JohnInFrance
Established Member
Yes, I know that I've harped on about this this subject for some time, but as we are planning a trip through Spain and down to the Algarve leaving this weekend it's popped back into the forefront of my mind.
The trip was initially due to be in the dino-burner basically because it's way faster and simpler than using the EV. However, fate had other ideas and whilst driving back from Belgium yesterday the ICE has decided that it was time to initiate a very costly and prologed visit to the Mercedes mechanics ..... So off to Spain and Portugal in the EV we will go then. Anyhow, I digress, back to the subject.
Most of us now have a raft of apps and RFID cards to pay for our 'away from base' charging, so we were planning our charge stops for the upcoming trip and once again it became clear to us just how unclear charge pricing is, especially when crossing countries. As an example, we are planning to stop at the Ibis in Valladolid in Spain and there is a charger a few meters away from the hotel - great! However, that's where things get muddied somewhat.
Paying with the Iberdrola app, it's 45 cents per kWh, not cheap for a 50kW charge, but an absolute steal when compared to Shell price for the same CP
If we chose to pay for the charge will Shell, the cost is 97 cents per kWh (plus 20% VAT and a 27 cent service charge)
Chargemap have decided this CP will empty 86.5 cents per kWh from my bank account
and finally, Octopus with their updated electric universe app/card will charge 40 pence (approx. 45 cents, the same as Iberdrola) for this CP
So as you can see, chose the wrong app/card and one could easily be paying more than twice the price for the same stream of electrons from the same supplier via the same cable! This just annoys me so much because it's so unnessecary, prices should remin the same no matter how the charge is initiated and paid for, just as they do at any conventional fuel station.
The trip was initially due to be in the dino-burner basically because it's way faster and simpler than using the EV. However, fate had other ideas and whilst driving back from Belgium yesterday the ICE has decided that it was time to initiate a very costly and prologed visit to the Mercedes mechanics ..... So off to Spain and Portugal in the EV we will go then. Anyhow, I digress, back to the subject.
Most of us now have a raft of apps and RFID cards to pay for our 'away from base' charging, so we were planning our charge stops for the upcoming trip and once again it became clear to us just how unclear charge pricing is, especially when crossing countries. As an example, we are planning to stop at the Ibis in Valladolid in Spain and there is a charger a few meters away from the hotel - great! However, that's where things get muddied somewhat.
Paying with the Iberdrola app, it's 45 cents per kWh, not cheap for a 50kW charge, but an absolute steal when compared to Shell price for the same CP
If we chose to pay for the charge will Shell, the cost is 97 cents per kWh (plus 20% VAT and a 27 cent service charge)
Chargemap have decided this CP will empty 86.5 cents per kWh from my bank account
and finally, Octopus with their updated electric universe app/card will charge 40 pence (approx. 45 cents, the same as Iberdrola) for this CP
So as you can see, chose the wrong app/card and one could easily be paying more than twice the price for the same stream of electrons from the same supplier via the same cable! This just annoys me so much because it's so unnessecary, prices should remin the same no matter how the charge is initiated and paid for, just as they do at any conventional fuel station.
