California: Blink Membership Fees Start Wednesday, August 22

[astrorob]

everybody's saying $1/hr but i'm pretty sure you have to be a "blink plus" member or whatever to get that rate. i understand that it's free to upgrade right now but starting in 2013 you'll get to pay $30 per year for the privilege of saving $0.50 per hour. you'd have to charge for 60 hours per year just to recoup that.

i'm going to go out on a limb and say that for most people, it's going to be $1.50 per hour.

 

[thankyouOB]

right, we are all talking about the present. not next year.

(i will likely opt out of the special status when I have to pay $30 to do it.)

 

[astrorob]

right, we are all talking about the present. not next year.
(i will likely opt out of the special status when I have to pay $30 to do it.)

i would not expect to be able to opt-out - i'll bet you on jan 1 2013 at 00:00:01 they will charge your credit card. i'd either downgrade on december 31st or use one of those temporary credit cards with a small limit, against which the $30 charge will fail.

for me, this is exactly the kind of situation that i'll forget all about and then get dinged, so i'm just not going to sign up in the first place.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

right, we are all talking about the present. not next year.
(i will likely opt out of the special status when I have to pay $30 to do it.)

i would not expect to be able to opt-out - i'll bet you on jan 1 2013 at 00:00:01 they will charge your credit card. i'd either downgrade on december 31st or use one of those temporary credit cards with a small limit, against which the $30 charge will fail.

for me, this is exactly the kind of situation that i'll forget all about and then get dinged, so i'm just not going to sign up in the first place.

am having a real hard time figuring out this thread.

first we have someone who charged for 6 was plugged in for 10 and is complaining about the extra 4 hours verses a $30 annual fee that would only not pay for itself if charged less than 60 hours a year (that is basically an hour a week) which means that anyone who uses public charging on anything resembling a regular basis would probably get more than 60 hours in.

it seems like we pretty much want something for nothing.

 

[TonyWilliams]

am having a real hard time figuring out this thread....

it seems like we pretty much want something for nothing.

You figured it out. I fully support paying for the equipment AND parking for the time you are using it. If you don't want to get charged, unplug and move to another spot.

Hopefully Blink makes it clear that you're charged for the TIME, but I won't be surprised if they don't.

The cheapskate comments on this forum concerning anything public charging is a whole new realm for me. My personal favorites are "hoping they go bankrupt for charging" or "I won't pay anything but the wholesale cost of electricity", "I'll never pay anything" (like its a constitutional right to get free transportation energy) to all the crazy rationalizations of how they'll "Just-Drive-The-Prius(TM)".

Rarely do these folks think of the bigger picture. If they do, of course, somebody else will pay for it.

 

[Randy]

Here is the gist of the information as I understand it...

* Blink "Guest" membership (really not a membership) requires no Blink card and will be billed to your credit card each time at $2.00 per hour
* Blink "Basic" membership is free and the cost right now is $1.50 per hour
* Blink "Plus" membership is normally $30 per year, and some initial portion of that will be waived (not sure if it is 1 year or until the end of 2012)
* Charging cost for Blink "Plus" members is set at $1.00 per hour right now
* 1 hour minimum billing applies when connecting to charge
* Billing is for "connect time" and not for "charging time" to encourage you to move your car so others can use the charging station
* A few minutes grace period will be applied if you go slightly over the hour boundary, otherwise the billing will round up to the next incremental hour
- Example: 30 minutes charge time = 1 hour billing
- Example: 2 hours and 5 minutes = 2 hours billing
- Example: 3 hours and 16 minutes = 4 hours billing
- This is a lot like how some parking structures charge or what you would see at the airport when exiting the lot
* Charging Station reservation features will come later

That's it...Did I leave anything out?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i am not aware of any "grace" period provided by any parking entity in this area but i do think some bill on Quarter hour... what is the Blink grace period?

 

[Randy]

I heard it was 5 or 6 minutes, but may be tweaked a bit...

