Two of the UK’s biggest charge point operators have announced new charging prices as the industry continues to grapple with high wholesale energy costs. 

bp pulse and Instavolt have both emailed customers to confirm that prices will rise again. bp pulse will raise the cost of using its 150kW chargers (which it calls Ultra-Rapid) to 79p per kWh for customers using contactless payment. Registered users will pay 77p per kWh while customers who pay a monthly subscription of £7.99 will pay 65p per kWh. Drivers using bp pulse’s lower powered 60kW DC and 43kW AC units will pay 69p per kWh for contactless, 67p per kWh if they are registered via the bp pulse app and 55p per kWh for users with a bp pulse subscription. 

bp pulse’s price rises come just nine weeks after its last price increase and means that the cost of using the brand’s fastest chargers with contactless payment has risen from 59p per kWh to 79p per kWh since the start of September. In a statement, bp pulse gave no reason for the price hike, telling customers: “We strive to retain value for money for our customers and will continue to monitor the market over coming months.” 

bp pulse’s price rise announcement was swiftly followed by Instavolt, which confirmed that it is introducing a new flat-rate of 75p per kWh from 15 November. Unlike bp pulse, Instavolt charges the same rate for all its chargers. The Instavolt increase is the brand’s fourth increase in a year and means that charging costs for drivers have risen from 40p per kWh to 75p per kWh. 

Instavolt communicated the changes to customers via email, and explained that the soaring cost of wholesale energy had made the increase unavoidable. In a statement, the brand said:“Whilst we have continued to absorb inflated energy and supply chain costs wherever possible during these extraordinary times, we have had to make the difficult decision to increase our tariff. While we understand this will cause disappointment, we remain committed to continuing our build programme, bringing more chargers online across the country, investing in a new hub strategy, and maintaining an industry leading standard of reliability.”

The increases follow Shell’s announcement last month that it was raising the cost of using its chargers by up to 34 percent. As part of the increases, customers using the brand’s Ultra-rapid 150kW+ chargers now pay 85p per kWh to charge while drivers using 50kW units pay 79p per kWh. The recent price cut by Osprey means that Shell Recharge is now the UK’s most expensive charge point operator.

bp pulse's ultra-rapid chargers now cost 79p per kW to use with contactless payment