Ivy’s Charge & Go electric vehicle (EV) charging network has switched to kWh-pricing in Ontario, billing you by the amount of energy you consume, rather than by how long you are plugged in.
According to an update on Ivy’s website, their EV charging stations at all ONroute locations across the province now cost $0.62/kWh, including tax. Interestingly, Ivy’s announcement says this is a pilot program and uses the words “base rate” to describe the new rate, implying that not all stations will be at $0.62/kWh, and that some will be higher. We have reached out to Ivy for clarification, and will update this article once we receive a response.
UPDATE 12:15pm PT: Ivy confirmed with us that all ONroute stations will be at $0.62/kWh. They have now removed the wording “base rate” to avoid confusion.
Under the previous per-minute billing method, it would cost EV owners $0.40/minute ($23.73/hour) to plug in at an Ivy charging station.
Depending on what time of the day you plug in and where, charging your Tesla at an Ivy station could be cheaper. During peak hours, which are from 1:00pm until 8:00pm, Supercharging now costs as much as $0.73/kWh at some Supercharger stations in Ontario after Tesla increased prices in August. During off-peak hours those rates can drop as low as $0.34/kWh.
Ivy now becomes the third EV charging network in Canada to bill drivers per kWh, instead of by the minute. Measurement Canada approved the fairer billing method in February this year, allowing existing EV charging providers to make the switch. Due to a complicated application process it took longer than expected, but Couche-Tard (Circle K) was first to switch in June (after a false start in March), followed by Tesla switching to kWh billing in August.
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