Is the Bluedot app any good?

[StarTrekNerd]

I somehow only just learned about it, despite having had my R1T for a year next month…

In reading the reviews, it sounds like many of the perks are gone, and it basically just gets you a flat 43¢/kWh now, which is comparable to member rates from EVGo and EA in my area.

Is there any compelling reason to use it anymore? Their own site is pretty useless in terms of figuring out what the actual benefits are…

I used it for well over a year until they took away the debit card.

I use the debit card on the Tesla Supercharger Network with my Tesla.

Easy 20% back. Plus they used to give you O2 points for your miles driven, but discontinue that as well.

Without the debit card, it doesn't seem like they are going to succeed without the supercharger Network.

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[SwampNut]

Those are a lot of words for the answer, which is: No

The discount was obviously unsustainable, but they killed it off much quicker than I thought. Their scam pivot to a useless service probably won't go well.

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Well damn. I realized my ABRP settings were having it exclude Tesla except where it was the only good option. Switching Tesla to a preferred network cuts the estimate charging costs on an upcoming road trip by about $300!

I guess I didn’t quite understand before when people complained about the prices at chargers! ?

Tesla charges non-Teslas more. Membership brings rates more on par with other networks’ subscription pricing. Rates are not universal between the networks and vary by location (and could also vary by time of day*). It has to do with the utility provider and land leases agreements with each property owner. What you get from Superchargers is better network reliability, more chargers per location and lower chance of having to wait in line. If you charge 100-150 kWh within each 30 day membership cycle, you’ve broken even on cost of membership.

*Example: Within 10 miles of Rivian HQ in Irvine, CA, Supercharger membership is more or less a couple cents compared to EA Pass+. Usually more than 14 chargers per site vs EA's 2-6.

 

[mudito]

Huh. But the Supercharger right by the EVgo charger that I usually use is basically the same price. How does their pricing work?

Member prices are cheaper than that, almost the same that Tesla charges Teslas. I'm planning a road-trip next month and ran the numbers. Just for 1/4 of the distance, the subscription would have been paid itself in savings. Don't remember the exact numbers but it was like 10 cents per kWh of savings, so one full charge would pay a month of membership on my 131kWh Large Pack R1T

 

[140 degrees]

Since we're talking about minimizing charging costs, let me remind everyone about destination chargers at your hotel. I shoot for 500-600 miles per day on a long trip. If I plan it right, my charging cost can be reduced significantly by starting the day with a full (free) charge. Tesla destination chargers require a L2 adapter, but the adapter easily pays for itself. Sometimes valet parking includes a free charge as well.

I always express my thanks at the desk, and let them know that I chose their hotel expressly because of the charging service. You can find the hotels using Plugshare. Availability varies geographically. Destination chargers are much easier to find in California than the Midwest. Also, if spending a few nights in a vacation area, I choose an AirBNB that offers L2 charging as an amenity.

 

[josh0]

Since we're talking about minimizing charging costs, let me remind everyone about destination chargers at your hotel. I shoot for 500-600 miles per day on a long trip. If I plan it right, my charging cost can be reduced significantly by starting the day with a full (free) charge. Tesla destination chargers require a L2 adapter, but the adapter easily pays for itself. Sometimes valet parking includes a free charge as well.

I always express my thanks at the desk, and let them know that I chose their hotel expressly because of the charging service. You can find the hotels using Plugshare. Availability varies geographically. Destination chargers are much easier to find in California than the Midwest. Also, if spending a few nights in a vacation area, I choose an AirBNB that offers L2 charging as an amenity.

I always try for hotels with chargers, but I’ve found there’s very little overlap between hotels with chargers and hotels that allow dogs, for some reason.

 

[Riviaenz]

Thanks! I hadn't seen that tax on any of my transactions, but then I haven't had to top off my account since the transition.

EVgo pricing is really hard to find outside of their app, but in the San Diego area, it looks like it's between $0.48/kWh (11pm-6am) and $0.69/kWh (10am-9pm). Even with the 10% AAA discount, it's still much higher than Bluedot pricing most of the day, at least in our region.

Or in the one time I tried EVgo $1.23/kWhr… that was my one and only time. They make it hard to know what you’ll pay and their dispenser flashed the cost too quickly when it interrupted my sessions about 5-10min into it. I restarted it, needed a bit more but when I manually ended that second one I realized I’d been robbed $60.25 for 48.825kWhr (in total between the two sessions - including their session fees which they happily charge as many times as you re-plug in to restart an interrupted session, as I’ve found out from others).

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Or in the one time I tried EVgo $1.23/kWhr… that was one my one and only time. They make it hard to know what you’ll pay and their dispenser flashed the cost too quickly when it interrupted my sessions about 5-10min into it. I restarted it, needed a bit more but when I manually ended that second one I realized I’d been robbed $60.25 for 48.825kWhr (in total between the two sessions - including their session fees which they happy charge as many times as you re-plug in to restart an interrupted session, as I’ve found out from others).

