the free ride is over

[johnrhansen]

got an email today from AV:

Thank you for subscribing to the AV Network along the West Coast Electric Highway - it has been our pleasure providing you with free charging for the past two years while the "highway" was being built. We're excited to say that we've delivered nearly 1 million free electric miles during this time as our commitment to support the adoption of electric vehicles.



Moving forward, and together with the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation, we want to keep encouraging EV ownership along the West Coast - while keeping public charging affordable.



Today, we're kicking off our EVNet ™ subscription plan that will be effective beginning April 1, 2014 providing you with:

Unlimited access to one of the largest networks of DC fast chargers
Unlimited access to Level 2 charging stations
Personalized charger use tracking
Updates on new charging locations



As a registered AV Network user, we're offering you a special rate of $19.99 per month* if you sign-up before March 31, 2014.

No account setup fee ($15 fee waived)
No long-term contract
No need for a new RFID (key fob) - use the one you have
Your first payment will be applied to the period starting April 1, 2014.

Sign Up Now





Call us with questions at 1-888-833-2148 or

email [email protected]



Happy Charging!



AeroVironment EVNet Team





* MSRP $24.99. Account setup fee may apply after April 1, 2014.

 

[ObjetDart]

Yup, no more free fast charging from the AeroVironment network in Oregon and Washington.

According to http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network, if you don't want to pay $20/month for unlimited access, you can pay $7.50 per session for L3 or $4 per session for L2 charging. Suddenly Blink's fee of $5 per DC fast charge doesn't look so bad.

I don't personally know anyone who fast charges often enough to justify a $20/month subscription. I certainly don't. I suspect this plan will flop, but don't really know for sure. Well either way, I expect Blink will see an increase in business soon!

Meanwhile, just in the last couple of months, free L3 chargers have started to pop up at the various Nissan dealers in the state. One just came online in Salem. The landscape is changing.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

If it fits your situation, $20/month is pretty cheap. If I had that at work, I'd probably stop charging at home.

Should cut down on waiting in line at popular locations too.

 

[johnrhansen]

I used it probably 20 times last year. Wouldn't be worth it for me. Maybe if several low time users got togrther and shared a fob....

 

[Levenkay]

So, let's see, here... Portland-to-Bellingham round trips hit six AV stations each way. At $7.50 per visit, that's $45 each way. From the quoted AV offer, there's a $15 setup fee for a $20/month subscription. So, I'll be signing up for a new subscription, paying one month's worth, and cancelling it each of the (rare) times I do that drive. That'll still be $55 less expensive than their single-use rates.

 

[Turnover]

Signed up.

Its a bargain for me not to mention it gives me an affordable means to contributing to a great network that actually works. When it breaks down AV sends people out to fix it if it can't be done from their customer service office.

If you are retired, traveling via quick chargers between Vancouver, the Oregon Coast, Grants Pass, Bellingham, The Dalles, and Central Oregon works and by month to month gets easier than to AV. Now if we can get somewhat bigger batteries...

Stiffing AV month by month isn't just cheap... its shooting oneself in the tire.

 

[gmikol]

While acknowledging that the monthly subscription rate pricing might be right for some people, I have to imagine that there are a lot of people that it doesn't make sense for. And that there are a lot of other people who feel that per-session pricing ($7.50 per DCQC or $4 per L2) is the wrong pricing model.

As a large (and vocal) group of EV supporters and enthusiasts, I suggest we make our opinions heard. AeroVironment has kindly provided contact information:

Call us at 1-888-833-2148 or email [email protected]

Let them know what your opinion is regarding the fee structure (pro/con/whatever). That's what I'm doing. Perhaps we can influence what the fee structure will ultimately be. But keep in mind, telling them it should still be free isn't helpful. It's only free because of government grants, and that's just not sustainable.

Let your voice be heard!!

--G

 

[gmikol]

Oh...and to add insult to injury:

From: http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(Emphasis mine)

$7.50/Session – DC Fast Charger
$4.00/Session – Level 2 Charging Station

(Per session payment is only available by calling our Customer Service Support Line at 888-833-2148).

