IONITY new pricing
Discussion
I've never managed to get an Ionity charger to work with a Tesla. I think there is something like 5 in the UK or something like that? The £8 was slightly cheaper than a full charge on a supercharger, but I don't think there is a serious attempt to make a business. Seems like a PR thing to me.
This has been coming for a while, not sure why anyone is surprised, 350KW charging requires stupid amounts and power/tech. It was never going to be cheap, and these costs are before any kind of government fuel duty which will come.
Tesla Superchargeing prices are also going up to included energy used to cool the car whilst charging.
Owning an EV without home charging will soon become almost as expensive as owing a combustion car but with the added fun of taking 30min - 1hr to refuel versus a few minutes.
Tesla Superchargeing prices are also going up to included energy used to cool the car whilst charging.
Owning an EV without home charging will soon become almost as expensive as owing a combustion car but with the added fun of taking 30min - 1hr to refuel versus a few minutes.
Edited by gangzoom on Thursday 16th January 22:14
We really need to turn the taps off to save the planet we have an emergency, we are in crisis.
Everything needs to be much more expensive to throttle back consumption. Personal mobility needs to become an occasional luxury not taken for granted.
As debated many times on here EVs offer some environmental advantages but can only offset at best the shear growth in numbers of us and the ever increasing material standard of living.
Everything needs to be much more expensive to throttle back consumption. Personal mobility needs to become an occasional luxury not taken for granted.
As debated many times on here EVs offer some environmental advantages but can only offset at best the shear growth in numbers of us and the ever increasing material standard of living.
If this was your only source of charging it'd be a problem .. as others have said 350kW *4 or 8 is a lot of grid connection. This is why Tesla is using battery buffers.
Fortunately you can still do 90% of your charging at 5p/kWh from home.
Ionity == Emergency charging at this rate OR if you're in a big hurry
Fortunately you can still do 90% of your charging at 5p/kWh from home.
Ionity == Emergency charging at this rate OR if you're in a big hurry
granada203028 said:
We really need to turn the taps off to save the planet we have an emergency, we are in crisis.
Everything needs to be much more expensive to throttle back consumption. Personal mobility needs to become an occasional luxury not taken for granted.
As debated many times on here EVs offer some environmental advantages but can only offset at best the shear growth in numbers of us and the ever increasing material standard of living.
Could be. But until ‘the shear growth in numbers of us’ is tackled head on none of it matters. Everything needs to be much more expensive to throttle back consumption. Personal mobility needs to become an occasional luxury not taken for granted.
As debated many times on here EVs offer some environmental advantages but can only offset at best the shear growth in numbers of us and the ever increasing material standard of living.
The new pricing will add £50 to the cost of my regular return trip to Edinburgh. Or rather it would if I continued to use ionity. Will be trying alternatives but there’s nothing (that I have found) in the way of reliable rapid chargers between Gretna and Edinburgh.
Incidentally, I have only ever seen one bmw i3, two Konas and about 8 different iPaces charging at Gretna ionity
Incidentally, I have only ever seen one bmw i3, two Konas and about 8 different iPaces charging at Gretna ionity
I'm absolutely amazed that the stakeholders of Ionity didn't continue to keep prices down to something reasonable. The whole idea of Ionity is that it's owned by car manufacturers that realised that in order to compete with Tesla and also sell some cars they need a working infrastructure that they have control over and can evolve as required. To up the prices to these levels is bonkers. I'm incidentally already using my V8 for longer trips for convenience and speed but now it actually costs about the same as well. Which is just mega fail on a whole new level.
DMZ said:
I'm absolutely amazed that the stakeholders of Ionity didn't continue to keep prices down to something reasonable. The whole idea of Ionity is that it's owned by car manufacturers that realised that in order to compete with Tesla and also sell some cars they need a working infrastructure that they have control over and can evolve as required. To up the prices to these levels is bonkers. I'm incidentally already using my V8 for longer trips for convenience and speed but now it actually costs about the same as well. Which is just mega fail on a whole new level.
Its for 'direct customers' , stakeholders I imagine will offer their customers offers.modeller said:
If this was your only source of charging it'd be a problem .. as others have said 350kW *4 or 8 is a lot of grid connection. This is why Tesla is using battery buffers.
Fortunately you can still do 90% of your charging at 5p/kWh from home.
Ionity == Emergency charging at this rate OR if you're in a big hurry
Agreed......Instavolt charge 35p/kWh, don’t need any app or membership, much better value!Fortunately you can still do 90% of your charging at 5p/kWh from home.
Ionity == Emergency charging at this rate OR if you're in a big hurry
& as you say, home charging is always cheaper.
