I emailed Aerovironment to complain about this too, specifically the fact that pay per session requires you to call them to activate the charger each time. This will add like 5-10 minutes to each quick charge, and is also just plain asinine since they can easily tie a credit card to the key fob. It is going to take a lot of customer service rep time for them to handle all these calls. There is no good reason to do this other than to drive people to unlimited subscriptions. I got the following reply from them:
"Thank you for your feedback regarding the billing for AeroVironment’s EVNet. At this time we are not offering the billing solution as you proposed. We will consider your feedback into offering more features into the future.
Best Regards,
AJ Bock
Applications Engineer
AeroVironment Inc.
[email protected]
626-357-9980 X 109"
So it sounds like they are at least listening, so please make your voice heard!
There are a couple more problems with this billing model. First is that cell phone coverage is spotty for some of the more remote chargers on the network, like Skykomish, WA, making it risky if a call is required to activate. Another issue is that the Aerovironment chargers cut off at 80% charge if you start at below 50% charge, requiring you to initiate another fast charge session to top off to 100% charge. This wasn't a problem when it was free, but does that now mean you need to pay another $7.50 for the top off or $15 total? Some of the chargers are spaced far enough apart that a top-off is needed, like for going over the mountain passes. I emailed Aerovironment about this and haven't received an answer yet, but if I do, I'll let you know.
This is making it very likely I will be driving my ICE car for long trips now rather than my Leaf and fast charging. Someone suggested getting the unlimited subscription if you want to take a long trip and then canceling it afterwards. Has anyone asked Aerovironment whether they will make you pay the $15 setup fee all over again every time you cancel and reactivate? Also, the website says that its $19.99 a month for a limited time, and then rises to $24.99 a month, so if you do what was suggested you can't lock in the $19.99 fee. I simply don't use the Aerovironment chargers enough to justify $240 per year, but if it was a joint Blink/Aerovironment network I would go for it.