Starting Thursday, January 18th, EV charging network Evie Networks will be adjusting (read: raising) prices. They explain that the price rises are in an effort to support our continued investment in building a bigger, better, and ever-reliable charging network across the country.
The mention of reliability is an important hint about why we’re seeing these price rises now. Several significant changes were recently implemented to improve the reliability of EV charging infrastructure in Australia.
Starting January 1, 2024, all newly funded government-supported (which Evie chargers regularly are) fast chargers must maintain a 98% uptime rate. This ensures drivers have a high level of reliability when relying on public charging points. Government agencies will closely monitor uptime performance and potentially impose penalties for non-compliance, encouraging operators to prioritize maintenance and repairs.
Evie says they’re all about providing the confidence to hit the road knowing you’ve got access to a great charging network. To be fair, Evie does ok in terms of reliability, certainly not as bad as Chargefox, but it does happen more than it should.
Maintaining and expanding that network takes investment and Evie Networks now believes this new price adjustment allows the growth to continue as EV sales in Australia continue to ramp.
In the past 12 months, Evie Networks has added 100 new sites, bringing our total to over 200 sites today. Evie says they’re excited to continue on this trajectory, ensuring our network remains both rapidly expanding and reliable.
It is worth noting that other, ultra-reliable fast-charging networks are not hiking prices.
Updated pricing:
22kW chargers: 35c to 50c per kWh
50kW fast chargers: 50c to 58c per kWh
150kW super-fast chargers: 60c to 68c per kWh
350kW ultra-fast chargers: 65c to 73c per kWh
Evie says their charging data shows the average charging session consumes an average of 25kWh, which would be an additional $2. With many EVs featuring 60-100kWh battery packs, it seems strange on the surface that an average charging session would be as little as a 1/4 of the capacity. I expect this is skewed lower as the speed of a number of their chargers is lower, which means it takes longer and that won’t always suit people’s travel needs, so they put in what they can and continue their trip.
For those who do stop and charge from 10-90%, they’re much more likely to be consuming 50-60kWh which would cost $4-$5 more. While nobody likes a price rise, this doesn’t fundamentally change the economics of charging an EV, it’ll still be dramatically cheaper than refuelling a petrol or diesel vehicle.
Be sure to check the Evie Charging app for the latest pricing, charger availability, and charging insights.
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