Would you pay an Ecotality membership fee?

In Ecotality's investor call, they talk about charging a "membership fee" starting in the end of their Q2.

Would you pay this fee for access to their Public L2 EVSEs?

For me the answer is heck no. I can't believe the government is paying them to install and deploy L2 and then allowing them to charge for us to use the infrastructure. If they go to some system like ChargePoint and charge per transaction no monthly fees I would definitely use it! Chargepoint recoups their money by charging the "host" some transaction fee. It’s a model that is very similar to credit cards.

(Mods maybe a poll should ensue on this. Maybe someone from ecotality is taking note and we can influence them to do something rational.)

http://paloalto.patch.com/articles/city-begins-planning-for-surge-in-electric-cars

...The Utility will have to figure out how best to charge for these stations, given the increased load. UAC members seemed favorable toward a model in which the city leases property to private companies that own and operate charging stations and recoup costs via a time-of-use rate...

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Apparently there are regulatory issues with non-utilities charging for power consumed, but you can give away power and instead charge a time based parking fee or monthly club fee.

There are definitely corporations out there trying to find a way to get profits from this.
Back around year 2000 all the public charging stations were free, but this time around I don't think we can count on that.

The director of the EV Project in Tucson told me that there would be no fees charged for the first 2 or 2 and a half years (can't remember exactly what she said), the length of the federal study. This might be for EV Project participants only, however. She didn't say.

After that, she said the Blink "host" business will determine what they want to do, set up a way to collect a fee or make them free.

Azrich said:

The director of the EV Project in Tucson told me that there would be no fees charged for the first 2 or 2 and a half years (can't remember exactly what she said), the length of the federal study. This might be for EV Project participants only, however. She didn't say.

After that, she said the Blink "host" business will determine what they want to do, set up a way to collect a fee or make them free.

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It won't matter much anyway. In 2-2.5 years, there will only be approximately 5 or 6 Blink units installed, and those are bound to be nowhere near where anyone will use them.

I'm just sayin.....

Jimmydreams said:

It won't matter much anyway. In 2-2.5 years, there will only be approximately 5 or 6 Blink units installed, and those are bound to be nowhere near where anyone will use them.

I'm just sayin.....

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You're awesome Jimmy...needed that laugh! :lol: :lol:

I hope/assume they are only considering so-called public charging spots.
Has anyone heard them mention wanting to charge for use of the home EVSEs?
(Imagine paying the power company for home power, then having to pay the EVSE provider to tap into it.)

you expect free power?
what is the fee? $10 a year or $100?
pay allot and no charge or pay a little and pay-per-use?

EcoT has been good to me.

Jimmydreams said:

After that, she said the Blink "host" business will determine what they want to do, set up a way to collect a fee or make them free.

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Geez, now I've got pop all over my keyboard :lol:

Why did they even bother asking for suggestions for charging locations :evil:

TEG said:

Apparently there are regulatory issues with non-utilities charging for power consumed, but you can give away power and instead charge a time based parking fee or monthly club fee.

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You have old information. This has been changed by CPUC, specifically to enable pay-for-power EVSE.

thankyouOB said:

you expect free power?
what is the fee? $10 a year or $100?
pay allot and no charge or pay a little and pay-per-use?

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I don't expect free power and am very happy to pay for it. I just don't like the idea of some monthly fee just to have the opportunity to charge.

I can just see Ecotality now, something like $9.95/mo + $5/hr, $19.95/mo + $2/hr, $29.95/mo + $1/hr.

Jimmydreams said:

It won't matter much anyway. In 2-2.5 years, there will only be approximately 5 or 6 Blink units installed, and those are bound to be nowhere near where anyone will use them.

I'm just sayin.....

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My EXACT thought!!! Aren't people supposed to go to jail when they steal $100,000,000.00?!?! Just wondering.

I joined the Chargepoint club as they actually have a few places to club it up.

