I really dislike membership plants, since this usually means that low-use customers generally subsidize the high-use customers. Pay-as-you go is really the way to go, you just need to figure out what kind of rates make sense.walterbays said:evGo's subscription plans are good for such people, a flat monthly rate for all you can drive, charging anywhere anytime.
For this reason, when Blink starts charging an annual fee, I will simply choose to switch to the plan that does not charge an annual fee. At an expected $35/year, I simply don't do enough public charging to make it worth while (a couple charging sessions a month - a QC very occasionally and an L2 session here or there for an hour or three) and I would simply rather pay a-la-carte even if it meant that I ended up paying more overall some years.
I still feel that if they billed in smaller increments than 1 hour you'd see a lot more opportunity charging. There's lots of times when one might want to plug in for 15-30 minutes but feeling like you're getting ripped off (even though as a member your rate may be the same as guest charging) completely dissuades you from doing so.
To limit credit card fees (most credit card processors charge a fixed fee + %) simply make customers deposit a minimum of $25 like Chargepoint does. This also effectively serves as the membership fee and also provide funds to Blink up front. Win-win-win! Maybe Chargepoint should just buy Blink/Ecotality?