Thought I would update us Texas people on eVgo. Firstly, I know some people have mentioned, but eVgo has stated that they have no intention on doing a pay per use plan, unfortunately. And for many people that have already gotten a home charger these plans are really not worth it. But for people such as me that has not gotten one, it could be a decent deal.
A couple of things to add since the last post (both here and in the EVSE forum):
Deal with HILCO is going well, so that should be an additional supplier to help out the southern DFW people.
In eVgo's contract, if you purchase the more expensive plans (mobile or complete) that have a cost of unlimted use of public chargers, this additional cost (over the 50 for the home charger) will not be billed until they have completed their first phase of rollout, 70 public level 2/3 chargers, which is expected ~August 2011. So thats good news for people that didn't want to pay for a plan that has one charger (there is only one currently)
After the expired 3 year contract, the charger is paid off so they will be offering new plans after the contract
The charger is AV's charger, but its the more expensive one (the one that has the wireless capabilities)
If you purchase the most expensive (complete plan) that includes electricity cost, it only pays for "off-peak" electricity usage, which is stated in their contract from 8pm to noon the next day and all the weekends. The charger will be programed to only turn on after 8, but you can still manually turn in on via web or just on the charger itself
All-in-all, its not a bad deal. I do wish they did a price per usage option, but I guess they figured that wasn't sustainable at this point with so few EVs out. My wife and I decided to go with them for a few reasons:
- Yes the Blink ECOtality evse are cheaper, but as my wife said, "they are butt ugly" and prefers the eVgo (AV) charger look. That and the cost spread over three years gives us more downpayment on the leaf, which ends up cheaper over the entire cost.
- The electricity usage, calcuated pay is actually a savings versus just paying without the plan
- Access to the Level 3 chargers is a big perk for us. ECOtality is supposed to be adding them here to, but considering their first priority is the EV project people in CA, and they still don't have Level 3 rollout, I am assuming Texas will lag with their rollout for a few more years.
- Being in the southern DFW area (midlothian) and having most friends/family in plano/friso/allen areas, we can visit them (which we do often) utilizing a stop at a level 3 is very nice (we wouldn't be able to make the trip otherwise). In addition, my wife's work moved farther north 1 month ago :evil: , putting her out of the range for the Leaf :evil: :evil: . But with the level 3 she can still get back home since her work refuses to put even a level 1 charger for her.
I have developed a good relationship with the people at eVgo (a lot has to due with securing HILCO as a provider), so if yall have more specific question for them, I can ask them or help answer them myself.
