle time cost as well, which can be very punitive. As with all things , do some investigation for pricing/cost.

With a 2021 Tesla taking it home was just around 500 miles Atl To New Orleans. The most we paid for a charge was $18 and totaled just under $40 for the entire trip.

We find that the chargers in New Orleans were much less for a 55 min charge $6.07 compared to $18 off the interstate in Georgia and Alabama.

We only used the superchargers.

That seems awfully high. Last time I used EVgo, it cost me $7 for 18.7kWh on a CCS connector; 4x more expensive than charging at home, but significantly cheaper than your experience. In San Diego, I only pay 9 cents / kWh from midnight to 6am on a EV-Tou-5 plan.

You charged at an average rate of only 19.42 kW (9.51 kWh / 0.4897 h). I would think the point of the story would be to warn users that charging near the top of your SOC can be expensive when paying by the minute. Instead, one gets the impression that public charging itself is unaffordable.

BTW, many states *require* EV chargers fees to be by the minute rather than by the kWh -- otherwise, they have to register as an "electric utility." We all need to work to change such ridiculously outdated laws.

This seems like yet another article written by a journalist who hasn't invested even a minimal amount of time to understand EVs and charging best practices. Granted, most people don't need to "learn" how to use a gas vehicle, because we've all grown up with them. But there are several issues with this article.

First, according to Google Maps, the trip from Boston to Henniker is 82 miles, easily reachable--round trip even--in a Bolt. I do realize you said you stopped at an EVgo station to test out your membership, but there really was no reason to stop at all for this trip.

When you are searching for fast charging stations along your route, you don't just Google "DC fast charging" at your destination. You are looking for chargers along the whole route, not the destination. In fact, the destination is normally not where you would need fast charging anyway. You want to just plug into a regular outlet or L2 charger at your destination. Learn to use tools like plugshare and abetterrouteplanner to learn what stops are needed en route. In fact there are several DC fast chargers along the route that Google Maps suggests you take to your destination.

And very clearly, your experiment of stopping off at an EVgo station, while apparently at a high state of charge, is going to offer a worst-case example. Yes, you at least know that you should generally not DC fast charge past 80%. It's less of an etiquette thing than a common sense thing, and I think you learned the reason why. Yes, EVs charge very slowly when at high state of charge. And charging networks that charge by the minute (it's required in some states) will give you an extremely poor value for money, so etiquette aside, it simply doesn't make financial sense either. THIS is the reason your charge was so expensive. It would have been a much different story had you charged at a low state of charge when you actually needed the charge (although the Bolt is still a very slow charging vehicle compared to other EVs now out there).

I compare your experience to hailing a taxi cab that charges a meter fee plus a per minute fee to take you half a block to your destination. You would pay so much more for this than just simply walking or even renting that scooter to take you down the block. This is what EVgo is doing: they charge a fairly large connection fee, and then a per minute fee while your car is barely sipping electrons.

A more experienced EV driver would already know this and only charge using DC fast charging when it made sense to. DC fast charging is expensive compared to home charging (which is VERY cheap compared to gas), but you have to realize you are paying for convenience more than you are paying for electricity.

This is the nightmare scenario ive been predicting for 10 years as the greedhead sharks start swimming in our pond and we need to fight back every way possible or theyre gonna undermine the whole thing

This is the nightmare scenario ive been predicting for 10 years as the greedhead sharks start swimming in our pond and we need to fight back every way possible or theyre gonna undermine the whole thing

For all of you who suggest charging byvthe kilowatt ... you cannot resell electricity. Pnly charge for tge rime charging. Thats why they do it that way. Its called network fees

The reason it was so expensive is because EVgo still uses per minute billing. So if you're charging up to 100%, you're guaranteed to pay more than you otherwise would/should.

What you did is the equivalent of buying gasoline in the middle of the desert at a station that charges $10/gallon or at the last gas station before an airport rental car return area. I generally pay 25c to 31c per kWh (5 to 6 cents per mile), but I have paid a lot more when when the charger has been in the right spot and I've wanted to top off before going into the mountains.

EVgo doesn't want you using their fast chargers to slowly top off, and they communicate that with a per-minute payment system.