Literally highway robbery

 

[Riviaenz]

Thanks! I hadn't seen that tax on any of my transactions, but then I haven't had to top off my account since the transition.

EVgo pricing is really hard to find outside of their app, but in the San Diego area, it looks like it's between $0.48/kWh (11pm-6am) and $0.69/kWh (10am-9pm). Even with the 10% AAA discount, it's still much higher than Bluedot pricing most of the day, at least in our region.

How do you get the AAA discount? Is it only an EVgo in their app or is it some sort of AAA EV charging perk with their card or some other way? I use Costco’s Citibank card for 4% off. Before we got our Rivian we were maxing out the 4% rebate up to $7k in fuel spend by July or August every year. So happy we don’t come even close to maxing that now that we have our R1T. Even if we add in how much we’re spending extra on electricity at our homes for charging it’s still a fraction of the total fuel spend we had when we had our PHEV and ICE (now sadly down to ICE and Rivian… Rivian replaced PHEV that our insurance declared a loss rather than fix). Ideally we would have PHEV and Rivian but figure soon we‘ll get another EV and save ICE for our teen when they’re ready to start driving.

 

[Riviaenz]

Tesla charges non

Tesla charges non-Teslas more.
…
If you charge 100-150 kWh within each 30 day membership cycle, you’ve broken even on cost of membership.

The sense I get on the forum is everyone is keen on signing up for the “discount” and willingly pre-pay Tesla $13/mo for a discounted rate and then to make it back you have to purchase at least 150kWhr of juice (in our area the discount means anywhere between 150-165kWhr) before the pre-payment is covered. That doesn’t even cover the hassle of giving up plug and charge ?. And then it’s another 165kWhr in the same month to get that 50% off on the prepayment… in other words about $6.50 discount for the 330kWhr purchased vs. the undiscounted rate. Just doesn’t seem worth the hassle of giving up plug and charge. Plus pre-paying that much just doesn’t equate. EA’s $7/mo is more reasonable even then it’s a lousy deal compared to when it was $4/mo. At $4/mo I would have let it lapse a few months and then used them on the days I drive over 200mi (typically I drive about 100-160mi daily just running errands, shuttling kids to and from school, etc).

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

The sense I get on the forum is everyone is keen on signing up for the “discount” and willingly pre-pay Tesla $13/mo for a discounted rate and then to make it back you have to purchase at least 150kWhr of juice (in our area the discount means anywhere between 150-165kWhr) before the pre-payment is covered. That doesn’t even cover the hassle of giving up plug and charge ?. And then it’s another 165kWhr in the same month to get that 50% off on the prepayment… in other words about $6.50 discount for the 330kWhr purchased vs. the undiscounted rate. Just doesn’t seem worth the hassle of giving up plug and charge.

Hassel? That’s a bit overly dramatic. Compared to plug and charge, three taps on the phone screen. My finger tip is sooooo tired. 150-165? It’s more like 100-150 pending cost. On a large pack, that’s only two sessions or less. The true benefit isn’t the savings over the inflated plug and charge rate. The true benefit is reliability and availability of charging at Supercharger sites that have 10+ chargers vs EA or EVgo that are unreliable and only 2-6 chargers and a line of waiting cars.

 

[Riviaenz]

Hassel? That’s a bit overly dramatic. Compared to plug and charge, three taps on the phone screen. My finger tip is sooooo tired. 150-165? It’s more like 100-150 pending cost. On a large pack, that’s only two sessions or less. The true benefit isn’t the savings over the inflated plug and charge rate. The true benefit is reliability and availability of charging at Supercharger sites that have 10+ chargers vs EA or EVgo that are unreliable and only 2-6 chargers and a line of waiting cars.

Yes, highly inconvenient and not worth prepaying $13 and try to use more than 300kWhr to average a $6 savings over 5-6 sessions (assuming a road trip) in a month. Plug and Charge rocks more than hoping to score a $2 savings over a month. And yes the few times we’ve used Tesla, the discount rate would have been $0.08 lower than we paid. If you take $12.99/mo divided by $0.08/kWhr you get 162.375kWhr/mo. Clearly you must be paying a lot more and getting a bigger per unit discount. When we’ve seen rates >$0.55/kWhr we just drop in at EA for $0.36-0.40/kWhr with their discount. Just tap and charge with the EA Apple Pay card.

 

[LeftMySoulinNM]

Ok, sounds like I’ll skip it! (Planning a big upcoming roadtrip, so was thinking about options for minimizing charging costs.)

We did a one month membership with Tesla, charged exclusively at Tesla SCs for the entire trip save for one RAN along the way, only to basically try it out for the first time. It all worked great. I so do not miss EA

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