With a privatised energy market in Australia, there’s plenty of competition. With lots of households considering adding an EV to their garage (at least one side), then the cost of charging that electric vehicle at home needs to be considered.
As we’ve reported in the past with EV review vehicles, you could be up for $4-5 per night for the energy used to top up the vehicle. Given the amount of EVs on the market in Australia has dramatically grown over the last few years, the most recent being the Tesla Model 3, this problem is going to be one made by an increasing number of households.
Back in 2016, AGL was incredibly progressive with an offer of A$1 per day to charge your EV as much as you want. This worked by installing a dedicated circuit to charge from.
In a post on their website, AGL were setting up for a rethink of this deal (see below), when they promoted an updated Electric Car Plan listed an early 2019 release, given we’re already mid-2019, it’s now well overdue.
The Driven got their hands on an email that went out to an interested EV owner that details some important flexibility, like no lock-in contracts and the ability to charge whenever you want, 24/7.
While it’s great to have that confirmed, along with an annual credit of $25 per month, this doesn’t tell us the full picture of what the new plan will cost.
With an EV, you’ll almost certainly need to charge it more often than you fuel up a ICE vehicle, but that doesn’t mean its another nightly charge like your smartphone. 2-3 charges per week may cost you $10, or around $40 per month to charge your car, then AGL would give you $24pm back, leaving you with $16 of cost to charge your car, or close to $0.50 per day, rather than the original $1.
The problem with these numbers are that they change considerably based on your usage, the size of battery in your EV and if you use any other charging than at home. In the best case, this could be much better, in the worst case, it could cost you more. We look forward to more information from AGL Energy on this.
Charging details Portable Charger Connector Charging at home Charge (extension) Charging at home Charging at parents
If you’re keen to be notified when the new place is available, you can register your interest here.
The Electric Car Plan (“$1 a day for unlimited home EV charging”) was in the market from November 2016 until November 2018. This two-year trial was market-leading, not just in Australia, but globally. It was our first entry product trial for home EV charging, and we learnt a lot about the early adopters who have taken the leap to drive electric mobility here in Australia.
We now better understand our EV customers’ needs and are currently working on a new version of the Electric Car Plan that will be released to market in early 2019.
If you own an EV, or are thinking about buying an EV, leave your name and email below so we can let you know once the new Electric Car Plan becomes available.
If you would like to be even more involved and help us with our development of the new Electric Car Plan, please tick the box for market research. We would love to get your thoughts on the product concepts we’re currently reviewing.
Via The Driven.
