JOLT Australian EV charger 2024 price rise, first 7kWh/day still free

Frequent Aussie users of the JOLT charging app like myself will have noticed the in-app notification:

“From 3 Jan 2024 JOLT are updating our energy pricing (per kwh), in line with energy retailers. Tap on a charger to view pricing at each location”.

As you can see from the example locations I checked, the new pricing is 49-54c/kWh after your free 7kWh/day (or more kWh free/day if you’re a JOLT Plus member).

From memory, the JOLT price for their Sydney chargers through 2023 was 46c/kWh so the price increase isn’t huge.

However, it is disappointing for JOLT users like myself who can’t charge an EV at home or work because other urban EV street charger networks like Intellihub in Sydney are also charging a similar 50c/kWh.

This compares with EV owners with solar panels on their home roofs, who can charge at home for 80% less cost (about 8c/kWh in lost solar feed-in tariff).

In my opinion, JOLT, Intellihub and the other street charging networks need to have time-of-use pricing so that it is :

cheaper to charge when electricity is cheap during the middle of the day because renewable energy generation (especially rooftop solar) is flooding the grid with low-cost power generation,
more expensive to charge between 6pm and 9am when the amount of renewables powering the grid is lower (mostly wind, hydro and batteries).

Neerav Bhatthttps://www.bhatt.id.au/blog/about-neerav-bhatt/

Thanks to his broad general knowledge, research skills and ability to explain complex issues Neerav Bhatt has appeared in the online, print, radio and TV media including: ABC (Online, TV, Radio), SBS (Online, Radio), BBC World Service (Radio), 10 News TV, Sky News TV, Australian IT, Technology Spectator, Ausdroid, iTnews, APCMAG, IDG CSO and a variety of other publications.

In 2023 he joined the techAU team and represents them at Sydney events.