Since March 19, the Renovatio E-charge, which presents itself as “the first public network of fast charging stations for electric cars in Romania” introduces three types of subscriptions, depending on the mobility needs of electric vehicle owners.
The charging system is based on the time spent by the vehicle at the charging station, and the cost of a charge is determined by the power the vehicle can access and the time it is connected to the station.
The lowest price is 1.8 bani per minute for vehicles with a power of up to 4kW if the driver holds the FAST subscription (220 lei per month, plus a fee of 249 lei – VAT included – for activation of the Renovatio e-charge card). The highest fare per minute is 1.6 lei for vehicles charging at more than 22kW if the driver holds the START subscription. This one comes at no monthly cost, but the initial cost, 249 lei (VAT included) for card activation.
Adrian Mitrea‘s calculations for www.0-100.hotnews.ro show that “charging from 0 to 100% of a BMW i3 or a Volkswagen e-Golf at 50 kW (the most powerful station available in Romania, charging such a car in about 45 minutes) will cost about 70 lei (on START subscription). With this amount of money a distance of 130-230 km can be traveled (depending on the weather conditions and the configuration of the route)”.
With the same amount, quoted source says, 12-13 liters of gasoline or diesel fuel can be bought – enough to travel 200 km in mixed or extra-urban mode with any fossil-fueled car with comparable dynamic performance.
For the moment, there is only one other example of putting a price for charging the e-cars, the OMV Petrom-Electrica station in Aerogarii Boulevard (1 leu per kWh), where it is less than 35 lei for fully charging a BMW i3 or a Volkswagen e-Golf.
The Renovatio network currently has 61 charging stations in over 30 locations and it announced in September 2017 that it will build 60 more units by 2020.
At present, there are about 350 e-stations for cars at the national level, and the latest government project on this topic estimated at about 1,000 the charging points for electric cars by 2020.