Electrify America to Charge by kWh, Not Minute

Electrify America has announced it will start charging a per-kilowatt-hour rate in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

• The initial rate per minute for Electrify America subscribers will be $0.31 per kWh and $0.43 per kWh for all others.
• Electrify America says it’s working to expand the per-kWh charge to other states but has to work through legal hurdles to pull it off.

The first time a new EV owner pulled up to a charging station, they might have been confused. Unlike gas stations, many EV charging stations charge a per-minute rate. Regardless of how much power has been delivered to a vehicle, the final price is determined on how long it spends tethered to the station. But starting today, Electrify America is changing that in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

The charging-station company announced that in some states it will charge $0.31 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for those who subscribe to the company's $4-per-month Pass+ program and $0.43 per kWh for all others. While Electrify America said that it would have been happy to roll out the change from per-minute to per-kWh charging nationwide, there are a variety of laws that keep that from happening, and the company said it's trying to figure out how to make that switch while staying in compliance.

In the places where the change has been made, the $0.31-per-kWh rate will be available at all charge stations, regardless of charge rate. Electrify America said that it may get into a more regional pricing structure later on. A lot of that depends on utility pricing, the competitive market, and the price of gas to make sure that EV charging is competitive to the rate of refueling a gas vehicle.

As for the states that require a per-minute rate, Electrify America prices will start at $0.12 a minute nationwide for subscribers and start at $0.16 a minute for all others. For both types of pricing, the company has removed additional per-session fees.

The company says that 78 percent of its customers are in the regions that are switching to the per-kWh rate. So forcurrent and new EV owners in those states, charging an EV just got more like refueling a gasoline-powered car. Which makes more sense and seems fairer than the per-minute rate that's been the norm for far too long.