Your 5p/kWh: is that just the Octopus Go tariff, or are their other options out there?
I’m wavering over that, having just got the SMETS2 meter deployed: it is only 4 hours a night, and the other rates are slightly cheaper with other tariffs.....keen to hear of other options!
mikeiow said:
Agreed......Instavolt charge 35p/kWh, don’t need any app or membership, much better value!
& as you say, home charging is always cheaper.
Your 5p/kWh: is that just the Octopus Go tariff, or are their other options out there?
I’m wavering over that, having just got the SMETS2 meter deployed: it is only 4 hours a night, and the other rates are slightly cheaper with other tariffs.....keen to hear of other options!
Will almost certainly be Octopus Go. The other option from Octopus is their Agile tariff which is worth looking into depending on your circumstances and ability to limit usage between 4-7pm.& as you say, home charging is always cheaper.
Your 5p/kWh: is that just the Octopus Go tariff, or are their other options out there?
I’m wavering over that, having just got the SMETS2 meter deployed: it is only 4 hours a night, and the other rates are slightly cheaper with other tariffs.....keen to hear of other options!
The £8 flat rate just encouraged staying on for as long as possible.
This pricing is for outside the various charging schemes that the manufacturers funding Ionity have. So it’s possible that a VAG, or BMW, or Porsche driver will pay rather less, maybe a certain amount free with the car.
For occasional use on a long trip, if you’ll arrive to an available, perfectly working charger that delivers a really fast charge, the tariff seems ok. We’re used to very cheap or free but Ecotricity have shown what a cut-price neglected network looks like. Fastned have said the total cost of rapid charging is closer to €1/kWh so if you want sustainable pricing and investment in more then expect it to keep on creeping up.
This pricing is for outside the various charging schemes that the manufacturers funding Ionity have. So it’s possible that a VAG, or BMW, or Porsche driver will pay rather less, maybe a certain amount free with the car.
For occasional use on a long trip, if you’ll arrive to an available, perfectly working charger that delivers a really fast charge, the tariff seems ok. We’re used to very cheap or free but Ecotricity have shown what a cut-price neglected network looks like. Fastned have said the total cost of rapid charging is closer to €1/kWh so if you want sustainable pricing and investment in more then expect it to keep on creeping up.
hyphen said:
Its for 'direct customers' , stakeholders I imagine will offer their customers offers.
Think that this is pretty much what is going on. With more and more EVs on the road, they are upping prices for people that are not buying their cars. This new pricing is likely what is needed to make a small profit (if at all) from some random punter using their chargers. Tesla is subsidizing "Supercharging" as well, I expect IONITY backers will do similar things for owners of their fleet.mikeiow said:
Your 5p/kWh: is that just the Octopus Go tariff, or are their other options out there?
EDF offerThe 100% renewable GoElectric tariff offers half price electricity evenings and weekends for both your household and your electric car - that's 9pm to 7am on weekdays and all weekend at just 8p per kWh
sjg said:
The £8 flat rate just encouraged staying on for as long as possible.
This pricing is for outside the various charging schemes that the manufacturers funding Ionity have. So it’s possible that a VAG, or BMW, or Porsche driver will pay rather less, maybe a certain amount free with the car.
For occasional use on a long trip, if you’ll arrive to an available, perfectly working charger that delivers a really fast charge, the tariff seems ok. We’re used to very cheap or free but Ecotricity have shown what a cut-price neglected network looks like. Fastned have said the total cost of rapid charging is closer to €1/kWh so if you want sustainable pricing and investment in more then expect it to keep on creeping up.
Good post. That's exactly how I view it as well. This pricing is for outside the various charging schemes that the manufacturers funding Ionity have. So it’s possible that a VAG, or BMW, or Porsche driver will pay rather less, maybe a certain amount free with the car.
For occasional use on a long trip, if you’ll arrive to an available, perfectly working charger that delivers a really fast charge, the tariff seems ok. We’re used to very cheap or free but Ecotricity have shown what a cut-price neglected network looks like. Fastned have said the total cost of rapid charging is closer to €1/kWh so if you want sustainable pricing and investment in more then expect it to keep on creeping up.
oop north said:
Will be trying alternatives but there’s nothing (that I have found) in the way of reliable rapid chargers between Gretna and Edinburgh.
Apart from Tesla Superchargers all of which offer 120KW and soon 250KW for Model 3/Y 
.Just for you're route there are multibay sites at Gretna, Abinghton, Edinburgh (currently 2 bays but due to be expanded), and Euro central on the M8 - but that one is a bit out of the way.
This is why Tesla have such a hold on the EV market, the Supercharger network makes life so much easier (and cheaper it seem).