It is unlikely that I would pay $30 per month for free L2 charging.
Also, no monthly fee and $5 per hour is too much for L2 charging.

Well done QC is another issue, maybe worth $0.10 per minute.

Too much fees, and EV dies.

I agree that the whole business model to make a killing selling electric is doomed.

Nothing I see here that's compelling yet:

Blink Membership Benefits:
•Enjoy faster, easier charges using your Blink Membership RFID card
•Receive special, members-only discounts through a variety of methods
•Reservation preferences
•Easier, convenient payment methods
•Enhanced Blink Network capabilities.
https://www.blinknetwork.com/membership.html

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Short to middle (<40 miles) electric only range Plug In Hybrids may need this more than 100+ mile range EVs that don't need to charge outside the home very often. Plug In Hybrids hae to plug in every chance they get to minimize gas usage. The Plug In Hybrid Volt may do most of it's charging at home with it's 40 mile electric only range. Plug In Prius with only 13 miles of electric only range will need to plug in much more often to minimize the use of gasoline.

I'd pay a small fee, but not too large $30/month would be very expensive when I can do almost all of my charging at home. Acces to Quick Charge would be nice, but unless they charge $50/Quick Charge, a pay per use model would be much cheaper for me. If I have to pay to plug in, in public, I'm not going to plug in that often. That certainly reduces the "cool" message of EVs if others don't see EVs plugged in. We'll go and deploy all this infrastrucuture, but if it's substantially more expensive than home charging, it may not see much use. That's the conundrum.

I'm very curious as to how it will unfold. If it's $10/month, I'd almost certainly sign up as long as I only sign up once with all the benefits - not separate accounts and additional charges for Blink, vs. Coulomb vs. other charger network suppliers. I'd sign up to encourage the deployment of EVs and enjoy using the charging stations, though charging on peak (electric grid) is always better than burning gasoline, it's best to charge at home during the night when it's off peak. If it costs as much as fueling with gasoline, I wouldn't do it. That's one of the benefits of an EV, some cost savings from gasoline and the flexibility of generating electricity from many energy / fuel sources so you can shift away from the ones that are too polluting or too expensive as time goes on.
I already have a pay per use account with CoulombTech.

80% of the time, I'll charge at home. 20% of the time, I'll charge at work.

For the rounding error's worth of 0.025% of the time I'll need a public charger, I'll use one of the free ones offered by establishments looking to attract my business.

I worry that companies are so eager to "monetize" the nascent public chargers that it will kill the whole EV model, or at least restrict the viability to those who can fully charge at home. That would be really sad, and it seems to be the express goal of the DoE plan to head this off. ECOtality is so busy cashing checks, pumping stock, and writing press releases that they're losing sight of this. DoE would do well to notice.


How many years did it take for WiFi "hot spots" to realize that "free" was the only model that made sense and attracted customers? Now it's only business hotels and other captive-audience locations that charge for WiFi. But it took what, fiv e years?

How common would Air Conditioning be if you had to pay to visit every place that provided it?
And A/C uses much more energy (and water) than EV charging could ever touch.

sdbonez said:

For the rounding error's worth of 0.025% of the time I'll need a public charger, I'll use one of the free ones offered by establishments looking to attract my business.

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I plan on making a point to say something to the manager/owner of any business that adds an EVSE. "The EVSE out there is the reason you have my business today. Thanks for putting it in!" if enough of us do that, it'll get noticed and will help the proliferation of business-installed EVSEs.

I don't like the membership idea AT ALL. After all, there's likely to be so few chargers for the foreseeable future that the thought that they won't ALL be available when needed by any driver is insane. THIS is the reason that I don't like the Evgo model...I can't stand the thought of running low on juice and being faced with a perfectly good charge station THAT I CANNOT USE!

Gas stations, by and large, don’t work that way. I may have a discount card for a particular brand, but if need calls I can use any of 'em (costco excluded). We simply can't afford this kind of marketing for EV charging.