Of course! There’s no such thing as free lunch, though the amount you pay is pretty negligible. All cars need fuels to keep going and though we are familiar with the measurement unit (gallon) of traditional fuels according to which the car drivers are charged, the measurement unit and cost of refueling the electric car is not that clear. Different charging stations use different pricing schemes for charging. Check out some of the commonly used pricing standards.

Different pricing schemes:

By the hour

Some charging points for electric vehicle charge the customers by the hour – means supplying as much energy as your car has the capacity to take up during that hour. They have set a standard price/per hour for charging, which is usually quite nominal, such as £1.5 per hour and in those 60 minutes, your EV will sufficiently drive 6-10 kilowatts of energy to its battery (depending upon its capacity). However, don’t forget to unplug your vehicle after your battery is full because most of the chargers keep on running meter till your EV is plugged, regardless of whether your EV’s battery is full or not.

Kilowatt-hour:

Some charging stations want their customers to pay according to the kilowatt-hour electricity they derived from the charging point – well that’s quite ambiguous and not many of the EV drivers are familiar with it. Most of the times the administration set the standard rate for kilowatt-hour which in 2019 is around 25p/kWh and thus the charging locations will charge you according to the number of kWh your car has consumed.

Per session Fee:

There are charging stations that have a standard per session fee, no mysterious units or minutes.  This means the one-time fee of plugging your vehicle in the charging point, kind of charging buffet where your car can as much as it has the capacity in one go, above the hours it took or the kilowatts it consumed.

Subscription:

Few charging stations even offer monthly or annual charging plans and you have to pay monthly or annual subscription fee and then charge as much as your EV requires, whenever, wherever you want from that charging company’s charging station. Apps are also available for charge points that let you set the tariff for the EV charging and pay through your app according to your plan.

Free:

Most of the charging stations used to be free, but with the popularity of electric vehicles and they were going mainstream, the public charging points have also increased the cost of replenishing the battery. But still, there are public charging companies that offer free charging, such as most of the Pod Point units provide free charging and Tesla’s Supercharger Network also provide unlimited free charging to the Tesla models that were registered before September 2018. Apart from them, few hotels, supermarkets, retail shops, and business places also have installed charging points at their places where you can charge your EV free of cost. That’s a great business strategy for them as mostly EV users will prefer to visit and shop from such places where while they will be shopping, their EV will be charging, that too without any cost.