Edited by gangzoom on Friday 17th January 05:12
I read about another company rolling out 350kW chargers (name now escapes me) and they incidentally indicated that the cost of installing chargers with this power level means it will cost roughly petrol money to charge there. So perhaps this reality is part of the picture.
I’m sure there’s some marketing behind this so that BMW, VAG etc can bundle some free or what looks like discounted kWh with each car but eventually deals expire and you’re at rack rate.
I have incidentally never seen a car use the ionity chargers around where I’m at so I would have thought encouraging more use to monetise the installations could have been clever but I guess not.
I’m sure there’s some marketing behind this so that BMW, VAG etc can bundle some free or what looks like discounted kWh with each car but eventually deals expire and you’re at rack rate.
I have incidentally never seen a car use the ionity chargers around where I’m at so I would have thought encouraging more use to monetise the installations could have been clever but I guess not.
gangzoom said:
oop north said:
Will be trying alternatives but there’s nothing (that I have found) in the way of reliable rapid chargers between Gretna and Edinburgh.
Apart from Tesla Superchargers all of which offer 120KW and soon 250KW for Model 3/Y .Just for you're route there are multibay sites at Gretna, Abinghton, Edinburgh (currently 2 bays but due to be expanded), and Euro central on the M8 - but that one is a bit out of the way.
This is why Tesla have such a hold on the EV market, the Supercharger network makes life so much easier (and cheaper it seem).
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 17th January 05:12
We wouldn’t have ordered any EV if we couldn’t clearly see that it will be capable of doing all we want it for whilst just being charged at home. Hopefully that factor will change as the network improves, though I suspect it will be some years before EVs are commonly used for long distance stuff.
The Superchargers may be better than the rest at the moment but that, for us, is far outweighed by the lack of service, poor quality and price.
Each to their own.
Some quick sums based on an example scenario.
Let’s say you have a car with a 80kWh battery. That gives it an 80% motorway range of about 200-225 miles (3.1 to 3.5 m/kWh).
You’ve charged it to 100% at home at, say, 10p per kWh. That’s costed you £8 (just ignoring charging losses for simplicity).
The vast majority of your journeys don’t require any rapid charging at all.
Once a month you do a journey that requires a top up on the way, and a top up on the way home. Let’s say a typical sweetspot charge of from 20% - 70%. So, you need to add 40kWh on the way, and 40kWh on the way home. You get home with 10% remaining. Total energy used is therefore 80 + 40 + 40 - 8 = 152kWh.
Total distance travelled is about 475 - 530 miles.
Your existing best option for reliable top up charges in most parts of the UK is probably Instavolt at 35p per kWh, costing a total of £28 for the 80kWh added.
Total journey cost using Instavolt is therefore £8 + £28 = £36. That give a cost per mile for this journey of about 7 pence.
Now let’s say Ionity has installed new high power chargers along your route, meaning you can charge more quickly and more conveniently, closer to the motorway. 69p per kWh though.
The 80kWh you need to add would cost roughly £55.
Total journey cost using Ionity is therefore £8 + £55 = £63, giving a cost per mile for this journey of about 12.5 pence.
The total extra annual cost of your once per month long journey using Ionity over Instavolt would be £324.
So, probably not the end of the world for most people.
Let’s say you have a car with a 80kWh battery. That gives it an 80% motorway range of about 200-225 miles (3.1 to 3.5 m/kWh).
You’ve charged it to 100% at home at, say, 10p per kWh. That’s costed you £8 (just ignoring charging losses for simplicity).
The vast majority of your journeys don’t require any rapid charging at all.
Once a month you do a journey that requires a top up on the way, and a top up on the way home. Let’s say a typical sweetspot charge of from 20% - 70%. So, you need to add 40kWh on the way, and 40kWh on the way home. You get home with 10% remaining. Total energy used is therefore 80 + 40 + 40 - 8 = 152kWh.
Total distance travelled is about 475 - 530 miles.
Your existing best option for reliable top up charges in most parts of the UK is probably Instavolt at 35p per kWh, costing a total of £28 for the 80kWh added.
Total journey cost using Instavolt is therefore £8 + £28 = £36. That give a cost per mile for this journey of about 7 pence.
Now let’s say Ionity has installed new high power chargers along your route, meaning you can charge more quickly and more conveniently, closer to the motorway. 69p per kWh though.
The 80kWh you need to add would cost roughly £55.
Total journey cost using Ionity is therefore £8 + £55 = £63, giving a cost per mile for this journey of about 12.5 pence.
The total extra annual cost of your once per month long journey using Ionity over Instavolt would be £324.
So, probably not the end of the world for most people.
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