IS THE ELECTRIC CAR DEAD?

Osprey Charging announce a price increase to £1 per kWh, increasing costs massively for higher mileage drivers or those without home charging. Will this kill EV adoption stone dead as the doomsayers are predicting?

00:00 Intro
00:49 EV Running Costs
01:49 ICE Running Costs
02:58 Comparison
03:54 Statement from Osprey's CEO, Ian Johnston
05:35 It's a bigger problem than one network
06:05 Other networks will increase their prices too
06:30 Supermarket rapids won't save you
08:16 Rant at the right people!

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[garrycroft]

My story so far. Firstly I can’t charge at home so public charging costs hit me 100%. When I got my first electric car a great number of chargers were Free. Up to June 2021 bp pulse was 15p kwh for a rapid 50kw. Going forward with the rise in October and January EVs will be much more expensive than fossil fuelled cars. This gap will get much wider as the price of Crude Oil has fallen from $125 to $85 a barrel. It’s going to be very hard for me but would I go back to a petrol powered car? Not on your life.

[ppower]

I run a very efficient Ioniq and do 95% charging at home overnight 👍🤣 The government need to break the link between gas and electricity prices, up to half UK electricity comes from low cost renewables.

[malcolmfowler]

It's interesting that Osprey deliberately breached the £1/kWh which they must have known would draw attention to their price increase. No attempt to charge 95p/99p. Unlike petrol/diesel where prices are always £179.9/£189.9 etc.
Most companies try to avoid drawing too much attention to their price increases. But I suspect Osprey WANT this price increase to be noticed.

[JulianIlett]

My local PodPoint is still 14p per kWh. Only 7kW though and it drops to 3.6kW after half an hour. Although Tesco is free, it's getting more difficult to get a charger there even at quiet times of the day. I'm guessing the PodPoint chargers are subsidised by the shops in the retail park. Most times I'm the only car using them.

[Bongybill]

I'm quite lucky at the moment. Local journeys only and fortunate enough to live close to two sites that still offer free charging (albeit 7kw). I utilise these and also on a protected energy deal until middle of 2023 at 0.18 kwh. I'm sure the free charge points will cease to exist at some point in the near future.
Will review the situation next year

[matthewwakeham]

In Europe they are looking at capping renewables at €0.18 /kWh. That may bring the overall price down but if you think about it paying extortionate prices for renewables is going to drive investment in them as the profits are currently huge. Having more renewables will bring the prices down albeit it may take a few years depending on the scale of building.
People need to be a less precious about having windfarms and solar parks near them and they should also be compensated with cheaper electricity.
I do believe Europe is right to decouple renewable prices from oil/gas but it may stifle growth in that sector.

[jarthurs]

The gulf between those that can charge at home on cheap overnight tariffs and those who are forced to pay for rapid charging is getting larger and this may well stunt the growth of EVs, but lets face it the long lead time and haphazard supply chain isn't helping the cause either.

If the reason you're driving an EV is economic, then it isn't looking great. Even with the lack of VED and lower servicing costs the break even point is beginning to tip back in favour of ICE vehicles. Lets just hope that the global energy crisis forces some longer term thinking about energy dependency, rather than the current sticking plaster solutions.

[davidsworld]

We miss that petrol will increase in price as it needs electricity to be made.
The chances of petrol going down in price and staying there are remote.
We miss out that not all journey will require street charging. and that any car leaving home will have a full charge and so a Number of miles it can go before it need to charge. and this will be got at the lower house unit price.
This is a blip and every thing has been effected look at food. the thing comes is a petrol car Needs other money spending on it which all add to the mileage cost. servicing replacing the oil etc, road tax, its not just straight down to the price of the car fuel.
by fueling with electricity there is a better chance to charge and come in less than the max with petrol there is not

[grahamleiper]

It's actually getting to the point where you wonder if a diesel generator might be a cheaper source of electricity than the mains, at least for businesses that don't get the price cap.

[duncanheyes]

👍🏻Totally agree with what your saying, the Government has to be seen to do something to help businesses, VAT reduction or elimination from charging suppliers to start. I for one will not go back to an ICE vehicle, as one of many reasons was to try and reduce my carbon footprint albeit in a small way, current estimate after 8 months of owning an EV of 1 Tonne reduction. Based on the data from Charge place Scotland Portal tracker, this obviously does not include any home charging or charging away from CPS points.

[martinbaum]

If you're a company car driver, then of course saving a load in BIK tax (around £100 a month in my case). My local podpoint is about to start charging, but around same price as for charging at home. Even their rapid 50kwh chargers only charging at 40p, so Osprey seems unusually high. got to the end of the video, so get your point!

[glennpowell]

My wife has an EV.Yes she has a home charger which is 7 kw/h.The current infratucture charge up to a pound plus per kw/h.There are no where enough charging points in England as it stands and the companies fitting them are on a cash cow.Its a failing system already.Queing behind a car that has just plugged in for an hour etc etc.Its a system that doesnt work at all yet and in the UK as it stands will never work AND the companies fitting them have a free range on pricing.They could carge a tenner a KW/h knowing people need them.Energy is a cash cow now.You cant expect private suppliers to cap costs.

[johndoyle]

Thanks, it is inevitable. However, Solar, Octopus, Tesco, and a long range car, keep my cost down to 2p/mile.
I do not mind too much paying for rapid chargers as use is very low, I am happy to pay a premium for reliability, availability, and no queues, but crappy non working BP and others, you know who you are, no way.

[deansh]

Doesn't bother me as 99.5% of my energy usage is done at home. I'm more than happy to pay a premium at a rapid charger if I get a good service.

Unfortunately it doesn't bode well at all for people who do not charge at home.

The goverment seriously need to consider dropping VAT from 20% to 5%.

[pauldenney]

This is a blip, if prices stay this high for much longer it will crash the economies of the EU and UK and we will have way more to worry about than £1 per kWh to charge our EVs for long journeys.

[daveiwhittle]

Whatever people may think hitting that price point will damage both Osprey and the EV market. It's getting quite marginal now if you don't have off peak and rely on public charging . We have two EVs and now looking to get rid of one

[LotCARS]

The only economic combination will be home charging + low consumption per mile + long range. In reality, used like this, EVs (without the maths) should probably be more economical. Public charging will be the equivalent of filling up with fuel at the motorway services.. but maintaining a network is not without cost.

[neillgatley]

As soon as minister and MP's drive EV's the policies will become a priority. Great video. No easy answers to this problem. It's possible that we could see a rollercoaster of marketing prices for energy as we transition away from fossils.

[Petelmrg]

Thanks for a non-ranty clear explanation of the situation; we don't have home charging but Im positive that this is a 'blip' as was the £2+ diesel prices a while back; longer term the continual burning of fossils fuels isn't an option.

[antoniopalmero]

I think supermarket carparks are the key to mass charging.