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Kia Charge

6K views 32 replies 12 participants last post by  Edd Beesley 
#1 ·
I've just spotted this press release about a new charging service that Kia is launching in Europe and coming to the UK before the end of the year.

It is called Kia Charge and will require use of an RFID card or app and is using Digital Charging Solutions that was founded by BMW and Daimler.

Kia launches pan-European public charging service
 
#3 ·
#8 ·
Few people will use the service unless the price is lower. It's inconvenient having multiple apps/RFID tags, but £ is what will get people to adopt.
I agree, but how about if they can integrate it in the navigation!!! It will be a winner, and the small inconvenience of RFID will not be show-stopper. But we can only hope...
 
#16 ·
There's 3 plans, Easy, Plus and Advanced. Easy is without monthly costs, Plus is €3.95 per month and Advanced is €6.99 per month.

  • With Easy you pay the standard prices per charger (depends of course on the network) and €0.49 to initiate a session. They also charge €2.95 for signup and the card.
  • With Plus there's no signup nor session costs but apparently (no info yet) prices per kWh are the same as with Easy.
  • With Advanced AC charging is €0.28 and DC charging is €0.37 per kWh (I assume that is VAT inclusive).

In ALL plans Ionity costs €0.79 / kWh! Blooming extorsionists.....
 
#15 ·
Go to www.kiacharge.com - the only country shown is Spain but click on that and using the translator you can see the map of Europe and how many charging stations that are covered in each country - it says 5119 for the UK.- clicking on that it then sub-divides by region (just like Zap-Map and you can zoom in to see the actual stations covered, what charging systems they have and what payment method for the moment..
 
#19 ·
Go to www.kiacharge.com - the only country shown is Spain but click on that and using the translator you can see the map of Europe and how many charging stations that are covered in each country - it says 5119 for the UK.- clicking on that it then sub-divides by region (just like Zap-Map and you can zoom in to see the actual stations covered, what charging systems they have and what payment method for the moment..
I tried that and found the number randomly changes and moves around each time I tap it....
 
#18 ·
If that is the tariff we end up with in the UK, it really doesn't make sense. Why would you pay £6.33 a month to get DC charging at 34p when most chargers are cheaper than that? With the exception of the ridiculous Ionity of course and its way too high tariffs.

Making charging networks simpler to use shouldn't cost more and I hope Kia in the UK recognise this or it will fail before it gets started. Even if it cost the same to charge, I would use it for the convenience, but it isn't convenient enough to justify the additional charges.
 
#24 ·
I've seen a few cars using the more expensive chargers & wonder if these are EVs purchased as company cars or for business use & they don't care what it costs to charge as it's paid for by the company & not out of there own pocket..
I'm also guessing rapid charger use is mainly used by business users who have to do a lot of miles on a regular basis, not by General public who mostly charge at home & generally want the cheapest cost to charge...
 
#25 ·
Depends, I'm planning to use Ionity for an upcoming trip (the fully charged drive in cinema). I'll need about 10kwh extra to get home, I can load it in at 77kw (7.8 minutes) or ~50kw (12 minutes) and they're right next to each other. and extra £3 for 4 minutes less charging (and seeing that cool fast rate) is worth it. This time.
 
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#26 ·
I agree, I too don't mind paying bit extra myself for convenience on the odd longer trip, but think the main revenue for these rapid chargers will come from business users whose companies pick up the tab which Is why the higher costs will stay whichever way the companies decide to implement payments...
 
#31 ·
Interesting. The map itself does have a filter for "Plug and Charge", and almost 3000 points in Germany, Austria, and surrounds appear to support this. This seems surprisingly high given that Plug and Charge is so new -- I wonder if that's a mistake. I'm not sure that any Kia vehicles actually support it either, as it relies on a cryptographic handshake to authenticate the vehicle with the charger.

I agree it would be great though -- plug and charge is clearly the future. I remember reading elsewhere that Fastned support "autocharge", but this doesn't do the cryptographic handshake so it's not clear to me that all operators would feel safe rolling this out at scale (though it should work with any CCS EV). This comparison was quite interesting.
 
#32 ·
I've been using the Kia Charge RFID card for a few weeks while I've been waiting for my home Zappi install (this Thursday, yeh!). It's worked brilliantly every time. Present the card to start, then again at the end to stop. Simples. I've used this on BP Pulse and InstaVolt devices.

The only issue I'm having is the inconsistency with costs, or lack of.

The Kia Charge app is not showing any records for the 2 charges at BP Pulse (initiated with the KC RFID). The first was on the 2nd June. There's also nothing in the BP app - I have £2.36 credit on that after using it on my very first charge, using the BP App itself (that's a whole different story in itself :rolleyes:)

The Kia app IS, however, showing the 2 charges using InstaVolt devices (again, initiated with the same KC RFID). These were on the 29th May and 4th June.

Separate from this, there was a 3rd charge I did en route to the Dales at Harrogate using a Genie Point device. I used the GP app itself and although I did have to top my account up with £10, no fees have been taken. There was no indication around the charger that it was free, or on Genie Point/Zap Map when I check now.

I'm assuming that this is just down to a delay of data between Kia and the unit providers (not much in life is free, except a Pod Point at Tesco!), but has anyone had experience of this ?
 
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