Not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but I have stopped received Blink emails when I unplug the EVSE from the car (home or public).....Anyone else?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I heard it was 5 or 6 minutes, but may be tweaked a bit...

Not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but I have stopped received Blink emails when I unplug the EVSE from the car (home or public).....Anyone else?

dont know. i only receive text msgs

 

[srl99]

You aren't the only one using this site. Between the fact that they are spaces very close to the entrance, the fact the EV charging signs are too high - don't include the reference to the CVC, and the fact that your typical driver doesn't know the rules - they are often ICEd.

I can live with the $1.00/Hr (not so much OR ANY PORTION) as long as they are maintained and reliable. Free charging is going the way of the dodo bird, especially in places where demand exceeds supply (Silicon Valley!). Unsure if I'll renew BlinkPlus at the end of the year when it costs $30/year, also wondering if they'll waive that fee if you use their paid service enough.

What I can't live with - especially if I am paying $$'s to use them is the message on the screen "OK to unplug at any time". It's _definitely_ _NOT_ OK to unplug at any time. And ... I'd like to see the total kWH supplied when I disconnect.

The bit about charging for being connected and not actually charging is a problem with another commercial, networked, charging station as well. That vendor will stop billing if you end the charging session via their application or website.

Charged at one of the recently installed but very lonely Blink L2 units at Walmart in Mountain View, CA last night. I don't think the typical EV driver around Silicon Valley would seek out an opportunity charge at this particular Walmart.... as such, I might have been the first person to use it. I guess this will be my last "free" Blink charge around here. Worked fine, including the new billing capable UI.

 

[thankyouOB]

i think i was spoiled when our employer told the Blink that they wanted to NOT charge users at all. Blink said OK for the initial six months, but sometime in the summer we must start charging at all our stations.

I get that Blink also needs to charge because part of their federal contract is to gather data on usage, including what people will pay.

I am not a fan of their charging for plug in time, but I can see why they do it.

Moreover, it is necessary to pay for a network if we want to have it. As Tony points out, when you need a charge you will pay for it. What we are losing is this initial and wonderful period when they gave us freebees, and you could fuel up whether you needed it or not.

and, my residential blink is working wonderfully for months now.

 

[davewill]

... I get that Blink also needs to charge because part of their federal contract is to gather data on usage, including what people will pay. ...

Actually, they need to charge because they are a for profit company and have to make money to stay in business...a feat that is far from certain. There was no hope of fees paying for the build-out, and I'm not convinced that fees can pay ongoing operation, either.

 

[TonyWilliams]

There was no hope of fees paying for the build-out, and I'm not convinced that fees can pay ongoing operation, either.

I rate that chance at a sliver above 0%.

 

[Randy]

We should dream up some pizza bets

 

[Blink]

Here is the gist of the information as I understand it...

* Blink "Guest" membership (really not a membership) requires no Blink card and will be billed to your credit card each time at $2.00 per hour
* Blink "Basic" membership is free and the cost right now is $1.50 per hour
* Blink "Plus" membership is normally $30 per year, and some initial portion of that will be waived (not sure if it is 1 year or until the end of 2012)
* Charging cost for Blink "Plus" members is set at $1.00 per hour right now
* 1 hour minimum billing applies when connecting to charge
* Billing is for "connect time" and not for "charging time" to encourage you to move your car so others can use the charging station
* A few minutes grace period will be applied if you go slightly over the hour boundary, otherwise the billing will round up to the next incremental hour
- Example: 30 minutes charge time = 1 hour billing
- Example: 2 hours and 5 minutes = 2 hours billing
- Example: 3 hours and 16 minutes = 4 hours billing
- This is a lot like how some parking structures charge or what you would see at the airport when exiting the lot
* Charging Station reservation features will come later
That's it...Did I leave anything out?

Thanks for this, Randy! You have summed this up nicely. To confirm, Blink is currently charging for ”connection time” rather than “charging time” and our current “grace period” for hourly billing is 5 minutes.

