Dynamic pricing for EV charging is on the way, says Chargepoint boss

Dynamic pricing for electric car charging could soon come to the UK, according to the head of one of Europe’s biggest charging solution firms.

The approach could see drivers pay more or less depending on the time of day, a charger’s location and even demand on the energy grid.

Joe Gorman, head of Europe at Chargepoint, told Auto Express that he expected the variable pricing approach to appear “within the next 12 months”. His firm develops much of the hardware and software used by the region’s vast network of chargepoint operators and he said the technology was already present to allow such a setup.

Dynamic pricing for chargers would most likely work in a similar way to Uber’s variable fares. In areas with the highest demand and at the busiest times, drivers would pay more to use public devices, potentially bringing a price increase over current costs. On the flip side, drivers using chargers at quieter periods or in more out-of-the-way locations could find they pay less than the current fixed rates. Currently, most ultra-rapid en-route chargers are around 79p/kWh.

Most chargepoint operators currently charge a flat rate for energy across their networks, although some offer discounts to subscribers and vary the price depending on the power of the charger.

The only exceptions among rapid charging providers are Tesla, which charges different rates depending on location and time of day, and Instavolt, which recently announced an off-peak rate. This allows drivers using any of its 1,600 ultra-rapid chargers between 10pm and 5am to top-up at 54p/kWh instead of the usual 85p/kWh.

Kerbside operators Connected Kerb and Ubitricity also offer off-peak charging that cuts prices for overnight users to 45p/kWh, but both apply a simple two-tier approach rather than dynamic costs.

Despite his confidence that dynamic pricing will appear, Gorman told Auto Express that cheaper pricing was not in operators’ interests, raising the prospect of higher peak time prices without off-peak savings. Unlike petrol stations which make most of their profit from shop sales, he said, charging operators generally only make money from charging sessions.