BC Hydro has the go-ahead to roll out a new pricing structure that many electric car owners say makes filling up fairer at the company’s public EV chargers.
Drivers will now pay 34.34 cents per kilowatt-hour for all fast-chargers and 28.28 cents per kWh for slower Level 2 chargers. Time-based pricing penalizes drivers with older models or cheaper EVs because those vehicles can’t draw energy from chargers as quickly, he said. The price increase possibly faced by drivers of newer vehicles will still be much less than filling a gas vehicle, especially since most EV owners tend to do most of their charging at home, he said. However, some EV owners liked time-based billing because it hurried people off the chargers at congested stations, Chatterjee said.
Unless drivers are preparing for a long trip on a route with a limited number of charging stations, owners at busy chargers should just top up their battery enough to get home and plug in where it’s cheaper anyway.