You guys are basing it off just EV GO when there's also charge point as well which which at some stations of it a level 2 charger, its free to charge for a few hours. The station I go to here locally is a fast DC charger which charge $.20 per kwh. I spend at most $5 to charge up. Than I come home and charge the rest on my level 1 charger that came with the car. Also, factor in maintaince cost as well. No more oil changes and other things.

If I paid $10 at a supercharger, I'd be adding at least 120 miles of range. At my local supercharger, it'd be closer to 180 miles since it's $0.22/kWh.

This whole charge to 80% is ridiculous. Why dont they redefine 80% as full and give that amount of battery enough range to do what needs doing?

If you plug Henniker,NH into the PlugShare app you will find dozens of DC fast chargers and hundreds of L2 chargers within 50 miles. You clearly demonstrated why it is a well known common practice to avoid charging to 100%. 80-100% takes as long as 20-80%. You could have made two short stops rather than on long stop and have saved yourself time and money. At 90% you were pulling ~10kW. You should have opted for one of the dozens of nearby L2 stations which were just as fast but way cheaper. You are correct that we need mofe DC fast chargers and that they should charge by the kWh of energy dispensed, not by time connected.

I have a leaf, Outlander phev, and model S. I've used evgo half a dozen times over 2+years. Fast chargers cost too much from evgo. I'm in NY and they have a few free dcfc at rest areas (great job NY). Otherwise I only use free level 2 or free Tesla chargers. At home I have 120 and 220 charging options.

This is a very silly article using Evgo as an example.. most people charge at home and many also use Solar. The fast charge stations are for mostly when you travel beyond the range of your EV. If you're using a 50kw fast charger then in half hour you should get 15kw. This should cost less than 2 dollars and with most EVs you will get a range of 60 miles As with such click bait articles they don't consider the harm such articles do. Factor in the pollution and climate change impact of your fast guzzler and you so see that at any rate of charging an EV is better for the planet. If we factor the subsidy in gasoline it will be over 10 dollars or more per gallon which is why a carbon tax on gasoline is necessary.

The article proves a point, but the wrong way. Yes.... DC charger are very expensive comparitively....the somewhat dirty secret of EVs. I charge with solar at home, I charge free at work. But the DC chargers near me are anywhere from 30 to 50 cents per kWh.... But there is 33kwh in a gallon of gas... So at those prices I am paying $10-$17 PER GALLON equivalent in energy. That pretty much negates the 75-95mpg equivalent I get ony EV compared to a 25-35mpg sedan. If I charged at the average 10 cent/kWh in my area.. I would be paying about $3.30 for a gallon... Equal to gasoline. I have an EV but know I am better off taking my petrol vehicle on longer trips because of the price difference at 30-40 cents/kwh doesn't save me much and I save time not charging up. I want EV's to work....and the chargers aren't making much, but electricity at 6-10 cents wholesale becomes 30-40 cents and negates the efficiency increases. We need the economics to work.

Cost per mile is not a good comparison. Each vehicle is different as the author demonstrated with the Dodge Challenger. As many other commenters have suggested cost per kW-hr (which everyone can relate to if they have ever looked at their electric bill) is the correct metric. My Ford Fusion does 29 miles per charge which has a storage capacity of 9 kW-hr. Many charging stations charge by the hour, not by how much energy (kW-hr) is added to your batteries.

Since I charge at 3.6 kW, the price at my work location is just over $0.38/kW-hr. If I had a Mitsubishi Outlander, or fully electric vehicle , I could charge at 8 kW, and my price would drop to $0.173 / kW-hr.

Which is less expensive than charging at home ($0.45/kW-hr and will be increasing next month). Locally gasoline is $4.50 per gallon reg unleaded. $0.38/kW-hr is equivalent to $5.50 gasoline and $0.45/kW-hr is equivalent to $6.50 per gallon gasoline. Your EVgo charger was equivalent to $15.50 gallon of gasoline.

PS, when rates are quoted nationalky, high rate locations typically do not include their transmission fees / kW-hr (sometimes >$0.18/kW-hr.) Or they only quote their lowest tier, e.g SoCal Edison.