 

[JimSouCal]

There was no hope of fees paying for the build-out, and I'm not convinced that fees can pay ongoing operation, either.

I rate that chance at a sliver above 0%.

Because an electric charging infrastructure simply can't be supported in the long term (regardless of market entry pricing strategy), or is it a particular of the Blink execution? I have my own opinion but it is less informed....

 

[Herm]

Because an electric charging infrastructure simply can't be supported in the long term (regardless of market entry pricing strategy), or is it a particular of the Blink execution?

Because Blink cant compete with low cost electricity at your own home, obviously you paid for the EVSE and the electricity at your home so its not totally free either. Few people travel regularly out of range of their homes in a BEV.

A public charging network will have to be subsidized..

Project Better Place has a better chance I think.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

i see a buck an hour as a pretty cheap way to drive electric especially if you are in the position to need it. its a buck an hour to park in downtown Oly and that is the cheapest "on the street" rate you can get for short time parking. (ya know, the coin kind)

what i would like to see is charging station charging integrated with parking costs where you can get a discount (provided by parking garage) if you are charging at the same time.

 

[walterbays]

Blink is a rip-off ... no, it's a bargain

Rip-off: I've charged a couple of times since fees began. Since they round up to the next hour I think my experience is probably more typical, $2 for 1.5 hrs, and $1 for 45 min, so the effective price is not $1/hr but more like $1.33/hr. Then once the free membership year is done there's another $30/year to amortize over maybe one charge each week or two. On a per kWh basis that's way more than I pay at home, even at peak TOU rates (and I did charge during peak rates). On a cost per mile equivalent basis it's more expensive than putting gasoline in my ICE - which is not a Prius.

Bargain: I wasn't buying kWh; I was buying the freedom to drive my favorite car where I want to go, when I want to go, the way I want to drive. $1 is a real bargain for that. Each month my Leaf costs me $20-25 to charge (at home) saving me about $100 not spent on gasoline. If I spend $5 on Blink charges in a month, although it's a big portion of my charging cost for a small number of kWh, it's a tiny portion of my overall savings. And it's the portion that keeps me from worrying about being stranded on the side of the road, or having to choose the ICE car.

Moreover, maybe they'll finally get around to installing all those quick charge stations planned for mid-2011. (Current count in San Diego: chargers = 0, lawsuits trying to block the competition from installing chargers = 1.) But suppose they do install some Blink quick chargers by the time they begin to charge membership fees. Then that fee would be easily justifiable for access to the quick chargers, and the existing slow L2 chargers would just be an added benefit.

what i would like to see is charging station charging integrated with parking costs where you can get a discount (provided by parking garage) if you are charging at the same time.

I think what would be really effective for EVSE owners would be to offer free or discounted charging with purchase. It would be simple to do if Ecotality were flexible and clever enough to handle the billing. All you'd have to do is make a store purchase with the store affinity card you probably use anyway, on the same day as your charge, and they'd give you a credit for part or all of your Blink fee.

 

[Kelangst]

The real ripoff is being charged $50 for 5 hours of charging because I had to park at a facility near the airport. Bogus. I am already paying the parking facility vendor for the privilege of parking in their facility. I shouldn't have to pay additional parking surcharges because I needed to charge my vehicle before I returned. This is a complete disincentive for driving my car. And provides Blink far too much revenue for the cost they are paying. They didn't pay for the parking space. The host paid for the space.

I am all about paying a fair share - but clearly I am one of the people who didn't understand that they were going to get a $1 per moment I am in a space as opposed to while I pull power. Meanwhile - no penalties when ICE occupies the space.

So yeah - no longer can I drive the EV to the airport, and probably won't be able to drive it to work unless I have a job that lets me leave in the middle of the day to tend to my parked car.

Model is unsustainable this way. This is not about whining about wanting something for free- this is about supporting an infrastructure that acknowledges the reality of how we live and travel and what is appropriate to support that reality.