Kia Select plan from Electrify America lowers fast charging costs

Domenick

Domenick

Well-Known Member
Electrify America has announced a "Kia Select" plan that will lower the fast charging costs for Niro EV owners.

Basically, it puts the Kia Niro EV in a lower pricing tier that more accurately reflects its charging speed. Electrify America puts vehicles in 3 different charging tiers assigned by the power rate they are capable of. However, the Niro EV usually charges at a slightly lower maximum rate than what it communicates to the charger.

The plan offers a flat rate of 35 cents per minute for Niro EV drivers and is available until the end of the year (not sure how things may change going forward from there). Anyway, this change could halve what some have been paying for that DC juice.

So, will this make you more likely to visit an Electrify America station?
 
Still a ripoff. Some of the EVGo stations in CA charge less than that per kW, not per minute. Any per minute plan is pure nonsense when the per-minute amount of power delivered varies so much based on SOC and battery temperature on most EVs.
 
This is great news, these costs are the same that we've been paying for EVgo and Chargepoint locally already. Our family has not been using Electrify America chargers because of the high costs, but we've got EA chargers all over locally and we will now!
 
I recently drove more than 8800 miles during a 2-month camping road trip across the country. I charged at EA stations for more than 20 hours total and at least 15 different sites. During that entire time I paid for Tier 2 even though I received above 74 kW for about 5-minutes out of 20 hours. That is what I call a rip-off. EA provides zero customer satisfaction. Calling them is the most frustrating experience imaginable. This new Kia Select pricing is still a rip-off, as for more than half of my charging sessions EA never supplied more than 50-kW, and one time I charged for more than an hour and the rate never exceeded 28 kW. Still billed at Tier 2 for the entire session. I will continue to avoid EA whenever possible. There software is nothing but bugs, and their customer service sets the standard for the worst in the US.
 
2-Dog Niro said:
I recently drove more than 8800 miles during a 2-month camping road trip across the country. I charged at EA stations for more than 20 hours total and at least 15 different sites. During that entire time I paid for Tier 2 even though I received above 74 kW for about 5-minutes out of 20 hours. That is what I call a rip-off. EA provides zero customer satisfaction. Calling them is the most frustrating experience imaginable. This new Kia Select pricing is still a rip-off, as for more than half of my charging sessions EA never supplied more than 50-kW, and one time I charged for more than an hour and the rate never exceeded 28 kW. Still billed at Tier 2 for the entire session. I will continue to avoid EA whenever possible. There software is nothing but bugs, and their customer service sets the standard for the worst in the US.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you've been let down like that. It looks like they're trying to improve but really, they need to address customers like you who they have failed.
 
2-Dog Niro said:
..... I will continue to avoid EA whenever possible. There software is nothing but bugs, and their customer service sets the standard for the worst in the US.
Click to expand...

I submitted a case with EA to get a refund for the fraudulent billing practice... they called me to follow up but cared nothing about correcting the billing.
They had the gall to try and sell me the Pass plan. I almost lost it with the poor customer support girl on the phone, but I could tell she was just following a script - clearly management had a policy in place to keep screwing Kia owners.
 
ZoomSmith said:
I submitted a case with EA to get a refund for the fraudulent billing practice... they called me to follow up but cared nothing about correcting the billing.
They had the gall to try and sell me the Pass plan. I almost lost it with the poor customer support girl on the phone, but I could tell she was just following a script - clearly management had a policy in place to keep screwing Kia owners.
Click to expand...
Include Hyundai in that:(
 
For-EV-R said:
Tom Molog reported that they added feedback to receipts recently.
https://insideevs.com/news/420341/electrify-america-customer-satisfaction-survey/

Has anyone seen this and if there is a place to add comments, I wonder what they'll do with a bunch of negative feedback? It should have never taken them this long to fix the Kia/Hyundai pricing and it still seems too high for what the vehicles actually pull.
Click to expand...
Incentive such as a free charge coupon for a genuine response might help as most people will just ignore it without motivation.
 
I don't see the Kia Select option in the Premium plan list when going through the initial sign up on the EA app.

So, if I want to sign up for the "Kia Select" rate plan with EA, do I have to first sign up and choose the Pass option that will charge my card $10 to pre-fill my account? And then somehow switch over?

I'm not intending to use EA on a regular basis, but wanted to have the app and account ready to go, just in case. Don't really want to give them $10 that will just sit there, if I don't have to. :-)
 
The Kia Select plan just ended but the great news for Niro EV owners is that the replacement plan only has two tiers and the lowest tier goes up to 90 kW. I’m expecting to get priced at the lowest tier but I haven’t tried to charge at an EA station yet. The cost for the lowest tier in Texas is $0.12 which is about a third of what I was paying under the Kia Select plan.


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
(Posted by me in reddit)

Likewise here in Virginia. The per minute pricing is better. The per kWh pricing is still a little steep, unless you pay the monthly $4 for Pass+.
Comparison of a recent charging session:

  1. Kia Select Plan (what I paid): 26 kWh, 29.25 mins, $10.24 (that comes to $0.39/kWh)

  2. Per min: @ $0.16/min, $4.68 (VA pricing for lower tier)

  3. Per kWh: @ $0.43/kWh, $11.18 (NC pricing, as per kWh not available here)

  4. Per kWh: @ $0.31/kWh, $8.06 (NC Pass+, as per kWh not available here)
 
davidtm said:
(Posted by me in reddit)

Likewise here in Virginia. The per minute pricing is better. The per kWh pricing is still a little steep, unless you pay the monthly $4 for Pass+.
Comparison of a recent charging session:

  1. Kia Select Plan (what I paid): 26 kWh, 29.25 mins, $10.24 (that comes to $0.39/kWh)

  2. Per min: @ $0.16/min, $4.68 (VA pricing for lower tier)

  3. Per kWh: @ $0.43/kWh, $11.18 (NC pricing, as per kWh not available here)

  4. Per kWh: @ $0.31/kWh, $8.06 (NC Pass+, as per kWh not available here)
Click to expand...

I think the place you really come out ahead is in the winter when the charging rates are reduced due to temperature.
 
These guys are not stupid. They carefully selected numbers so their profit margins remains the same or higher compared to the older per-minute plans. For those who regularly arrived at chargers with optimal low battery SOC and high battery temperature, the per-kWh pricing will actually be much higher compared to their revised per-minute rates.

Let's say you arrive at optimal charging conditions and could peak at 72 kW.

Under previous KIA Plan costing 0.35 per minute:
$0.35 * 30 minutes = $10.50 for 36 kW delivered.

Under new per-kWh plans, the cost of those same 36 kW:
$0.31 per-kWh * 36 kW = $11:16 (with $4 monthly plan)
$0.43 per-kWh * 36 kW = $15.48 (without monthly plan)

Under new per-minute plans (where available):
$0.12 * 30 = $3.6 (with $4 monthly plan)
$0.16 * 30 = $4.8 (without monthly plan)

Maybe you'll save a little under situations where charging rates were sub-optimal due to high SOC or low battery temperature. Averaged over a whole year, this will probably make no difference. I think this is why they dragged their feet with all these price changes. They were collecting enough charging history data to be confident of what these changes would do to their bottom line.
 
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