Fact check: Meme overstates cost and time needed at EV charging station

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY
·5 min read
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The claim: Full charge at public electric vehicle charging station costs more than $150

Some social media users are sharing a meme that claims it costs more than $150 to charge an electric vehicle at a certain charging station.

The claim includes a photo of a charging station in a Walmart parking lot.

"Guess the price to charge," reads text in the Aug. 30 Facebook post. "Yep, .32 cents a minute. That is $19.20 an hour. It takes 8 hours for a full charge. That is $153.60 for a full charge."

The meme was shared more than 700 times in a little more than a week.

But it is wrong about the cost of charging – and significantly overstates the amount of time an EV would need to charge at that location, according to a spokesperson for Electrify America, the company that operates the chargers in the meme.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment.

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EV fast charger in meme charges in an hour or less

The photo in the meme shows an Electrify America charging station located in Moore, Oklahoma, according to a company spokesperson, Tara Geiger.

The chargers in the image are direct current fast chargers or "ultra-fast chargers," she told USA TODAY in an email.

Different EVs have different charging capacities, but "depending on the EVs battery capability, charging to 80% can take anywhere from 20 minutes to one hour," Geiger said. "No EV would charge for 8 hours" on a direct current fast charger, she said.

The cited cost is also drastically overstated.

Charging an EV from 10% to 80% on the fast chargers costs roughly $17 to $23, Geiger said.

"It is typically not recommended to charge past about 80% (on a fast charger)," she said. "The EVs battery management system slows down the charge rate as it gets closer to full to maintain longevity of the battery system. An EV will charge more quickly between 10%-80%, and then charging speeds drop off after 80%."

Charging speeds after reaching 80% vary between EVs, said Geiger. But as one example, charging a Ford F-150 Lightning to 100% on an Electrify America fast charger would take roughly 75-120 minutes and cost between $42 and $56 depending on the battery installed in the vehicle.

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Level 2 charging slower, can be done at home

An eight-hour charge time is more realistic for a "Level 2" charger, which is slower, according to the Department of Transportation. Electrify America does not offer Level 2 charging at the location shown in the meme, according to the company's website.

Level 2 charging stations can be set up at an EV owner's home, where most electric vehicle charging actually takes place, according to the Department of Energy. In California, using a home Level 2 charger to fully charge an electric Nissan Leaf with a 150-mile range costs about $7, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Fast charging stations, such as those shown in the meme, are more useful for people driving long distances before returning home or for EV owners who don't have access to charging at home or work.

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Meme misleads on EV charge pricing rates

The meme also claims that charging at the station costs 32 cents a minute.

The broader calculation this is used for is incorrect, but the specific cost per minute is also oversimplified. This is one price point offered by Electrify America, but only at certain stations and not the station pictured in the meme.

In Oklahoma and 29 other states, Electrify America charges by the kilowatt hour, or the amount of electricity provided, not by the minute, Geiger said. The price of this service is 43 cents per kilowatt hour and 31 cents for members who pay a monthly fee, according to the company's website.

In states with per-minute rates, the fastest charging available costs 32 cents a minute and 24 cents for members who pay the monthly fee.

At locations where slower Level 2 charging is available, it costs $0.03 per minute in per-minute states. It is priced the same as fast charging in states where the service is charged by the kilowatt hour.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory recently found that typical EV owners save between $3,000 and $10,500 in fuel costs over 15 years, compared to gas-powered vehicle owners. The researchers reported that the actual cost of EV fueling varies by state and depends on where and how the EV is charged.

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Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a full charge at a public electric vehicle charging station costs more than $150. An average charge from 10% to 80% on the fast charger pictured in the meme costs roughly $17 to $23, according to a company spokesperson. The charge would take an hour or less to complete. Charging all the way to 100% is slower and not recommended by the charger company, but it wouldn't take eight hours to complete on a fast charger, and it wouldn't cost $150.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: EV charge takes less than an hour on fast chargers