The cost for a charge on Bookmycharge is either a simple flat-rate amount set by the chargepoint owner for the service they provide or the owner may elect to charge per hour of plugged in time. As an EV driver or a chargepoint owner, you can go with what suits you best. We've elected to keep the system quite simple as it could quickly become really complicated to set up and use.

As well as daytime charging sessions, chargepoint owners can also opt to offer overnight charging. This is particularly useful for some EV drivers, particularly near neighbours without their own off-road charging. The pricing for overnight charging is generally set as a flat rate because the length of time the car is parked up is often longer than the actual time spent charging. If such a session was charged per hour it might become prohibitively expense for a long stay.

The cost of a Bookmycharge session is set by the chargepoint owner, whether by session or by hour. The price point per charge typically comes out in the £5 - £9 range but some owners pitch it higher and some lower. As a chargepoint owner you set the price to fit with the amount you pay for power and an amount to make it worthwhile providing the service and the space.

In terms of hourly pricing, a simplistic calculation of the 'cost' of providing a charge is that a 7kW charger (the most common domestic unit), can supply up to 7kW of electricity per hour. This you can work out the broad cost by multiply 7kW x the price per kW. Therefore, if you pay your power supplier 25p/kW, the theoretical maximum base cost is £1.75 per hour. Simply decide how much you want to charge on top of that to make it worthwhile.

Likewise, the savvy owner of an EV can work out the amount of charge they need and thus work out how long they might need to plug in, or how much time they have available. The size of the battery varies a lot between different EV makes and models and the amount of power need to fill up depends on the battery state at the start, so power consumption and time can vary considerably.

For pricing comparison, commercial charging networks have a broad span of per kW rates often depending on whether the user is a paid subscriber to the service, or is using pay-as-you-go. Very fast charging tend to be levied at a higher rate than the longer-dwell options. Also, some commercial chargepoints may be subsidised, such as in supermarket carparks. Example pay-as-you-go rates range from 26p per kW to as much as 69p per kW and these are moving in step with both national power prices and as network owners respond to commercial imperatives to recoup some of their investment in the infrastructure.

No VAT is payable on the basic fee set by the chargepoint owner, but we pass on the small Stripe banking fee per transaction, and a modest Bookmycharge service fee, which is 10% + VAT if you have a chargepoint listed on Bookmycharge, or 20% + VAT if you don't.

If you are planning a journey and can't see a Bookmycharge location for a charge, do ask us to help. Send an email to support@bookmycharge.com and tell us where you are going and when, and we will use social media to appeal for someone to step up.