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Is Blink making EV's more expensive to drive than ICE cars?

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Pmacafee

Member
Nov 27, 2012
105
51
San Francisco
#1
In a few days, my ChaDeMo adapter will arrive and there are several fast DC Blink charge stations near me just north of San Francisco International Airport. They could be of great help in keeping our limousine service's model S on the road all day long because it would be able to charge twice as fast as our HPWC.

The cost to charge on the Blink station is now about $.60/KWH. A full 85KWH will then cost me about $51.00. Gas around here is now about $2.50/gal, I guess that if my model S had an ICE engine it would get about 20 mpg or better. So to drive 260 miles it would take about 13 gallons of gas which would cost about $33. If gas gets back up to $4/gal then the cost is about the same, If I charge at the office, I think the full charge is about $12. So Blink's markup is over 400%? Are the tables turned? Where is ChargePoint on DC fast chargers?
 
#2
Blink has been pointed out many times as one of the most expensive (and you don't get much in way of reliability or better service for that expense). I've seen it frequently used as an example of how public charging can't work out.
 
#3
No, because most people do their charging at home. There are some cases where that might be the case (someone who has no home charging, for example).

1. Even if it cost more, driving the Model S would still be a much better experience.

2. Gas prices went up 75 cents over the last ten days. No doubt it will go up more. I don't know why it is, but every time the gas price goes down everyone thinks that it will stay down forever instead of going up higher than it was before.
 
#5
Pmacafee said:
In a few days, my ChaDeMo adapter will arrive and there are several fast DC Blink charge stations near me just north of San Francisco International Airport. They could be of great help in keeping our limousine service's model S on the road all day long because it would be able to charge twice as fast as our HPWC.

The cost to charge on the Blink station is now about $.60/KWH. A full 85KWH will then cost me about $51.00. Gas around here is now about $2.50/gal, I guess that if my model S had an ICE engine it would get about 20 mpg or better. So to drive 260 miles it would take about 13 gallons of gas which would cost about $33. If gas gets back up to $4/gal then the cost is about the same, If I charge at the office, I think the full charge is about $12. So Blink's markup is over 400%? Are the tables turned? Where is ChargePoint on DC fast chargers?
Click to expand...

The answer, following Betteridge's law, is no.

Typical public chargers are an enabler, not something for everyday use. They aren't something you use every day. Subscription-based or point-of-use-fee-based public chargers add an overhead, and because they don't see much use, the overhead per kWh is going to be high.

It's why I like Tesla's approach to the network so much. Take the money up front to pay for the expensive bit, enable it for life on the car, and then just manage the network, instead of dealing with accounts, swipecards and angry customers because the charger has lost Internet connectivity.
 
#7
ItsNotAboutTheMoney said:
The answer, following Betteridge's law, is no.

Typical public chargers are an enabler, not something for everyday use. They aren't something you use every day. Subscription-based or point-of-use-fee-based public chargers add an overhead, and because they don't see much use, the overhead per kWh is going to be high.

It's why I like Tesla's approach to the network so much. Take the money up front to pay for the expensive bit, enable it for life on the car, and then just manage the network, instead of dealing with accounts, swipecards and angry customers because the charger has lost Internet connectivity.
Click to expand...

Right. It's hard to make a business case for pay-for-use public chargers because of the high upfront costs without putting them into the emergency use only price range. The only two exceptions are 120V at airports or similar long term areas and 14-50/HPWC at places where cars are parked for hours. In those cases, the charging fee is added to the parking space fee.
 
#9
Don't use blink. Their rates are absurd. The only reason to use them vs charging at home or on Superchargers is when your in a bind and have nowhere else to charge in order to make it to your destination. But as long as you plan ahead, nobody should ever have to use a blink charger ever anywhere. I'd avoid them like the plague due to their overpriced rates. They certainly aren't helping the EV adoption by price gouging consumers.
 
#11
BerTX said:
I consider them like a convenience store for charging. You wouldn't buy there every day, but there are times it will be wonderful. And paying the price will not be a problem.
Click to expand...
That's it. You use them in an emergency. If you have to use them regularly, you've purchased the wrong electric car. I have the card (and Charge Point's) but I've never used them. If they ever send me a non-zero bill just for having the card, it goes back.
 
