The deal with Kia will lower the cost for charging, but only temporarily.
Electrify America, together with Kia Motors America, has announced the “Kia Select” plan, created to address billing problems that Kia Niro EV owners experience while using the Electrify America network. The plan is identical to the Hyundai Select plan that was introduced last month.
For those not familiar with this issue, let us explain. Electrify America’s pricing structure has three pricing tiers, and customers pay based on the maximum charging rate the vehicle is capable of accepting. We highlighted the word capable because the car doesn’t actually need to accept that level of power during the charging session, it just needs to be capable of charging at that level in order to be placed in the higher tier pricing.
Electrify America’s California Pricing. Pricing is different from state to state.
The vehicle may not accept the full charge rate during the session because there are factors that will throttle back what power the car accepts, like battery temperature and the vehicle’s current state of charge. During the initial handshake when the customer plugs in, the car tells the charging station what it’s capable of accepting, and that rate is used to establish what pricing tier the vehicle will be assigned to.
“Electrify America has worked closely with Kia Motors America to develop a pricing program that recognizes the unique charging profile of the Kia Niro EV, and enhances the charging experience of Niro EV drivers” said Wayne Killen, director of infrastructure planning and business development at Electrify America. “While we will continue to offer ways to facilitate the mobility of EV drivers with our rapidly expanding ultra-fast nationwide charging network, we encourage all our customers to stay at home as much as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, and abide by all government and CDC guidelines.”
The problem with the Kia Niro EV (and as well as the Hyundai Kona Electric) is that when the vehicle initially communicates with the Electrify America station, the vehicle tells the station that it is capable of accepting 77kW. That puts it just slightly over the threshold for the middle-tier pricing.
However, the Niro EV rarely ever accepts over 70 kW, so the vehicle really shouldn’t be in the middle-tier pricing tier, it should be in the lowest tier, which would allow Niro EV owners to pay the significantly-lower tier 1 per-minute fee.
This issue can more than double the cost of charging and has had many Niro EV owners reach out to us and say they won’t use the Electrify America network until they correct what they view as an unfair pricing scheme.
The new Kia Select program offers a flat rate of 35 cents per-minute for Kia Niro EV drivers, which for some drivers, could cut the cost of charging a Niro EV in half. The program also waives session fees and has no subscription fees for participants.
“Working with Electrify America to offer the ‘Kia Select’ charging program to our valued Niro EV drivers is the latest embodiment of Kia’s Give It Everything philosophy,” said Michael Cole, president, Kia Motors America. “We believe this value-priced program will encourage more consumers to take advantage of the newest, fastest EV charging technology available, ensuring the charging experience matches the fun-to-drive EV model our customers have come to know and love.”
This deal with Kia mirrors the deal Electrify America struck with Hyundai Motors in March, and at the time we offered a more detailed analysis of the issue. Since this is exactly the same issue, and exactly the same solution, we’ll direct you to the comprehensive post we made on this a few weeks ago, if you want a more detailed explanation of what the issue is and how Electrify America is working to resolve it.
It is also important to note that this is only a temporary solution. The Kia Select plan is only valid until December 31st, 2020. We don’t yet know what happens after that, but we’re pretty confident there will be a permanent solution in place so that Kia and Hyundai owners won’t need to sign up for a special plan in order to get fair pricing.
So if you drive a Kia Niro EV and use the Electrify America network, head over the Electrify America’s website and join the Kia Select plan, your wallet will thank you for it. Also, check out the Kia Niro Forum for discussions among other Niro EV owners and enthusiasts.
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