Stellantis rolls out its Free2Move Charge Go charging service
Last year, Stellantis announced the launch of an ecosystem for charging infrastructure and energy management under the name Free2move Charge, which would cover the areas of home charging, business charging and public charging. Now Free2move Charge is being launched – the second of the three strategic pillars ‘Free2move Charge Home’, ‘Free2move Charge Go’ and ‘Free2move Charge Business’.
As is usual with most charging services, there is an app as well as a classic RFID charging card. Customers can choose between two variants: The ‘pay-as-you-go starter tariff’ with no basic monthly fee but with a charge of 90 cents per charging session plus the electricity costs incurred. With the ‘Pay-as-you-move-Advanced’ tariff, there is no charge per charging session, but a basic fee of €4.99 per month. This means that the Advanced tariff is worthwhile from six charging sessions per month.
However, if you look at the details, Free2Move Charge Go turns out to be a rather expensive roaming service with an unrivalled confusion of tariffs. Unlike with other providers, there is not just a flat-rate AC and DC price, regardless of who owns the charging station, so users have to take a close look at the prices. For the DC chargers from EnBW it is 0.82 euros per kWh, for Aral Pulse 1.02 euros and for Mer even 1.16 euros. However, it does not appear to be possible to use Ionity charging stations at present. And AC chargers can also be expensive: In Leipzig, for example, prices vary between a rather hefty €0.66 and a rather exaggerated €1.06 per kWh, depending on the provider.
The service therefore turns out to be a rather confusing and expensive maze of tariffs. By way of comparison: EWE Go is introducing a tariff on 1 November that charges just €0.62 per kWh at all roaming partner charging points, regardless of whether they are AC or DC. And only €0.52 is charged at the company’s own charging stations. And most other providers also have much clearer tariffs.
But perhaps the aim of Free2Move is to establish a Europe-wide range first. Mathilde Lheureux, CEO of Free2move Charge, says: “With the launch of Free2move Charge Go, we are empowering EV drivers to travel freely across Europe, with peace of mind experience. By giving our customers access to an extensive charging network, combined with intuitive tools that simplify their experience, we are removing the key hurdles to adopting electric mobility. Free2move Charge Go marks a significant step forward in our mission to make EV charging seamless, accessible, and tailored to the individual needs of every driver.”
The service can be used via a free app for iOS and Android. Users can use it to find charging stations, call up the status of the charging stations in real-time, check the power capacity and start, monitor and pay for charging processes. Alternatively, there is also an RFID charging card. This simplifies charging, especially when data reception is weak or the mobile phone battery is low.
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