#12
Looks like they have a $99 per month all you can "eat" plan. They just got bought by another company and it looks like they are trying to clean up the old Blink network. In an interview with the CEO - he talks about the great standards that Tesla has and the superior charging capabilities...
In the US, the Level 2 stations have been consistent with different communication protocols and different networks. Tesla is the only station with its own charging mechanism. I actually support the adoption of the Tesla standard, as it is by far the best. It has one plug; a very streamlined plug. It works for both slow charging and supercharging, and provides from 10kW to 125kW. That charging mechanism is the best by far. But I doubt that other manufacturers will adopt Tesla’scharging system. The reality is that Level II chargers will remain where they are. I do think that wewill see 80AMP Level II charging stations with the same male-female connectors, so that will not change.
 
#13
People buy bottled water, which is, for the most part, just plain tab water. You can get it at home for 0.1 ct or you can buy it at a convenient location for $2. Same with Blink charging stations. It's a bad deal, but when you need it it's great to have it.
 
#14
yobigd20 said:
Don't use blink. Their rates are absurd. The only reason to use them vs charging at home or on Superchargers is when your in a bind and have nowhere else to charge in order to make it to your destination. But as long as you plan ahead, nobody should ever have to use a blink charger ever anywhere. I'd avoid them like the plague due to their overpriced rates. They certainly aren't helping the EV adoption by price gouging consumers.
Click to expand...

Planning has little to do with it. I will frequently use a 22kW AC charger here in Norway that is 50% more expensive than the Blink chargers (it works out to about $0.90 per kWh). Sure, I could use SC instead but that means a 38 mile detour that adds nearly 1 hour to the trip to our cabin. I will gladly pay the price for the 22kW to avoid that. I only need about 20kWh anyway, which we charge up while eating and shopping food. Compared to the total mileage of the trip the cost for the charging makes little impact. I've already used up a full battery charged cheaply at home.
 
#15
David99 said:
People buy bottled water, which is, for the most part, just plain tab water. You can get it at home for 0.1 ct or you can buy it at a convenient location for $2. Same with Blink charging stations. It's a bad deal, but when you need it it's great to have it.
Click to expand...

Excellent analogy! (although I don't agree that tap water is what is being sold in the store, but that's another topic for a different forum.)
 
#17
jkirkebo said:
Planning has little to do with it. I will frequently use a 22kW AC charger here in Norway that is 50% more expensive than the Blink chargers (it works out to about $0.90 per kWh). Sure, I could use SC instead but that means a 38 mile detour that adds nearly 1 hour to the trip to our cabin. I will gladly pay the price for the 22kW to avoid that. I only need about 20kWh anyway, which we charge up while eating and shopping food. Compared to the total mileage of the trip the cost for the charging makes little impact. I've already used up a full battery charged cheaply at home.
Click to expand...

I'd take the supercharger route.
 
#18
The one good side of being charged a lot at a public charging station is that people will move their car to avoid paying more. Free chargers tend to be taken all the time. That's my experience in the Los Angeles area. Although in case of Blink you are charged per kWh so you can stay there after charging has stopped at no extra cost.
 
#19
Xenoilphobe said:
Looks like they have a $99 per month all you can "eat" plan. They just got bought by another company and it looks like the
Click to expand...

I cannot find this on the Blink site. PG&E wants at least $50k to bring 440v to my business and then the charge station is about $50k also.

Just remember I have an hourly paid driver in the vehicle, and a lunch break is about the only legal time we can charge it without needing to pay the driver. So 30-60 minutes is all we have in the middle of the day.
 
#20
"However, memberships ultimately do offer a less expensive charging fee because of high-end discounts. For instance, if a customer wants to charge their car on a routine basis, we can provide it as part of a monthly cost of USD 99. If they prefer to pay per kWh, it would cost them a bit more. There are benefits of having memberships and within those memberships, you need to have interoperability between charging networks. We would like to be able to sell a membership, which will provide access to a Blink charging station and NRG’s charging station, eVgo. Then eVgo and the Blink network should be able to reconcile.This way, the EV owners have the ability to charge at any charging station. That’swhere the market needs to go. Michael D. Farkas, CEO and Co-Founder, CarCharging"

contact them here: CarCharging, Inc.1691 Michigan Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida, 33139 [email protected]. I would post this question on their Facebook or twitter account..
 
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