With the summer comes the Aussie road trip. I don’t do a lot of road tripping at other times of the year, so a summer trip somewhere is an opportunity to observe how much the charging network has improved.
I’ve been impressed by some of the large charging sites that have emerged in the past year. This is a real show of confidence in the continued demand for EVs.
Something else I have noticed is that some hotel and motel destination charging is becoming incredibly expensive.
Destination charging origins in Australia
Destination charging has always had its place in the Australian charging landscape. Before DC fast chargers, it made a lot more sense to charge overnight than to spend half of your day under a tree charging at a rest area. Even now, charging at accommodation reduces the need for charging stops during the day.
Motels, hotels, caravan parks, and the like often installed early charging facilities as a result of lobbying by EV-owning guests. Critically, these EV drivers educated the hosts about charging options, the costs, and ways to recover those costs.
The general approach was to charge $10 or $15 on top of the room rate, or just make it free. Some keen drivers would offer to pay using their own energy meter or by doing some mental arithmetic.
Destination charging offerings today
The offerings for destination charging today are still quite varied. They range from 10 amp power points to a handful of 22kW EVSEs managed by a service provider.
In the best example I’ve seen, NRMA allows members to book a holiday park cabin with a dedicated EVSE on the side of the cabin. Through support programs like the NSW Government’s Destination Charging Grants, accommodation providers have grown aware of destination charging. Where they seem to have gone astray, though, is how much to charge for it.
Most new destination charging hardware is OCPP-capable and connected to a service provider to handle payment. No one begrudges cost recovery, but things seem to have got out of hand with pricing at some sites.
Surveying destination charging prices
I took a random sample of about 50 lodging sites around NSW with 7-22 kW charging. I found a very wide range of prices and price structures.
Plenty of old non-networked EVSEs are still in use. These are provided for free or for a fixed fee ranging from $10 to $25. Most, however, are newer, networked, and recovering costs through a service provider.
Some of the pricing rates range from 25 cents per kWh up to around 50 cents per kWh. A few enlightened sites are using time of use pricing.
These charging prices are what you might expect to reflect the costs to the venue. They are still cheaper than any DC fast charger you will find on the road. So far, so good.
Then you can find really some really expensive examples such as:
- 69 cents per kWh plus a $1.50 connection fee
- $1 per kWh plus $1 connection fee (it’s cheaper on the Nullarbor!)
- $3 per 30 minutes of 7kW charging (an effective rate of 85 cents per kWh, on par with the fastest DC fast charging)
I also question the appropriateness of idle fees at accommodation where overnight charging could finish 3-4 hours before you’re ready to rise. The only way to avoid these fees would be to move your vehicle in the early hours!
What needs to change?
Hotels and motels new to destination charging either don’t know what they pay for electricity or see it as a premium offering. Instead, it needs to be a convenient and inexpensive charging option to attract EV drivers to stay.
Fortunately, history gives us a guide to how this is likely to play out. TVs in hotel rooms in the 1950s were coin-operated. Air conditioned rooms followed and were priced at a higher rate than standard rooms. Now everyone gets air conditioning.
Readers will better remember paying $20-30 for Internet access in hotels that is now universally free. Competition between hotels trying to provide the best guest experience cut the price to zero.
My expectation is that EV drivers will continue to shun these overpriced charging options. It’s not clear how fast it will happen, but the prices will change. Accommodation managers should realise that they need to offer reasonably priced destination charging if they want to attract EV drivers. In many cases, it could even be free.
Ben Elliston is the ACT branch chair of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association.