York to increase tariffs for EV charging

Electric Vehicles

The City of York Council is to increase the tariffs at its electric vehicle charging points. 

The current 15p/kWh tariff, which was set in 2013, will rise to 20p/kWh for fast chargers (7-22kW) and to 25p/kWh for rapid (44kW AC and 50 kW DC) and ultra-rapid (more than 150Kw) chargers.

In a report to councillors, Neil Ferris, York’s director of economy and place, said the new tariffs reflected the council’s standard tariff for electricity (at the moment 15p/kWh but which will increase in 20/21) plus an additional charge to cover operation and support costs. 

The current 15p/kWh tariff was, for a car consuming 200Wh/km, the equivalent of a petrol car achieving 120 miles per gallon or a diesel car achieving 125 mpg, he said. 

The 20p/kWh tariff was equivalent to 90mpg (petrol) and 94 (diesel).

The 25p/kWh tariff was equivalent to 65mpg (petrol) and 68mpg (diesel).

Ferris said the new tariffs were cheaper than the offerings of most commercially-operated EV chargepoints. “For rapid and ultra-rapid chargers the commercial tariff will generally be between 30 and 45p/kWh. For fast chargepoints the commercial tariff will generally be between 18 and 30 p/kWh.” 

A tariff of 45p/kWh was equivalent to 40mpg in a petrol car and 42mpg in a diesel. 

York is to introduce parking fees in fast charging bays. “This will dissuade users who currently plug-in to get free parking when they have a nearly full battery and don’t need to use the chargepoint,” said Ferris.

Residents will be eligible for a regular user discount pass, costing £30 for two years, entitling them to free overnight parking in EV charging bays within council car parks. 

Rapid and ultra-rapid charging bays will have a 90-minute time limit, after which a £10 overstay fee will be charged. For every additional 60 minutes a further £10 fee will apply. 

EV users can access York’s network of chargepoints through either the Charge Your Car or Polar Network services, using web-based apps or dedicated access cards. 

New rapid and ultra-rapid chargers will allow customers to use a bank card without the need to join a network. 

The Charge Your Car service is a pay-as-you-go service. Users access a web-based app or pay an annual fee of £20 for an RFID access card.

The Polar Plus network allows users to pay a monthly subscription of £7.85 and then pay a reduced tariff for the electricity they use. In York’s case this will be 12p/kWh (fast), 15p (rapid) and 20p (ultra-rapid).

Polar Plus provides access to about 10,000 chargers around the UK, including Charge Your Car chargers. Both services are operated by BP Chargemaster. 

Ferris said fewer than 50 per cent of the city’s chargepoints were operational in early 2019 due to a combination of “life-expired charge points, lack of proactive maintenance, and lack of expertise within the council to provide effective oversight of the network”. 

Actions were taken to improve matters and 100 per cent of chargepoints were available by the end of 2019. 

But he added: “Despite this dramatic short-term improvement, there remain significant underlying issues that need addressing including life-expired chargers, an insufficient number of chargers overall, poor geographical distribution, issues with the number and location of rapid chargers, no ultra-rapid chargers to support next generation cars, and poor communication between back office provider, hardware provider, and maintenance provider.”

The council’s new EV strategy aims to overcome these problems.