Is Blink Charging Network Cost Effective?

[Lightfoot]

I recently joined the Blink Charging Network. The cost of joining was free, as far as I am aware.

 

They offer 240-volt charges for the cost of $1/hour. They round up on their billing, e.g., if you charge for 2.5 hours you will be billed for 3 hours.

 

Assuming, as the Ford literature says, it takes 2.5 hours to charge the FFE with a 240-volt charge, the cost to fully charge a discharged battery will be $3.00.

 

Assuming you get 22 miles on EV Only from that charge, the cost per mile at Blink's rate is $3.00/22 miles=$0.14 per mile. My FFE in EV Later mode seems to get at least 42 MPG, which comes to 1 gallon at $4.09/gallon/42 MPG=$0.09 per mile (not to even mention the cost and inconvenience of finding a working Blink charging station).

 

So Blink can go to hell as far I'm concerned. 

 

Am I missing something, from a pure personal cost point of view?

 

Thanks.

Edited August 3, 2014 at 11:34 PM by Lightfoot

[jeff_h]

Yeah it doesn't seem as cost-effective for a PHEV, probably aimed more toward pure EVs.  

 

A full charge on mine with the Chargepoint charger that I use each morning takes between about 2:05 to 2:12 or so, as the charging rate varies slightly from day to day.

[murphy]

You could limit it to 2 hours and not lose much range.  The most the car will accept is 3.8 kW so 2 hours would be 7.6 kWh.  $2.00 divided by 7.6 kWh is 26.3 cents per kWh.  That's way higher than the 16 cent flat rate my power company charges.  A full electric car that charges at a higher rate would have a lower per kWh rate.  The Focus electric charges at 7.6 kW so 2 hours would be 15.2 kWh.  $2.00 divided by 15.2 kWh is 13.2 cents per kWh.

[Fat Fusion]

I charge for two hours four or five times a week at work.  It's probably a wash with the cost of gas but I'd rather pay the local utility than big oil and sending dollars overseas.

[Gigi]

Am I missing something, from a pure personal cost point of view?

Nope.  You got it.

 

I don't think it is worth it for PHEV.

 

My wife used a Blink once in the middle of the day because leaving work to attend a funeral added more miles to her commute than her range on the Focus Electric would allow.  The cost per mile isn't so bad with 6.6kWh charging on the Focus, but still, I regard public charging as useful only in case of emergency.

[shaggy314]

Yeah, they are shooting for people with a 6.6 kwh charger and not the Energi's 3.3. It's usually not worth it for us to pay for charging by time. I paid $.50 a kwh once for the novelty of it, but that was the last time. THANKFULLY the city offers a 6 month all you can charge card for a fixed fee. It's REALLY worth it then as the workplace charger is on the network. The city has around 140 around the city. I have RARELY gotten ICE'd here and it isn't illegal for them to do so. I just leave a Blink notice on their cars and go about my business.

 

IIRC $.32 kWh is about what gas runs you, so I use that to see if I should just gas it. $1 an hour is right at the price of gas, so maybe if I were going to do a lot of city driving, but not if I was going on a highway trip after the charge.

 

I'm averaging over 3000 miles a tank, yet MyFordMobile perpetually says I go 40 miles per fillup (ha).

Edited August 8, 2014 at 08:15 PM by shaggy314

[Gigi]

I'm averaging over 3000 miles a tank. . .

Outstanding.  My best so far has been 1600 on 9.5 gallons over a 7 week period.  I could have gone longer, but we had a trip coming up and needed a full tank of gas.

[comike]

Yep.  The key is the relatively slow rate of charge of the Fusion Energi vs most fully electric vehicles.  If the Fusion came with a more powerful charger (and a battery configuration that was able to handle it), it might be cost effective to charge at a station that billed based on the time you were connected.  But with the charger that is built into our cars, it's not usually cost effective to charge at charging stations that aren't free.

Edited August 4, 2014 at 10:17 PM by njmike