The Big Bang at IONITY starts with Mercedes

Let The Games Begin! Is what somebody at the Stuttgart HQ must’ve thought when they decided to send some emails on a late Saturday night.

Everything is about to change if you’re a Mercedes electric vehicle driver somewhere in Europe!

The basics

For many years Mercedes has offered one of the best “heavy EV traveler packages” of any competing mobility company in Europe. The only flaw I could find was that you had to sign up for a year, so the “monthly” costs were actually times twelve minimum. Mercedes was able to offer one of the best packages around by working with DCS in the background, known for having some of the best “roaming” services in the industry: finding (fast) chargers in Europe where your Mercedes RFID would not be accepted is quite the challenge.

Looking at the “Mercedes Me Charge L” package at € 17,90 / month, the reality was a deal that’d cost you € 214,80 per year. Just for a charging card & app (and some incredible prices, especially at IONITY fast chargers around Europe). I’ve complained about this “minimum one year deal” even in person to IONITY employees, (clearly I should’ve gone to Mercedes instead). But here we are!

The good news

The very best Mercedes has to offer is now available at a € 12,90 per month rate! (28% price drop). It’s still called Mercedes Me Charge L. No minimum sign up time, if you stop after a month that’s fine as well. BUT, there are some (big) changes involved. Energy prices in Europe have been under pressure for a while, and at IONITY people have been able to pretend that nothing had happened. No more (with exceptions, of course!)

Some bad news

It really depends on where you live, and your travel rhythm through the year and so on, but the new tariffs will have an impact on everybody:

The home market

Even though there might be more electric Mercedes drivers in Norway percentage wise, I’m guessing the actual figure is biggest in Germany. That’s where we’ll start. The yearly package allowed you to visit IONITY at a simply stunning rate of € 0,35/kWh. Here’s your 57% increase: € 0,55/kWh will be active from the 1st of March.

New and old prices for Mercedes Me Charge L package users in Germany

For comparison’s sake, there’s still a € 5 “Mercedes Me Charge M” package, now also available per month. This gives you access to a € 0,65/kWh rate at IONITY Deutschland (for example).

Norway

Who can talk about electric vehicles in Europe and not look at Norway? Not me! The tariff at IONITY has been exceptional for years at NOK 1,70/kWh. This will rise to NOK 3,49/kWh and it’s important to stress this is below local AC levels still(!) (At € 0,32/kWh it’s still an incredible price really, looking forward to visiting Norway again!)

The French exception

France is becoming “a safe space for EVs” it looks like, with incredible rates along the new highway stations especially (no Mercedes needed).

Mercedes drivers paid € 0,30/kWh at IONITY France for a long time, and this will rise to € 0,35/kWh.

The not so lucky ones

Belgium (110% increase to € 0,59/kWh), The Netherlands (150% increase to € 0,55/kWh), the list goes on.

Italy (90% increase to € 0,59/kWh), Great Britain (104% to £ 0,53/kWh), Spain (41% increase to € 0,48/kWh).

The competition

More will be written on (fast) charging around Europe, 2023. I recently built this Tesla Public Supercharging pricing update page, in many countries right now fast charging at Tesla is very competitive to other players and in The Netherlands it even competes with local AC charging rates.

Imagine living in Belgium, you could be better off at Fastned with their gold package, that costs the same as this new IONITY deal, but clearly has no influence on your AC needs. That’s also where Tesla (without a charging card/service) cannot be competitive (yet!)

What’s next

I expect a lot of announcements and emails from “all the others” pretty soon. But clearly strategies per brand could differ and some could decide “to take a hit” and offer the audience lower prices for longer. It’s very important to stress I understand prices had to change, and it’s pretty amazing if you ask me that for example AC prices (at least in a place like The Netherlands) still offer pretty steep discounts compared to “what you pay on the street”.

With a Mercedes “L package” at € 12,90/month you get an instant 50% discount on AC charging in a place like Amsterdam to give just one example. So it’s definitely not just bad news. I really love you can now just walk away from any offer anyway when you feel like it! You might sell your vehicle. It’s simply unfair to have to sign up for a year. What’s a year?

My newsletter is coming back this year, since Mr. Tweet killed my old host, you will have to find me here (if you signed up in the past I got you covered!)

If I didn’t mention the country you were looking for, I’m sorry. Here is the Mercedes charging price list for all of Europe.

If you don’t follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn yet, you should, no deal at a European Fast Charger will pass by me unnoticed!