Managing Director of KIA Ireland, Ronan Flood, with Sarah Jane CooneyKia Ireland has launched KiaCharge, a European-wide integrated public charging service, designed to give drivers easier access to public vehicle charging.
KiaCharge gives owners of the brand’s BEVs (battery electric vehicle) and PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) access to more than 1,400 charge points across Ireland, from a single account.
Drivers can access more than 315,000 additional charging points across 28 other European countries without the need for additional contracts.
From launch, KiaCharge provides access to major charging networks, including ESB, EasyGo and IONITY. There are plans to further expand KiaCharge coverage throughout 2022.
This means drivers don’t have to sign up to separate accounts with multiple charging point operators or pre-pay with others.
Kia BEV and PHEV owners can access KiaCharge via a smartphone app or RFID card.
Instead of numerous individual transactions, payments are made via a single itemised monthly invoice.
The service offers two fully flexible tariffs, ‘Easy’ and ‘Plus’. The ‘Easy’ tariff for light users offers a one-off €2.49 charge to access the service. With no monthly subscription fees, most charging stations instead require a €0.49 ‘session fee’ when users plug in, with users paying per kWh of electricity.
The ‘Plus’ tariff is for those who rely more heavily on public charging. There’s a €3.95 monthly tariff, with no up-front charge or session fees. Like the ‘Easy’ tariff, users also pay per kWh, but earn an additional 15 per cent discount per kWh from most networks (except IONITY).
Two IONITY bolt-on tariffs can also be added to avail of ultra-high speed charging and can reduce the standard per kWh fee by up to 65%.
Owners of new Kia EV6 models registered this year can avail of a 12 month free subscription to IONITY Power. This means the monthly fee, normally €13, is waived so the customer just pays for the charging session at €0.27 per KW/h used. This offer is validated on eligible vehicles using a VIN input during account registration of their KiaCharge account .