Business

ESB to cut EV charging tariffs by up to 13%

State-owned utility will also introduce contactless payment at all high-power charging stations

ESB said it will introduce contactless payment at all high-power charging stations from Friday. Photograph: ESB

Ian Curran
Thu Jun 20 2024 - 08:28

ESB’s electric vehicle (EV) charging platform has announced price cuts of up to 13 per cent across its network of chargers in the Republic from Friday amid declining wholesale energy costs.

Ecars, the State-owned group’s EV division, will also introduce contactless payments at all high-power charging stations from the end of the week.

The reductions will see unit rates for high-power chargers – equivalent to 200 kilowatts – fall by 13 per cent, fast chargers down by 12 per cent and standard chargers by 8 per cent, ESB said in a statement on Thursday.

The group is also replacing the €8 overstay fee, which currently applies after 45 minutes on fast and high-power chargers and after 10 hours on standards chargers, replaced by an incremental fee “to further encourage drivers to free up charge points for other drivers when finished charging”, it said.

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The new overstay fee structure is 50 cent per minute and kicks in after 45 minutes on high-power and fast chargers and after 10 hours on standard chargers.

John Byrne, head of mobility at ESB, said the reductions follow falls in wholesale energy prices over recent months. “We keep our prices under constant review and are committed to providing value to our customers with competitive prices.”

ESB, which operates a network of some 1,600 chargers across the Republic, is also encouraging EV drivers to turn on notifications on the ESB Ecar Connect app to keep track of their overstay fees.

Wholesale electricity prices fell by almost 30 per cent in the year to the end of April, the last month for which Central Statistics Office (CSO) data is available, as energy prices generally continued to decline from the 2022 peak.

Meanwhile, CSO figures published last week showed a further decline in EV sales in the first five months of the year. Industry groups have speculated that inadequate charging infrastructure in parts of the country coupled with the Government’s decision to slash the electric vehicles grant from €5,000 to €3,500 last year are contributing to the drop-off.

Ian Curran

Ian Curran

Ian Curran is a Business reporter with The Irish Times

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