California: Blink Membership Fees Start Wednesday, August 22

[TonyWilliams]

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.

So, you support the fees (hence supporting the infrastructure) or is a whole $1 per hour is too much for the convenience?

 

[davewill]

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. ...

What should Blink do about it? If they let you park for free, then the EVSEs will be full of travelers who won't be back for days and won't be available to anyone else. Since Blink isn't getting any of the parking fees you're paying, (in fact, they have to kick back some of the charging fees to the parking garage), they won't get squat until you leave and someone else can use the EVSE (for a few hours, then nothing for days again). If there's a real solution it will have to come from the parking operator.

As I see it, there are only two ways long-term airport EV parking works. One is valet parking where the valet handles seeing that your car is connected, charged, and disconnected. The other is where the parking operator puts in their own very cheap (L1@6a?) charging stations so that they can deploy them in big numbers, but they can't hold all those spaces just for EVs.

If I were a parking operator, and very serious about supporting EVs, I would do the valet thing first because it's the easiest, at least if I already have valet service. If I'm collecting valet rates, covering Blink's fees shouldn't be a problem. Then I'd probably try to install L1 (maybe 6-8a?) in my general lot so that one station covers 4-6 spaces and install enough of them so that I don't have to reserve EV spaces. I would probably have to do it on my own since the EVSE networks don't seem to really serve this niche. I would be crazy to think it would pay for itself very quickly, though.

 

[smkettner]

I am sticking with free membership and $1.50 charging. If I need it fine but more likely they will not get more than 10 hours a year out of me. Maybe nothing. Hard to compete with the price at home and this is no different than pumping the lowest price gasoline.