Electrify America Is Completely Changing Its Pricing Structure

Pass+ members will pay a higher monthly fee, consistent pricing across the network will be discontinued, and idle pricing will soon apply.

Electrify America sent out an email this week to inform customers that significant billing changes will be implemented across its network on August 17th this year. We reached out to the company to clarify some of the new rules before reporting on this important topic.

Whether you’re an occasional user or a regular customer, if you’re on the Electrify America network, you’ll want to know that these very important changes will take effect in less than a month.

New pricing rules

In addition to the updates to our Terms of Use and Arbitration Rules, there are three important changes that affect the amount you pay to use the Electrify America network after the new rules come into effect.

There are three main price changes:

1. The monthly fee for Pass+ subscribers will increase from $4.00 to $7.00. This equates to an additional $36/year ($84/year compared to $48/year previously). Pass+ members continue to receive a 25% discount off the per kWh or per minute price, depending on the state they are charging in.
2. Electrify America is moving away from nationwide set pricing to a station-specific pricing model that is subject to change. The Electrify America app displays station-specific prices, but the company encourages members to always check station prices upon arrival, as the prices listed in the app may be incorrect.
3. Electrify America will start charging an idle fee at most locations nationwide. You will be charged $0.40 per minute until the customer unplugs the vehicle from the charger after a 10 minute grace period.

The monthly fee for Pass+ members should not be enough for regular users to continue their subscription. However, if he only used it occasionally and he didn’t mind the $48 annual fee to get a 25% discount when using the network, do the math and think twice. I still believe that if she uses the network at least once a month, she will likely recover at least $7.00 from the 25% savings and remain profitable after paying the monthly fee.

Dynamic station-specific pricing is probably the biggest change. Electrify America will no longer have consistent pricing across its network. Instead, all stations are priced according to what the network pays for their area, with a built-in profit margin. Anyone who has followed this industry would have seen this change happening at some point because, in my opinion, it was inevitable.

This is because electricity prices vary greatly from country to country. It doesn’t make sense for Electrify America and other charging networks to charge the same price in one region as another when the price of electricity could quadruple. Tesla also employs site-specific charging, which fluctuates rates depending on when you use the Supercharger.

The final price change is something the network is very happy to do: the idle fee. Once your EV stops charging, remove it from the charger so that someone else can use the plug. But without penalties for not following the rules, abuse would always happen and that’s what’s happening now. I’ve seen it many times. A fully charged car is left unattended and the owner is nowhere to be found.

Others cannot use the station because the connector is locked to the vehicle. Electrify America always threatened to charge an idle fee, but in fact never charged for vehicle idle time. The company has now announced that it will start charging customers $0.40 per minute after a 10-minute grace period if the vehicle remains plugged in after charging is finished. Tesla charges him $0.50 per minute for idling, and if the entire site is in use, the penalty is doubled to $1.00 per minute. Personally, I think Electrify America should allow him to double the penalty even if the site is 100% full for him.

Check out the video and let us know what you think about the new pricing rules in the comments section below.