Agenda item

To respond to any questions received from Members of the Council in accordance with Procedure Rule 11.2.

The deadline for receipt of questions is 5pm on Tuesday 3 December 2019.

42.1    The following question was received from Cllr John Gray:

            “I submit this question as a member (and the owner of an EV) under Procedure rule 11.2.

Would the Council explain why the EV charging point in Cranleigh is from a tied company scheme requiring membership rather than allowing payment to be made by credit card at time of use. The charges for the use is 30p per KW and an additional charge of £1 each time it is used. Could the council explain what other charge structures were considered and do they consider this is a cost effective supply to residents in line with the comments made to the O&S Environment Committee on 25th November page 82 para 3.5.

John Gray”

Response from the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability, Cllr Steve Williams:

“The system operating on our EV charging points is not one that requires a membership. It is a pay as you go system, there is no joining fee and you do not need to pay any monthly subscription. Customers are asked to load money onto an app via a credit or debit card (the user can choose to save the card details in the app if they wish, it is not a requirement to do so). The pre-loaded money is then debited following a charge session, any monies can be refunded at any time, via a simple request on the app.

The tariff is broken into two elements to help with usage. By asking a connection fee, the company can reduce the cost per KW. This encourages the user to take a longer charge and often ensures the charger is free for those who need it. A connection fee is a standard practice in this market, especially when it comes to rapid chargers.

To help show this calculation, shown below are companies who do not charge a connection fee. On average there is a KW take of circa 21KW per vehicle. By using the connection fee (rather than a higher KW cost) our supplier can ensure a cost effective charge for users.

21KW take:

Geniepoint total cost : £7.30 (30p per KW, £1 connection fee)

Ecotricity: £8.19 (39p per KW, no connection fee)

Shell recharge: £8.19 (39p per KW, no connection fee)

Instavolt: £7.35 (35p per KW, no connection fee)

This shows that our tariff (Geniepoint) becomes a far more cost effective way of charging a user. As battery sizes increase and charges become longer, this cost gap will only increase in favour of our customers. The machines also have tri-headed rapid chargers (AC & DC connections) unlike some of the companies mentioned above. This ensures ANYONE, hybrid or EV, can take a charge from our chargers.

In terms of contactless payment, this is something the company are currently looking into and they are planning to roll this out across our network in the spring/summer of 2020.”

42.2    Cllr Gray responded to make a point of personal explanation, and thanked Cllr Williams for his detailed response and hoped there would be further dialogue. He continued to say that with GeniePoint, there was a £9 charge for an RFID card to use the service. And, according to the Zap-Map comparison site  the Ecotricity charge was 30p/kW, not 39p; and Shell Recharge was 25p/kW, not 39p. The charge for GeniePoint came to the same rate as Instavolt when the £1 connection fee was added, which showed that great care was needed in making comparisons of charges.