Electric vehicle owners face 50pc increase in cost to charge up at public ESB chargers from next month

Published on 21 November, 2022

Overview

Owners of electric vehicles will be paying up to 50pc more to charge up their EVs at public charge points from next month.

The ESB has announced that from December 20, prices to charge their electric cars at the company’s 1,350 public charge points will go up significantly due to increases in the wholesale cost of electricity.

The rate hikes were posted on the ESB’s website on Monday and come at a time of renewed focus on reducing emissions, although transport minister Eamon Ryan last week admitted he wanted to drop a target of 1 million electric cars on Irish roads by 2030.

“At ESB, we strive to keep our prices as low and as competitive as possible. However, due to the continued considerable increases in the wholesale cost of electricity in Ireland, as well as in Europe, we need to increase the price of charging across the network in order to maintain our level of service,” the announcement read.

EV owners on the ESB’s Pay as You Go plan will see the Standard Charging rate increase from 37.5 cent per kilowatt hour (c/kWh) to 56.3c/kWh

The Fast Charging rate will increase from 43.2c/kWh to 64.7c/kWh. The High Power Charging rate will also increase from 46.1c/kWh to 68.2c/kWh.

EV owners on the ESB’s Membership plan will also see their Standard Charging rates increase from 33.6 c/kWh to 50.9 c/kWh, the Fast Charging rate increase from 39.4 c/kWh to 58.6c/kWh and the High Power Charging rate increase from 42.3c/kWh to 61.7c/kWh.

There is no change in the monthly subscription fee of €4.79.

However, the unit rate for EV owners on Fleet Charging plans will also see rates increase to 48.4c/kWh for a Standard charge, 55.7 c/kWh for a Fast charge and 58.6 c/kWh for a High Power charge.

The new rates will be posted on the ecar Connect app, according to the statement.

A spokesman for the ESB said the rate hikes, while substantial, were necessary in the current environment.

"This increase is unfortunately unavoidable due to the continued significant increases in the wholesale cost of electricity in Ireland and across Europe,” he told Independent.ie.

“ESB remains committed to offering the most competitive rates available and work hard to keep the cost of charging as low as possible.”