Hyundai Kona and Hyundai Ioniq EV drivers can get some relief from the pain of Electrify America’s opaque billing practices, at least until the end of the year. But you have to sign up with a promo code through the app. And only in the USA, not Canada. And your rate will almost double at the end of the year, from $0.35 to $0.69 per minute.
Electrify America has three billing tiers, and while the precise prices vary slightly from state to state, those tiers will resemble the California spread:
- $0.25 per minute;
- $0.69 per minute; and
- $0.99 per minute.
Which billing tier you fall into depends on the amount of power that theoretically could have been delivered to the car at any particular instant, as opposed to the amount of power actually delivered:
- To get the $0.25 rate, your car must be incapable of accepting more than 75kW;
- You will be billed the $0.69 per minute rate if your car is theoretically capable of getting between 76kW and 125kW; and
- You will be billed the $0.99 per minute rate if your car is theoretically capable of getting over 125kW.
There is a $1.00 “session fee” that is also applied, regardless of how long you charge for.
In contrast, Tesla charges only for actual kilowatt hours delivered in its Supercharger network. In the minority of states where Tesla is forced to sell per-minute, it uses two per-minute tiers: $0.13 at or below 60kW, and $0.26 above 60kW. When a Tesla driver’s charging session falls below 60kW as their battery fills up, they are automatically switched to the lower price.
California has banned companies like Electrify America from billing by the minute for all new DC Fast Charging stations beginning January 1, 2023.
Hyundai and Kia EV owners especially hard hit by Electrify America pricing
Hyundai Kona and Ioniq EV drivers, along with Kia Niro EV drivers, are among the most badly treated by Electrify America’s opaque pricing scheme. This is because those vehicles can theoretically accept slightly more than 75kW, which is determined by the Electrify America EVSE during the initial “handshake” and before any power is delivered. In practice though, the entirety of these vehicles’ charging session will be spent below 75kW. Nonetheless, they’ll still pay $0.69 for every minute, as if they were receiving power between 75kW and 125kW.
This has lead to many highly critical threads on various EV forums, including an “Electrify America is a scam” post on Reddit’s r/electricvehicles, which netted 246 comments and “Beware Electrify America” on the Ioniqforum.com, both in the last few months. A recent post from a Hyundai Kona EV forum recounts the following:
Central California trip, I saw a few Electrify America charge station groups – all were empty of cars. I tried one and found out why. Posted pricing claims that charging at a 0 to 75 kW rate is $.25 per minute; 0 to 125 kW rate of charge is priced at $0.69 per minute. I plugged in for almost 22 minutes. $1 session fee added in, I was charged a total of $15.95 for 14.7 kWh. Maximum charge rate was 55.8 kW, but I was charged at the 0 to 125 kW rate. This is more expensive than gasoline. Apparently the Kona sends out a signal that it can receive 80 kW, but the most I ever saw is less than 56 kW. As a result, that puts the charger into a price nearly 3x more than what actually happens.
This user paid over $1 per kWh for a rate that never exceeded 55kW. EVgo would have been less than half that cost for the same charging rate, and Tesla charges $0.28 per kWh even while delivering power at speeds up to 250kW.
