Blink is a rip-off ... no, it's a bargain
Rip-off: I've charged a couple of times since fees began. Since they round up to the next hour I think my experience is probably more typical, $2 for 1.5 hrs, and $1 for 45 min, so the
effective price is not $1/hr but more like $1.33/hr. Then once the free membership year is done there's another $30/year to amortize over maybe one charge each week or two. On a per kWh basis that's way more than I pay at home, even at peak TOU rates (and I did charge during peak rates). On a cost per mile equivalent basis it's more expensive than putting gasoline in my ICE - which is not a Prius.
Bargain: I wasn't buying kWh; I was buying the freedom to drive my favorite car where I want to go, when I want to go, the way I want to drive. $1 is a real bargain for that. Each month my Leaf costs me $20-25 to charge (at home) saving me about $100 not spent on gasoline. If I spend $5 on Blink charges in a month, although it's a big portion of my charging cost for a small number of kWh, it's a tiny portion of my overall savings. And it's the portion that keeps me from worrying about being stranded on the side of the road, or having to choose the ICE car.
Moreover, maybe they'll finally get around to installing all those quick charge stations planned for mid-2011. (Current count in San Diego: chargers = 0, lawsuits trying to block the competition from installing chargers = 1.) But suppose they do install some Blink quick chargers by the time they begin to charge membership fees. Then that fee would be easily justifiable for access to the quick chargers, and the existing slow L2 chargers would just be an added benefit.
DaveinOlyWA said:
what i would like to see is charging station charging integrated with parking costs where you can get a discount (provided by parking garage) if you are charging at the same time.
I think what would be really effective for EVSE owners would be to offer free or discounted charging with purchase. It would be simple to do if Ecotality were flexible and clever enough to handle the billing. All you'd have to do is make a store purchase with the store affinity card you probably use anyway, on the same day as your charge, and they'd give you a credit for part or all of your Blink fee.