On 1st June, we will be adjusting pricing across the Electric Highway to a single price of £0.69p/kWh for DC charging and £0.49p/kWh for standalone AC charging.
We understand that a price increase for DC charging may be unwelcome news. We get it. We also hope you appreciate that GRIDSERVE have held our pricing below that of competing networks for some time now, whilst our cost base has continued to inflate, in some cases above our pricing.
It vitally important that we continue to ramp up investment in chargers, people, materials, and in our supply chain partners, to deliver the infrastructure, services and confidence necessary to support the transition to EVs in the earliest possible timeframes. We need to do this in a way that is sustainable for both our business, and our customers. That’s why we are only marginally increasing pricing, and even at the new levels will remain amongst the most competitively priced charging in the UK for High Power chargers.
Our analysis shows that UK charge point operators who offer speeds 150kW+ are priced from between £0.74p/kWh to £0.85p/kWh so we continue to be significantly lower priced than competitors in the High Power charging market.
Pricing for our High Power chargers will increase by 3p per kWh, to 69p per kWh. To simplify pricing, and also to reduce some confusion around the levels of power delivered, we are also moving all DC chargers, including our Medium Power chargers and those at our Electric Forecourts®, to the same pricing.
One rate for all DC chargers on the GRIDSERVE Electric Highway will avoid unnecessary confusion of different rates at different locations, or even different rates at the same location, where we have multiple charging speeds. While DC charging will increase slightly at this time, we’ve been able to keep our AC chargers at 49p per kWh, to remain as affordable as possible and still below the industry average.
In parallel, we are also updating our Rugby Services Electric Super Hub pre-authorisation limit. While we are able to keep our pre-authorisation to just £1 across the rest of the GRIDSERVE Electric Highway, the Tritium chargers at Rugby need a higher pre-authorisation to begin the charge session. The charger then delivers energy up until it reaches the pre-authorisation limit and stops the charge.
We’ve received a lot of feedback from customers that this is often an inconvenience, as they have to return to their cars to re-start charging when they haven’t reached the required state of charge. In order to try and limit disruption to our customers charging sessions, we are increasing the pre-authorisation limit to £35 at Rugby Services. This is still among the lowest in the industry and we will endeavour to keep it that way.
Price rises will never be welcome news but our promise to you is that we will continue to invest heavily in strengthening the UK’s charging provision so that drivers have the confidence to switch to electric vehicles and the transition to electric happens in the shortest possible timeframes to limit climate change and the negative impact on our planet.
