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Hi, it’s Emily. I think one of the cool things about EVs is the ability to “fill up” at home. Recently, I got some pitches about ways that EV chargers could also make their owners some money, and decided to take a closer look.
This week:
- Now your EV charger can earn some money for you
- The Big Picture: China and the rise of the electrostates
- Here’s what happens when compostable products become litter
Now your EV charger can earn some money for you
Toronto EV driver Urs Villiger thought he had a good deal on electricity for charging his family’s two Tesla Model 3s. He’s signed up for Toronto Hydro’s ultra-low overnight rate, aimed at EV drivers – costing him just 3.9 cents per kWh between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., or about $22 per month.
But recently, he found an even better deal: a customer program that pays him for each kilowatt hour he uses to charge his car.
Toronto-based company SWTCH pays Villiger and other EV owners three cents per kWh when they charge with the SWTCH Level 2 home charger (which they can get for free as part of the program). That covers three-quarters of the cost of each kilowatt under the ultra-low rate plan. “For us, we’re charging two cars, so it adds up,” said Villiger.
Toronto-based SWTCH Energy officially launched the program Thursday with Plug N’ Drive, an EV advocacy organization that also promotes a number of similar programs that launched earlier this year from Toronto-based Elocity and United Chargers Canada in Richmond Hill, Ont.
Villiger is among 30 EV drivers across the country who have already been using SWTCH’s program during the past couple of weeks, said Greg Overmonds, the company’s head of marketing. The launch allows another 190 people on the wait list to get their chargers. The company estimates the program will allow average drivers to earn $100 to $150 per year from EV charging.
But why would a company pay customers to charge their cars?
Canada’s Clean Fuel Regulations allow credits to be generated for investments in low-carbon technologies and fuels. For example, charging network operators can create credits for residential and public electric vehicle charging, and charging site hosts can create credits for private or commercial charging.
SWTCH, Elocity and United Chargers can then sell the credits to producers and importers of gasoline and diesel to help them meet emissions targets that require them to reduce the carbon intensity of fuels they produce and sell for use in Canada. (That is, if fuel producers can’t reduce their emissions enough themselves, they have to pay other companies, like the EV charge providers, that are reducing emissions from fuel).
SWTCH had already been doing that since the regulations came into effect in July 2023, with credits earned from its chargers in multiresidential and commercial buildings, but wanted to extend the opportunity to people who charge at home, allowing them to share some of the revenue, Overmonds said.
Airbnb for EV chargers?
This isn’t the only new way EV drivers can make money from their EV chargers.
Montreal-based ShareCharge is offering charger owners the option to rent out their EV chargers by appointment.
“Basically what we want to do is a bit like the Airbnb/Uber experience,” said the company’s founder, François Boutin-Dufresne.
He was inspired by a visit to his mother in Lévis, Que., earlier this year. To his frustration, there were no public chargers within five kilometres of her house. Meanwhile, three doors down a neighbour’s home charger sat unused.
With 400,000 EV drivers in Quebec, Boutin-Dufresne reasoned that if just 10 per cent of them rented out their home chargers, that would make 40,000 new chargers available – more than the province’s entire fleet of 28,700 public chargers. And he sees similar opportunities across the country and North America.
ShareCharge recently launched a website where people can list their EV charger or sign up to use other people’s EV chargers. So far, about 600 users have signed up in Quebec, offering 150 chargers.
Charger owners can decide when to make their charger available, whether to accept any given charging appointment, and set their own rates, but the app recommends a rate for each region, depending on things like local electricity rates and the availability of other chargers nearby.
Boutin-Dufresne said the company hopes to open the network for charging within a few weeks or in early 2026.
His mother’s neighbour has already signed up, and Boutin-Dufresne says he will pay to use her charger when he visits at Christmas.
Boutin-Dufresne said governments have been pulling back support for electrification of transportation while there are still big…
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