Eni’s Plenitude revises prices for electric car charging in Italy

MILAN, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Plenitude, the low-carbon unit of energy group Eni, is changing its prices for electric car charging, raising its lowest unit price for electricity and replacing subscriptions with new packages of discounts and fees in Italy, documents showed.

Eni’s (ENI.MI) Plenitude subsidiary generates power from renewables, sells electricity, gas and energy services to households and businesses, and offers power for electric cars.

Its electric mobility business last year was still considered in a ‘start-up’ phase since it recorded an adjusted loss of 24 million euros ($25.2 million) at EBITDA level.

Starting from Nov. 1, Plenitude will increase its lowest unit price for electricity — the one for charging points at alternating current — to 0.65 euros per kilowatt hour (kWh), up from 0.60 euros per kWh, according to information sent by Plenitude to customers.

Last year the company had 13,093 charging points, of which 12,099 at alternating current and the rest at direct current. Most of the charging points are in Italy.

The cheapest package would allow subscribers to get a 20% discount on the unit price for electricity in exchange for a monthly fee of 9.90 euros. Under this scheme, a customer would need to buy at least 80 kWh a month to get a net saving after paying the monthly fee.

Under the previous scheme, the cheapest monthly subscription allowed a customer to buy 50 kWh a month with a monthly payment of 20 euros, allowing them to save 33% on the unit power cost.

In addition, Plenitude said it would increase penalties for customers leaving their cars parked at charging points after having finished replenishing the battery. ($1 = 0.9525 euros)