Blink QC charging fees

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blackleaf

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Messages
46
Location
Kirkland Washington
MNL members. What do you think of the announced Blink quick charging rates. Seems a bit on the high side to me. When you need to QC, you've just got to do it, but at $5 a pop, it's more than I was expecting. But, I guess with gas at $4 a gallon, and a full 80 percent charge equal to about 2 gallons for an average new car....maybe it's not too bad. Hard to get over "free".

Blink Network's goal is to give you the freedom to stay charged whenever and wherever you want. Our Blink DC Fast Chargers are there to help you charge up and charge on quickly.

As of June 10, we’ll be adding Blink DC Fast Chargers to our membership plans. All Blink members will be able to fast charge at an introductory rate of just $5 per session. Guests may also charge for $8 per fast charge.

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Charge on.

Blink
 
You're right, hard to get over free....

They're still losing money at $5 per session (at least here in SoCal)
 
It sounds like a good deal to me. I was expecting $7-10. I kinda wish they would charge extra for people who choose to charge >80%. That really ties up the station.
 
Making the fee on a "per session" basis will encourage the 100% attempts while those of us that would have only taken 5KW or less to get home will use the per session basis to hang out longer trying to get our money's worth. I don't think that is a good model. Maybe $1 for the first 2 KW/start and then something after that. I am seeing way too many 2013 leases attempting to charge to 100% on the QC. This probably will move me to the level 2 and I'll spend the 1/2 hour there getting what I need to get home at $1.
 
I've used Blink DC FC in about 5 locations, and no matter whether I set it at 80, 90, or 100%, all the Blink stations I've used stop at roughly 80% on my Gidmeter...
 
Randy said:
They're still losing money at $5 per session (at least here in SoCal)
Is that because of the higher cost of power?

I think they've hit a pretty good spot with the price. Probably just enough that it'll prevent people from relying on them all the time, not enough to really prevent people that need to use them for longer journeys. On the other hand, if EV drivers are typically more affluent, maybe $5 isn't much of a deterrent.

Hopefully there aren't too many folks that NEED these for daily use. But they had to know this was coming.
 
Randy said:
I've used Blink DC FC in about 5 locations, and no matter whether I set it at 80, 90, or 100%, all the Blink stations I've used stop at roughly 80% on my Gidmeter...
I have a 2013 Leaf, and I've only used 1 Blink station. I set it to charge to 100%. It was at 93% and still charging when I disconnected to let someone else use it.
 
ITestStuff said:
Randy said:
I've used Blink DC FC in about 5 locations, and no matter whether I set it at 80, 90, or 100%, all the Blink stations I've used stop at roughly 80% on my Gidmeter...
I have a 2013 Leaf, and I've only used 1 Blink station. I set it to charge to 100%. It was at 93% and still charging when I disconnected to let someone else use it.

I needed a quick charge so I could extend my range by 10-15 miles or so the other day and another Leaf was charging to 100%. The thing was sitting at 92% for a long time and I had to get back to work. Luckily for me, he gave it up soon after that. I told him it was not good to charge to 100%. He said he didn't care. I asked him if was leasing it. Yes, was the answer.
 
vsaphill said:
So for me it will be $10 to $20 a day as I QC 2 to 4 times a day, Not a good thing!!
Well, since you're the first one to mention it, what made you decide to go with the Leaf when you knew this day would come?
 
Randy said:
I've used Blink DC FC in about 5 locations, and no matter whether I set it at 80, 90, or 100%, all the Blink stations I've used stop at roughly 80% on my Gidmeter...

On a '11/'12, you have to be at least 50% full on the Blink QC screen for it to charge past 80%. The '13, however, will charge to 90% in 30 mins or less no matter where you start.
 
Prices will need to vary based on the cost of electricity, but it seems obvious to me that free will not be viable for long. And, yes, I agree that you need to be charged for the length of time you are monopolizing that charger. I'm not sure what to do about the two-headed chargers where only one of them can be running at a time. Perhaps don't start counting time until your car starts charging, but then don't stop counting until you unplug? Or if two cars are plugged in, and neither is charging, bill each of them at half the rate?

Ray
 
TaylorSFGuy said:
Making the fee on a "per session" basis will encourage the 100% attempts while those of us that would have only taken 5KW or less to get home will use the per session basis to hang out longer trying to get our money's worth. I don't think that is a good model. Maybe $1 for the first 2 KW/start and then something after that. I am seeing way too many 2013 leases attempting to charge to 100% on the QC. This probably will move me to the level 2 and I'll spend the 1/2 hour there getting what I need to get home at $1.
EVoasis got the fee model right, $ per time, so the fast part is a good deal, and slow topping off is not. They also charge by the minute, versus Blink being unable (unwilling) to recognize any unit of time smaller than an hour on their L2s.

Blink did well in installations I've seen to have adjacent L2s for topping off. Due to California demand fees they will lose a lot of money on these. I just hope they can keep them open until the state wises up.
 
davewill said:
It sounds like a good deal to me. I was expecting $7-10. I kinda wish they would charge extra for people who choose to charge >80%. That really ties up the station.
Looks like there's lots of agreement here. The prices seem very fair, but charging per session only encourages people to charge for as long as possible. When there is generally not enough QC infrastructure around, this is not a good thing.

Like others, I am a big fan of charging by the minute for QC stations (even for L2 though 5 min increments would be fine).

Instead of $5 / $8 session, charge $0.20 / $0.30 per minute from the minute the charge starts to the minute they've unplugged. Maybe give them a 5-10 min grace period after the charge stops or charge half price after the charge stops, but just like Blink does for L2s, do something to keep people from hogging stations.

vsaphill said:
So for me it will be $10 to $20 a day as I QC 2 to 4 times a day, Not a good thing!!
Not sure how long you expected free charging to last? I think that everyone expects to pay something to charge. At 120 mi / day, seems like your best bet is to spend as much time on L2 as possible and avoid QC unless you really need it.
 
ITestStuff said:
vsaphill said:
So for me it will be $10 to $20 a day as I QC 2 to 4 times a day, Not a good thing!!
Well, since you're the first one to mention it, what made you decide to go with the Leaf when you knew this day would come?

I was spending $180 a week on gas, Looks like I will just be using the free L2 at the park-n-ride next to my house at night and start using my L2 at my shop
 
vsaphill said:
Looks like I will just be using the free L2 at the park-n-ride next to my house at night
And this is why public charging should always have some nominal fee close to the cost of electricity...
 
I think they should charge $0.15/min instead of $5/charge. Also, they could show an estimate of the average cost per mile driven on the screen while it's charging. Then people could see that the cost goes up dramatically after the first 20-30 min. Maybe that would help push people off of the DCQC above 80% (unless they really need it to get to their destination).
 
LEAFfan said:
Randy said:
I've used Blink DC FC in about 5 locations, and no matter whether I set it at 80, 90, or 100%, all the Blink stations I've used stop at roughly 80% on my Gidmeter...

On a '11/'12, you have to be at least 50% full on the Blink QC screen for it to charge past 80%. The '13, however, will charge to 90% in 30 mins or less no matter where you start.

I don't think that's true. I regularly quick charge my '11 Leaf to 90% from below 50%, you just need to hit more options button.
 
Since some local DCQC groups were initially thinking of charging $1/minute, I welcome the $5/session fee from Blink. Really, here in Oregon though if you're looking for a non-Blink DCQC it's not hard to find one, and at least some of them will continue to be available at no cost in the foreseeable future...
 
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