No Charge to Charge is a scam?

I got my leaf in May and have been waiting for my EZ Charge card.... and finally today I got it... unfortunately I just read in the print it is only free charge for 1 hour.. uhhh what gives? Such a scam..

Or am I misunderstanding something? 1 hour of free charge saves me a buck but then I get charged a buck thereafter.. that sucks.... I can charge at home for cheaper with my solar panels

Well, if you are Quick Charging, one hour would be plenty.

I just bought a new LEAF and I wont get a card at all. Promotion isn't running here.

If you're unhappy now, wait 'til you see what a pain it is to activate it on all the various websites.

'Its a new game board; here are the rules. Step out of line an ima give ya da blues'

Aint nothin free, son - yall scammin yo-self for thinkin otherwise.

Its not difficult to activate cards on ChargePoint or Blink, I don't anticipate I'll be in many locations where I'll need to use CP or Blink but I have them ready if needed, I'm the only EV in town

/b

125mph said:

I got my leaf in May and have been waiting for my EZ Charge card.... and finally today I got it... unfortunately I just read in the print it is only free charge for 1 hour.. uhhh what gives? Such a scam..

Or am I misunderstanding something? 1 hour of free charge saves me a buck but then I get charged a buck thereafter.. that sucks.... I can charge at home for cheaper with my solar panels

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The value of that program is the 30 minutes of free DC Fast charging that they offer (Assuming you have units in your area). The Level 2 part of the deal is okay (whaddya want for free), but it doesn't give you as many miles...

Those of us that bought early in 2011 didn't have any public charging stations for many months, so it's all relative...

I doubt it is a scam, but it clearly is a marketing gimmick! IF you bought the car based on the idea that the program will eliminate any fuel costs (as the name may seem to imply) then I could see one being upset. As always, check the details before using it as a basis for making a decision eh?

I suspect that the value all depends on your area and usage. First question is what do you need for charging away from home? If you have a home charger that meets your needs 95% of the time, then any cost for away from home charging should be minimal averaged out over the life of the vehicle.

IF you need to charge to make your commute, then the only chargers that matter are the ones that you will use frequently. I would think that joining that one network is probably good and then you can figure out the costs of that. "Free" charging for the first hour may be nice if it is available, but...

I wonder how many folks really "regularly" need to charge from multiple different networks etc. Perhaps if your job involves traveling all over the place (or you do this on your leisure time) this would be of some value...

Now I could see the temptation to get "free fuel" with the car - i.e. choose to charge away from home for free in order to maximize your value (i.e. not pay for power at home), but unless you put a low value on your time this will get old quickly unless the chargers are right where you need to be. Making special trips or going out of your way to charge for free takes time. As an example, I have a DCQC and L2 at my dealership that is only a few miles away - both are free to me and they actually seem to encourage me to use them. At first I would stop by there anytime I was close by to grab a bit of free power - was fun in a way. However, now that I have my upgraded EVSE at home and 'normal' life is taking over, I charge at home and don't even think of going over there. Now, if I happen to be in that area I may choose to park/charge while I do errands, but the marginal value of getting $2 worth of electricity for 30 minutes of my time spent there (not including the travel there and back).

TANSTAAFL

ksnogas2112 said:

TANSTAAFL

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Huh?? I guess I need to brush up on the latest acronyms. :?

derkraut said:

ksnogas2112 said:

TANSTAAFL

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Huh?? I guess I need to brush up on the latest acronyms. :?

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As of 1945, or earlier...

Is it 1 hour per day or can you do it again on another unit, location?

EVDRIVER said:

Is it 1 hour per day or can you do it again on another unit, location?

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I asked this question of the local eVgo representative here in Dallas and he responded "You can have as many sessions per day that you want. However, my understanding is that you must be disconnected for at least an hour between plug-ins at the same station." This is in reference to the Level 2 free charging. It's $1/hr after the first free hour.

Here locally, we get updates whenever one of the eVgo stations is down and then again when it comes back on line. NRG seems to be very much on top of things and committed to the program.

WetEV said:

derkraut said:

ksnogas2112 said:

TANSTAAFL

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Huh?? I guess I need to brush up on the latest acronyms. :?

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As of 1945, or earlier...

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Acronym for: "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Accredited to author Robert A. Heinlein in his novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

DNAinaGoodWay said:

WetEV said:

derkraut said:

Huh?? I guess I need to brush up on the latest acronyms. :?

Click to expand...

As of 1945, or earlier...

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Acronym for: "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Accredited to author Robert A. Heinlein in his novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

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nah, used in that story but predates it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain%27t_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Uses of the phrase dating back to the 1930s and 1940s have been found, but the phrase's first appearance is unknown

the moon is a harsh mistress is from 1966

In 1945, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" appeared in the Columbia Law Review, and "there is no free lunch" appeared in a 1942 article in the Oelwein Daily Register (in a quote attributed to economist Harley L. Lutz) and in a 1947 column by economist Merryle S. Rukeyser.

In 1949, the phrase appeared in an article by Walter Morrow in the San Francisco News (published on 1 June) and in Pierre Dos Utt's monograph TANSTAAFL: A Plan for a New Economic World Order,[12] which describes an oligarchic political system based on his conclusions from "no free lunch" principles.

I tried to use mine for the first time today. It wanted to charge me $5.00 at Blink, $3.00 at ChargePoint. Apparently I misunderstood what "No charge to charge" meant.

Kind of reviving an old thread, but we picked up our Leaf at the end of December, and were promised (including in writing, although that's worth jack) by the salesman that the NCtC program included "every charger on the Blink network," which is the predominant type in Seattle. We have since discovered that there are, in fact, four NCtC chargers in the entire city limits of Seattle. So, I guess technically it's not a scam (we haven't actually tried charging at one of those chargers yet, since they're pretty inconveniently located for where we spend our time), but it's also worth practically nothing. And it sours our opinion of Nissan pretty badly, which is too bad -- if they'd just not offered that in the first place, we would have been quite happy with what we got. As it is, we now feel like we got bait-n-switched.

Just more motivation to sort out an L2 charger at home, I guess. Blink is currently charging $.39/kWh for members ($.49 for non-members) vs. Seattle City Light's residentail service, at $.0506/kWh.

IanJ said:

Just more motivation to sort out an L2 charger at home, I guess. Blink is currently charging $.39/kWh for members ($.49 for non-members) vs. Seattle City Light's residentail service, at $.0506/kWh.

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Well celebrate those rates - we just had an increase of about $0.05/kWh (I'm now at about .23/kWh)... perhaps we should move out your way but it sure would take a long time to drive the Leaf over

Yeah, that was one of the reasons a Leaf made so much sense -- the price vs. gas is pretty stunning.