the free ride is over

[gmikol]

I'm glad to see that there are a lot of other people who are on the same page as me on this one...but we can't just talk about it here.

Let AV know what you think!

Aerovironment Customer Service
1-888-833-2148
[email protected]

--G

 

[kubel]

The best way to hide the cost of the infrastructure is to roll it into the cost of the Quick Charge port option at purchase. This, combined with an at-cost charge-per-kWh would be the best sustainable approach, IMHO.

Example: Quick charge port option is +$1,630. $1,000 goes to infrastructure. $630 covers parts costs to equip car with CHAdeMO and LED lights. Then if you stop at a QC station, you pay $0.11/kWh (or whatever the going rate is in your area). You swipe a credit card, and you are on your way.

If gas cars pay per gallon of gas, electric cars should pay per kWh of electricity. That's the only sustainable way.

 

[camasleaf]

I already can see the "fob sharing" scheme. Especially for Portland area where there are zero AV chargers inside the metro area, so the use for AV is only on the few trips out of the metro area. I buy a $20 monthly fob and rent it for $5 to others making a 1-2 day trip, just 2-3 times a month.

 

[smkettner]

Just hang the fob on the machine already

 

[johnrhansen]

A special hiding place only those in the club know about.

 

[smkettner]

like a geocache

 

[Berlino]

Looks like the 163 DCQC Estonian network is better on at least two fronts:

1) It's the same network for urban (100) and highway (63) CHAdeMO stations.

2) Besides pay-by-use, there are two monthly plans, so you're more likely find a solution which fits your needs.

I know there are Estonian members of this forum, hopefully they can contribute to this discussion.
I am interested in different networks' pricing, because Quebec has not yet announced the fees for their upcoming DCQC network. I am afraid they'll opt for the dreaded flat-fee.

I was going to add to add a third advantage for the Estonian network, that it takes away the incentive to share fobs, but I guess this isn't actually true.

http://elmo.ee/pricing/

To put the pricing into context, for 2013 Q1 Estonian households paid EUR 0.135/kWh, which was a great deal by EU standards. EU Average: EUR 0.20/kWH. Highest: Denmark (0.30) and Germany (0.29).

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/st...cs#Electricity_prices_for_household_consumers

On another note, there is a 60-minute limit per session. I would think it should be shorter in the Pacific Northwest. Who wants to get caught behind a Tesla with adapter that wants to drink 80 kWh? 60-minutes probably only makes sense in Estonia due to freezing batteries not being able to recharge as fast

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

I'm glad to see that there are a lot of other people who are on the same page as me on this one...but we can't just talk about it here.

Let AV know what you think!

Aerovironment Customer Service
1-888-833-2148
[email protected]

--G

Also, contact your state's DPU, regarding consumer protection. If there are no competitors in some areas, and the network was publicly subsidized, the DPU should get involved. Charging by the kWh for non-subscribers is the only fair practice.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

If only the contracts for the West Coast Green Highway between the state and EV and Blink were written so that if either company dropped out of the game or went banckrupt, that the network would be handed over to the victor. Imagine if AV could take over blink and replace all those rust buckets with decent units!

 

[hill]

Yup, no more free fast charging from the AeroVironment .....

OMG !!! What next?! Will the gvt start charging for Obama phones? say it's not so!

.

 

[caffeinekid]

Well, here in Houston I pay $40.00/month for unlimited access. At $0.11/kWH I used about $23/month average worth of electricity, leaving the other $17 to factor off as a convenience fee.

 

[Turnover]

To give this a little perspective, this is the 2nd month that I've gotten emails from BLINK. Last month they noted that they had customer billing error issues and would rebilling. Now the problem is that my personal credit card has needs to be updated. When I try to do this I get a notice that their servers aren't working "Payment update failed due to a server error; please try again later." It would be nice if Mitt Romney would adopt this company and smooth things out...

 

[lkkms2]

To give this a little perspective, this is the 2nd month that I've gotten emails from BLINK. Last month they noted that they had customer billing error issues and would rebilling. Now the problem is that my personal credit card has needs to be updated. When I try to do this I get a notice that their servers aren't working "Payment update failed due to a server error; please try again later." It would be nice if Mitt Romney would adopt this company and smooth things out...

I just updated my credit card (the old one was expiring February 28 today) on the Blink website too. Was able to updated the credit card, but got the same message about "Payment update failed...."

They were showing I owed $2. Should have been able to bill with the old one. Know Blink is just updating their accounting and need to get everything synced up. They are starting to bill at the end of the month now. May take a few days (weeks?), but will just check on it later in March.

P.s. I am signing up for the Calif NRG monthly payment ($14.95/month) in the San Diego area (plus some minor charge for time .10 a minute each session) L2 is included for $1/hr. However, Charging is free until they finish 7 Freedom Stations (with QC and L2) in the San Diego area. I think 5 locations are already finished with last 2 coming soon. I will have a lot more flexibility to drive around San Diego, finally being able to use my QC more!

 

[ObjetDart]

Yup, no more free fast charging from the AeroVironment .....

OMG !!! What next?! Will the gvt start charging for Obama phones? say it's not so!

.

You seem to be mocking me, not sure why. I was just stating a fact.

 

[Graffi]

Yup, no more free fast charging from the AeroVironment .....

OMG !!! What next?! Will the gvt start charging for Obama phones? say it's not so!

.

You seem to be mocking me, not sure why. I was just stating a fact.

NEVER take anything posted on a blog as personal. I am sure he was just making a joke, and I am sure many of the readers got a laugh out of it, I know I did. Life is so much more enjoyable when we go through it with a smile on our face. Even if someone IS trying to insult you, it is their problem, not yours. I find that by not taking offence to anything someone else says to me that I am able to be the master of my self. If I were to let it get me angry then I have just given control of myself to someone else.

JMHO

 

[ObjetDart]

NEVER take anything posted on a blog as personal. I am sure he was just making a joke, and I am sure many of the readers got a laugh out of it, I know I did. Life is so much more enjoyable when we go through it with a smile on our face. Even if someone IS trying to insult you, it is their problem, not yours. I find that by not taking offence to anything someone else says to me that I am able to be the master of my self. If I were to let it get me angry then I have just given control of myself to someone else.

JMHO

I'm not offended or angry. Just confused. He explicitly quoted me and made a sarcastic response that (at least to me) wasn't particularly funny. I wanted to understand why since it didn't seem warranted. If it's just a joke that's fine, but if something else was implied I'd like to know what it is.

 

[johnrhansen]

Now I know how to make a leaf owner cranky. Take away free charging!

 

[garylai]

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.

 

[garylai]

The best way to hide the cost of the infrastructure is to roll it into the cost of the Quick Charge port option at purchase. This, combined with an at-cost charge-per-kWh would be the best sustainable approach, IMHO.

Example: Quick charge port option is +$1,630. $1,000 goes to infrastructure. $630 covers parts costs to equip car with CHAdeMO and LED lights. Then if you stop at a QC station, you pay $0.11/kWh (or whatever the going rate is in your area). You swipe a credit card, and you are on your way.

If gas cars pay per gallon of gas, electric cars should pay per kWh of electricity. That's the only sustainable way.

Yes, that's what Tesla does with the Superchargers. Lifetime unlimited access to the charging network is included with the 85 kWh Tesla S, and a $2,500 option with the 60 kWh Tesla S. But it helps they are building a nationwide network, not the Aerovironment's small and spotty network.

 

[garylai]

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.

Johnrhansen, if I am reading it right, Aerovironment will make you pay a $15 setup fee every time you cancel and sign up again.