Cheaper Fast Charging, 2022 edition!

In The Old Days of e-mobility (I mean, two years ago) cheap or sometimes even free fast charging wasn’t very unusual in Europe. I remember Telekom & Maingau, offering rates of 2 or 5 cent/minute at 50kW and up (of course there weren’t that many “and up” back then).

Fast Forward to 2022

The tables have turned. E-mobility is growing up. Fast charging is everywhere (in a country like Germany). And it can be expensive, depending on your vehicle, charging card and point of view. What I mean is, if you have solar at home, Fastned might feel like a crazy expense.

Maybe you live around the corner from an IONITY station and your neighborhood doesn’t offer any local AC infrastructure.

In any case, today was one of those days. One WhatsApp-message and one tweet later, I was downloading a brand-new app that offered a world of pleasure:

Fast charging at 35p/kWh

Welcome to England, the land of pounds. The following is not an advert, it’s just a good idea if you sometimes top-up at Fastned and or Allego to head over to the website of Bonnet and download their app right away.

Now of course, their idea is to get you into a monthly payment plan. The higher your monthly payment, the better your rate as long as you don’t run out of kWh. Only time will tell if these offers hold, and if fair-usage policies might come into play and so on, if you go traveling like a true monster.

Rates as published by Bonnet on Jan, 21st ‘22:

35p/kWh (Pay as you go).

£15/Month: 50kWh (30p/kWh).

£35/Month: 120kWh (29p/kWh)

£50/Month: 200kWh (25p/kWh)

Useful discount codes

Thanks to Maarten (laadpastop10.nl) (and Fully Charged) there are a couple of incredible discount codes.

Your first charging session completely free: FIRSTCHARGE

Your first monthly payment for free (worth fifty(!) pounds): FULLYCHARGED

£15 discount, my referral code: RD4BD

By now, (April ‘22) there are more codes around the web to be found including:

FREECHARGE1 & ONEFREE

Bonnet is aiming for: Great Britain

It’s important to realize you’re dealing with a company from the UK. Pricing will be in pounds, and their “roaming” focuses on adding UK companies to their offer. If you can ever use “Bonnet” at EnBW in Germany, or Circle K in Sweden, I doubt it. But never say never!

I’ve listed the biggest players where the Bonnet app should work: Osprey (UK), Shell (UK), ESB Energy (UK), RAW (UK), EVBox (EU?), Allego (EU) & Fastned (EU). See this tweet for more info.

This is a screenshot with a CCS filter enabled for Europe.

The best news is continuous growth

Expansion for both Allego and Fastned is going next level this year. Both are included in the Bonnet app. So do enjoy the ride!

Please send feedback about your luck at the (fast) charger. I found the app to be less than incredible. Encountering some issues when zooming into Allego locations, just use the “list” button to get around them.

Feedback welcomed using Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or facebook!

If you’re curious about the company Bonnet, check out Fully Charged interviewing them.

Download the BONNET app right here.