If we have the RFID fob, why can't they bill through the RFID fob? Why make us call in? Sounds like they're doing everything they can to push people into the $20/month subscription plan. (It also seems that they haven't learned any lessons from the problems that the Blink network faced.) The one time I had to call in to AV to get a charge started, I spent 10 minutes on hold, as did the guy I ran into at the WCEH station in Ridgefield, WA with his brand new Focus electric. That presents an undue burden to those who choose to pay per session, on top of the unreasonable (IMO) per-session fees.

--G

 

[LakeLeaf]

$7.50/Session – DC Fast Charger
$4.00/Session – Level 2 Charging Station

(Per session payment is only available by calling our Customer Service Support Line at 888-833-2148).

Ouch - that makes incremental cost per mile for the Leaf significantly higher then the Prius - ~10.5mile/$ vs. ~15.5mile/$

 

[ObjetDart]

Yes, the occasional DC fast charger user seems to be really left out in the cold by this new pricing model. Very disappointing. I sent them an email.

 

[ColumbiaRiverGorge]

Since almost all of my quick charging is done with AV I really like the idea of all the electrons my Leaf can eat for $20 a month. Many times I stop for five to twenty minutes & I would rather not pay $5 to $7.50 per charge for this. When I go to Portland I don't mind paying $5 or $10 for a couple of Blink QCs to get around & back to Hood River. So far I have saved about $7000 in gas costs over my previous car, Subaru, in 30 months. $20 a month is a drop in the bucket compared to what I used to spend. Plus it is very important for me to support a robust & reliable AV network in my area. I do like the idea of charging users by energy use of the session vs. a flat fee for a session & hopefully someday all providers will offer this option with the monthly fee also being available.

 

[gmikol]

Right...and my opinion isn't that a subscription option shouldn't be available. It's certainly useful to some number of people, who use QC frequently or daily...you and DaveInOlyWA are two obvious examples here. But I have to imagine that it is a relatively small # of QC-enabled EV drivers. (10-20%, maybe?) If I had that driving pattern, I would have signed up right away.

But that wouldn't change my take on the billing structure. The per-session fee structure, both in terms of the cost, and in terms of the need to call in to a customer service line that can be quite slow, in order to authorize a per-session charge (despite the user having an AV fob), places an unreasonable burden on the drivers who choose to pay per-session. And it doesn't benefit those monthly subscribers who are stuck behind a per-session guy who refuses to move, even though the charger has tapered to less than an L2 rate. Because there is a financial dis-incentive to moving over to the L2 if you really do need a full charge (who wants to pay another $4 on top of the $7.50 you already paid?)

I also just realized this last night...if I'm parked at the QC (not charging) waiting for 10 minutes to get authorized on a per-session charge, exacerbating charger congestion, how does that benefit anyone? Especially with Nissan's goal of 40,000 more Leaf's on the road in 2014, a good chunk of them ending up in WA and OR, it seems likely.

As I said before, it's important that we all let AV know what you think about this fee structure, whether you like it or not. We on this forum really are still at the leading edge of EV adoption. As a group, we might just have the ability to influence how the billing structure evolves. So send them an email or a phone call...

--G

 

[Nubo]

Oh...and to add insult to injury:

From: http://evsolutions.avinc.com/services/subscriber_network" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(Emphasis mine)

$7.50/Session – DC Fast Charger
$4.00/Session – Level 2 Charging Station

(Per session payment is only available by calling our Customer Service Support Line at 888-833-2148).

If we have the RFID fob, why can't they bill through the RFID fob? Why make us call in? Sounds like they're doing everything they can to push people into the $20/month subscription plan. (It also seems that they haven't learned any lessons from the problems that the Blink network faced.) The one time I had to call in to AV to get a charge started, I spent 10 minutes on hold, as did the guy I ran into at the WCEH station in Ridgefield, WA with his brand new Focus electric. That presents an undue burden to those who choose to pay per session, on top of the unreasonable (IMO) per-session fees.

--G

Agreed, that's why I support efforts to require charge companies to accept universal payment (i.e. credit cards), instead of this subscription-based Tower of Babel approach that burdens drivers with multiple cards, accounts and entanglements.

 

[ObjetDart]

Even more annoying, most of the quick chargers in the greater Portland metro area are Blink, not AV. So someone living in the Portland area (which is most of the population of OR) who might use an AV charger on an *occasional* long drive out of town, would most of the time get nothing for their $20/month, and still have to pay Blink $5 per charge to 80%.

