Driving electric? It’s cheaper to charge your car from home

Using Transport Malta’s new charging points to power electric cars comes at a greater cost than charging from home, MaltaToday has discovered.

Users of the TM charging service have to pay a one-time subscription of €50, plus a refundable guarantee of €100 to be able to use the charging points. Customers then pay a €12 or €5.95 monthly fee – depending on the charging rate selected – plus a consumption tariff at 20c/kWh.

The new tariff that is paid to Solar Solutions, the company awarded the tender for the charging points, has been deemed exorbitant by companies who contacted this newspaper, who claim it is nearly double the rate paid if one charges at home.  

This is especially the case for companies which have a number of cars which are constantly on the move and cannot afford to return to headquarters every time they have to charge.

“Charging from home would be cheaper, as long as annual consumption thresholds are not exceeded,” a spokesperson for the Transport Ministry confirmed with MaltaToday.

Over the past years the government has provided a number of incentives to entice conventional car owners to switch to electric cars. 

As from this year, individuals, all registered commercial companies and entities, NGOs and local councils, can benefit from grants to purchase electric vehicles. These grants cover a number of new emerging technologies from full electric vehicles to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in range extender electric vehicles.

The procurement of 50 electric vehicle charging pillars across Malta and Gozo, and their management and maintenance, was part of the EU co-funded LIFE+ Demo-EV project contract awarded to Solar Solutions Ltd following the public call for tenders issued in  2012. The management and maintenance contract lasts until June 2019.

The Ministry for Transport and Infrastructure had also issued another public tender in 2014 for the deployment and installation of three solar electric car port charging stations, now located in the parking area of the Ta’ Xbiex Marina, at the car park of the Deep Water Quay in Marsa, and another at the Cirkewwa Gozo Ferry Terminal car park. Currently, charging an electric vehicle on these solar car-ports is totally free, the Transport Ministry said. 

EV grants

The highest grant for a new electric vehicle this year has been increased to €8,000, when combined with a scheme to scrap an older internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. The grant for the purchase of a new electric vehicle without scrapping an older conventional car has now been increased to €5,000. Similarly, the grant for the purchase of imported second hand electric vehicles (with conditions) has been increased to €5,000.

To encourage commercial companies to change their conventional car fleet to an electric one, Transport Malta has increased the total maximum grant a company can get to a grand total of €200,000, in line with the state aid rules. This is a stark increase from the maximum €15,000 offered by the government in 2016, which at that time was also a first.

Apart from these grants, the annual road licence for the above technologies is just €10 per year, and registration taxes for electric vehicles are one third of the full tax. Companies can also benefit from tax incentives which had been introduced some years back.