Nice work if you can get it
~or~
Nice, if you can get it to work.
Back in 1994, I got a cell phone through work. I had to make sure I picked the right local market, because I didn’t want to have to pay roaming when I was “home,” but I also had to make sure I picked the right plan, because I didn’t want to pay too much when I was roaming. I paid a monthly fee to access the network and a per-minute fee for when I actually used the service. It felt like the companies were kind of fumbling around with how to attract customers and get revenue from what was, at the time, a still-new industry.
Eventually, that all changed. December 24, 1998, I finally succumbed to the AT&T siren call of “It just might be your only phone.” I was happy to pay for a plan because I didn’t have to pick a market. I paid a monthly fee to access a service that had no roaming, no per-minute fees. That did upset some people who wanted it to go the other, pay-as-you-go route.
Eventually, that changed too, and today, in 2015, we have both pay-as-you-go and these crazy inexpensive plans with no setup fee and that give free mobile-to-mobile, unlimited data, unlimited talk, unlimited text.
That kind of division is how it should be.
Some services you want have a monthly fee, whether you use it or not. It’s kind of like “I wanna” insurance. Rent falls into this category; “I wanna” have a place to put my stuff and relax, so I pay a monthly fee no matter how much I use that apartment.
Some services have a per-use charge. Like getting in a cab from the aforementioned apartment in order to go to work. If you don’t use it, you don’t pay for it.
What I don’t like is when a company goes back to the ’90s cell phone pricing model. Back then, it didn’t make much sense because they were trying to make sense of it. NRG eVgo is one of these companies. Also, I’m a little worried that NRG eVgo is making inroads into city infrastructure, because it’s actually financially punitive. Driving a low- (or “zero-”) emissions vehicle is supposed to be the right thing to do, and people would do it if it made financial sense. Right now, it doesn’t make that kind of sense to everyone, and eVgo isn’t helping.
If you want to charge your electric car, they have different plans you can select. Before you do that, you have to pick your market (sound familiar?). If you drive frequently, then you probably want Plan 1 (if you have a pluggable hybrid) or Plan 2 (if you have a straight-up EV), where you pay a monthly fee for a reduced per-use fee. If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee, then you can pick Plan 3, where you pay per-use. Sounds fine, right? That’s the division I lauded so much just a few paragraphs back.
Except, no, it isn’t. Not really.
Plan 1
If I pay $5.95/mo, I can get access to L2 charging rates as low as $1/hr. Except that rate is actually the highest I find from most EV charging providers now, some are free, and none of them require a monthly fee.
Along with that $5.95/mo rate, I have access to DC fast charging (sometimes called L3) with a per-session fee of $4.95 and usage rates of 20¢/min. Without the session fee (which exceeds the $0-$3/session fee I can find with other services), that’s $12/hr.
If I get disgusted with the service and cancel my 1 year contract, I get to pay $29 penance, whereas Blink and ChargePoint provide good service to try to keep my business without holding me hostage with a nearly five-month termination fee.
To recap:
Plan 2
If I pay $14.95/mo, my L2 rates drop to… no, wait, they stay the same: $1/hr. Ah, but DC charging is the low, low rate of 10¢/min. That’s still $6/hr. And there’s still a termination fee.
Another recap:
Plan 3
Ah, pay-as-you-go! This should work!
So, no NRG eVgo, I will not be a subscriber until you decide to follow what the rest of the market is doing and give up your quest for free money.
Nice, if you can get it to work.
Back in 1994, I got a cell phone through work. I had to make sure I picked the right local market, because I didn’t want to have to pay roaming when I was “home,” but I also had to make sure I picked the right plan, because I didn’t want to pay too much when I was roaming. I paid a monthly fee to access the network and a per-minute fee for when I actually used the service. It felt like the companies were kind of fumbling around with how to attract customers and get revenue from what was, at the time, a still-new industry.
Eventually, that all changed. December 24, 1998, I finally succumbed to the AT&T siren call of “It just might be your only phone.” I was happy to pay for a plan because I didn’t have to pick a market. I paid a monthly fee to access a service that had no roaming, no per-minute fees. That did upset some people who wanted it to go the other, pay-as-you-go route.
Eventually, that changed too, and today, in 2015, we have both pay-as-you-go and these crazy inexpensive plans with no setup fee and that give free mobile-to-mobile, unlimited data, unlimited talk, unlimited text.
That kind of division is how it should be.
Some services you want have a monthly fee, whether you use it or not. It’s kind of like “I wanna” insurance. Rent falls into this category; “I wanna” have a place to put my stuff and relax, so I pay a monthly fee no matter how much I use that apartment.
Some services have a per-use charge. Like getting in a cab from the aforementioned apartment in order to go to work. If you don’t use it, you don’t pay for it.
What I don’t like is when a company goes back to the ’90s cell phone pricing model. Back then, it didn’t make much sense because they were trying to make sense of it. NRG eVgo is one of these companies. Also, I’m a little worried that NRG eVgo is making inroads into city infrastructure, because it’s actually financially punitive. Driving a low- (or “zero-”) emissions vehicle is supposed to be the right thing to do, and people would do it if it made financial sense. Right now, it doesn’t make that kind of sense to everyone, and eVgo isn’t helping.
If you want to charge your electric car, they have different plans you can select. Before you do that, you have to pick your market (sound familiar?). If you drive frequently, then you probably want Plan 1 (if you have a pluggable hybrid) or Plan 2 (if you have a straight-up EV), where you pay a monthly fee for a reduced per-use fee. If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee, then you can pick Plan 3, where you pay per-use. Sounds fine, right? That’s the division I lauded so much just a few paragraphs back.
Except, no, it isn’t. Not really.
Plan 1
If I pay $5.95/mo, I can get access to L2 charging rates as low as $1/hr. Except that rate is actually the highest I find from most EV charging providers now, some are free, and none of them require a monthly fee.
Along with that $5.95/mo rate, I have access to DC fast charging (sometimes called L3) with a per-session fee of $4.95 and usage rates of 20¢/min. Without the session fee (which exceeds the $0-$3/session fee I can find with other services), that’s $12/hr.
If I get disgusted with the service and cancel my 1 year contract, I get to pay $29 penance, whereas Blink and ChargePoint provide good service to try to keep my business without holding me hostage with a nearly five-month termination fee.
To recap:
- There’s a monthly fee, which I do not pay to Blink or ChargePoint.
- L2 charging is $1-/hr. Blink and ChargePoint are $0-$1/hr.
- DC fast charging is $5.15-$16.95/hr, a potential 565% markup of other providers’ $3/session (without hourly) fee.
- $29 termination.
Plan 2
If I pay $14.95/mo, my L2 rates drop to… no, wait, they stay the same: $1/hr. Ah, but DC charging is the low, low rate of 10¢/min. That’s still $6/hr. And there’s still a termination fee.
Another recap:
- Higher monthly fee.
- No L2 benefit, still at $1/hr.
- DC fast charging is $6/hr, a %200 markup over others.
- $29 termination fee.
Plan 3
Ah, pay-as-you-go! This should work!
- L2 rates are $1.50/hr.
- DC fast charging is back to the $4.95/session + 20¢/min rate
- $5.95 setup fee? I guess they’re gonna get one month out of you somehow.
So, no NRG eVgo, I will not be a subscriber until you decide to follow what the rest of the market is doing and give up your quest for free money.