If Blink and AV were to offer a joint subscription that worked at both networks, now that might be something. Really don't see that happening, though.

 

[mortisier]

I will just take my Volt to Portland from now on. $7.50 for a sixty mile range extension is the same thing as paying $6.00 a gallon in the Volt. At least now I can justify owning the volt because this just opened up 15% more driving for it. The monthly plan makes the 3 trips to Washougal/Portland I take a year translate to 3miles per $1.00 not going to happen! $7.50 is like a 350% mark up over utility rates on a network that was paid for by the federal government.

 

[walterbays]

Even more annoying, most of the quick chargers in the greater Portland metro area are Blink, not AV. So someone living in the Portland area (which is most of the population of OR) who might use an AV charger on an *occasional* long drive out of town, would most of the time get nothing for their $20/month, and still have to pay Blink $5 per charge to 80%.

Oh it's even worse than that. There's also eVgo and Chargepoint, and some independents. And Paul Scott reported in another thread that Nissan dealers will be moving to their choice of eVgo or Chargepoint. Chargepoint is a la carte. eVgo pushes subscriptions but also has a per minute fee so they don't encourage hogging the charging stations as do Blink's session fees and AV's monthly fees. In Orange County, Irvine property company has some stations that charge a la carte with normal credit cards.

In San Diego most stations including L2 are Blink, but many Blink stations are broken and they show no interest in fixing them. In Los Angeles Chargepoint has a bigger presence. You're right. What indeed is someone to do who might want to drive their EV 100 miles from home, or 200? Sign up for three or four network subscriptions? Pay extortionate out-of-network rates and suffer long telephone delays for every charge?

In the 1960's it wasn't really a problem for people having to carry 5 or 6 different oil company cards for convenient access to gasoline wherever they went, because the oil companies charged a la carte not a monthly subscription fee.

It's as though each cell phone network covered only a fraction of a region and there was no roaming, or you could "roam" only by waiting 5 minutes for the operator to dial your call at $2/minute. Each time you drove a few miles you'd lose coverage unless you were paying monthly subscription to multiple carriers.

If Blink and AV were to offer a joint subscription that worked at both networks, now that might be something. Really don't see that happening, though.

Every few weeks there's another news story about how two charging networks agree on inter-operability so all their customers can use either, or about two charging networks merging so all their customers can use either, or new laws require charging networks to offer a la carte pricing, or new laws require universal payment for different networks. But on the road, all these stories come to nothing.

 

[johnrhansen]

I'm sure they know exactly what is going on and which people are going to be affected by this change. After all, they have been tracking our usage the whole time via the key fob we had to get to use the stations. Obviously, enough people charge often enough at the stations to make the $20 monthly fee worthwhile for them. I'm sure plenty of people will sign up. If I were to use the network just a couple times during the weekends, I would sign up. It would really be quite a deal actually. What I'm going to do most likely is to simply sign up for a month when I have a trip planned, then cancel when I know I'm not going to travel anymore. I ice it on long trips in the winter... that is If I can't get by using Nissan dealers or the occasional blink charger. Or just level 2. But when the nearest station is 40 miles from my house, it just isn't worth it for me to put 240 bucks a year into a network that I charge at a maximum of say 20 times.. Now if they put some chargers in between here and Spokane, I might re consider.

 

[ObjetDart]

After all, they have been tracking our usage the whole time via the key fob we had to get to use the stations.

It seems like it would be a huge mistake for them to base their future plans on past usage that occurred while the network was free. Personally I took my Leaf on several long drives last year only because the AV fast chargers were free, which allowed me to justify the 50% increase in travel time due to all the stopping and charging. At $7.50/charge I would have just used the gas car. That's just me, but I can only assume there are others in the same boat.

 

[smkettner]

A fixed charge is lazy and encourages extended use to get the max.
Charge per kWh would be far better IMO.

 

[johnrhansen]

I would think there were enough people using the chargers, say 10 times a month or more to make them think the $20 monthly business model was viable. Don't know why they even bothered to offer the per use charge. It's so expensive it just seems to invite controversy. I'd bet they really aren't encouraging that anyway.