Lacey is in the right ballpark with this discussion.
The cost of electricity to charge an EV is about $0.12/kWh, which works about to the equivalent of about $1.50/gallon of gasoline. It's cheap compared to gasoline. My plug-in hybrid can run on either electricity or gasoline. It gets about 4 miles per kilowatt-hour, and about 48 miles per gallon. So a gallon is about equal to twelve kilowatt-hours in terms of how far you can drive. The bigger EVs, like the Ford Lightning pickup, get fewer miles per kilowatt-hour, but the gasoline equivalents get fewer miles per gallon, so the ratio still holds.
The fee for charging an EV needs to be lower than the equivalent cost of gasoline. The highest price considered -- about $.19/kwh for a slower Level 2 charger is about $2.50/gallon. Still in the ballpark.
The higher rate of $0.29/kWh for high speed charging, however, is closer to $4.50/gallon equivalent. That's an upper limit -- about the same as the current cost of gasoline.
The price of electricity does not include the road tax that is built into the price of gasoline. BUT, the price of gasoline does not include the 4% state tax, and 6% city tax that is built into the price of electricity. EV owners pay an annual registration fee in place of road tax on fuel. But gasoline vehicles do not pay a sales tax or other general government tax on fuel, so EV drivers are, in effect, double-taxed. Lacey should at least discount the price of EV charging by the 6% City tax they will receive on the electricity used. There is no need for Lacey to make a profit on this.
Zero cost charging has been a great deal, and has helped attract some drivers to consider EVs. Now that they are reaching 10% of all new cars sold, it's reasonable to at least recover the cost of the electricity (minus the tax). In a few years, as the charging equipment paid for with grants wears out, it will be appropriate to also recover the cost of the charging equipment.
Option 2 is the right choice for now. Option 3 will be appropriate in a few years.
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