Simplification of charging rates with the Chargemap Pass from the 13th of December

On Thursday 13th of December 2018, Chargemap will reorganise its charging rates to make them simpler and easier to understand for Chargemap Pass users.

Since the creation of Chargemap in 2011, our mission has always been to simplify and improve the charging experience for drivers of electric cars. This is what motivated the pricing reorganisation that will be effective on Thursday.

Different pricing policies depending on the network

As you know if you regularly use public charging stations, the rates vary enormously from one charging station to another. Operators and communities have a wide variety of tariff policies and sometimes it is difficult to find your way around them.

Some networks charge for time spent, others for energy consumed, others per visit. Some combine many of these criteria. Others charge by time interval (for example, per hour when charge started). Some charge more beyond a certain duration.

In the end, it is difficult for the user to compare rates, and sometimes even understand them!

Difficult for the users to understand some betworks’ prices…

New pricing at Chargemap

When we launched the Chargemap Pass, we chose to bill users for charging with exactly the same logic as the one applied by the operator, based on the charging purchasing costs.

This summer, we introduced charging fees to cover our Pass operations costs (our technical team, bank charges and recovery, connection fees to operators, our call center, etc.).

When it happened, some of you questioned us about the operation of Chargemap fees, which lacks forward thinking. We listened to your remarks and we decided to change our way of working.

From Thursday, we will remove these fixed charges and we will incorporate our margin directly into the charge rates. This pricing will be fairer and less complex, especially in the case of “small top ups”.

Chargemap charging fees will be removed

A rate per minute and/or kWh as a preference

As drivers of electric cars, our belief is that there are two appropriate ways of being invoiced for a charge: the time spent and/or the energy consumed.

In the context of time invoicing, it is much more accurate to charge per minute and not per “period”. Some networks charge for a one hour charging, even if you only charged for a few minutes. We want to avoid that.

Many drivers of electric vehicles prefer to be charged for the energy consumed, and for this it seems logical to charge per kWh, again without using set tranches.

From Thursday, Chargemap will no longer strictly apply the rates of the operator, but will promote billing on a per minute and/or kWh, fairer for drivers of electric cars.

A fair price

While we have managed to “smooth” the rates by reducing them to a per minute or kWh billing for many networks, we could not do it in all cases.

In fact, in some cases, operators charge additional fees beyond a certain period so that the space is released quickly. In other cases, a free period is applied for a certain time (at night, for example).

We have chosen to manage these exceptions by offering you a price which is adapted to the use of these networks:

• The reduced period: this is a time period during which the price is reduced. It is applied every day of the week.
• Occupancy costs: this is a rate that is applied only after a specified period of time, to promote vehicles rotation at the charging station.

Last exception: in rare cases, network pricing imposed us the generation of charging launch fees, under penalty of charging our users unfairly. We limit these cases to the absolute minimum.

A clearer display

The last thing we needed to improve was the display of the pricing.

In some cases, operators may charge different rates depending on the charging power delivered to the charging stations connectors.

In our mobile applications and on our website, we have always displayed prices in a single frame. It showed all the prices according to the charge power, which is not always clear.

From Thursday, rates will be posted directly at the connector level on both mobile apps and website. In order to benefit from this new price display, you must use the update that will be released next week.

Corri-door charging pool new prices display

A streamlined price structure

As petrol prices, the amount invoiced for charging can change. Networks can develop their own pricing or Chargemap can adjust its prices to make them fairer.

Now that the Chargemap Pass has a great number of users, we have the possibility to work with operators to improve charging prices. In doing this, we hope that the whole community will benefit from increasingly better charging prices.

We advise you to check prices on our website or on the Chargemap mobile app before charging, as indicated in our Terms & Conditions.

In summary

• Thursday’s update will simplify pricing for Chargemap Pass charging and make it more progressive.
• This step is necessary for us to offer you new services, such as estimating the cost of a charge and estimating the cost of an itinerary on which you will use the Chargemap Pass.
• This update was essential for us to accelerate the connection of new charging networks. By the end of the month, we will almost double the number of charging stations compatible with the Chargemap Pass… we will of course keep you in touch!

Photo credits: ©Chargemap